Whistling Past the Graveyard--Politics in October

The Failing New York Times did something I have never seen done before. They used the concept of “time value of money” in doing a very old, boring and often told hit piece on me. Added up, this means that 97% of their stories on me are bad. Never recovered from bad election call!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 3, 2018

This is how you refute 14,000 word story based on documents and interviews. "Time value of money," by the way, is simply "interest."  Not a complex concept, anymore than cheating on taxes is a complex concept.  Remember Leona Helmsley, who styled herself the "Queen" of her hotel and made her rep as a female Trump (luxury and glitz)?  And how she went down for tax fraud?

And this is how you talk about a sitting U.S. Senator. 

President Trump hinted Tuesday at a rally in Mississippi that Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., could have a drinking habit.

The president told the crowd that they should do an online search for “Patrick Leahy dash drink.”

“Patrick Leahy – oh he’s never had a drink in his life,” Trump sarcastically said at the campaign-style rally. “Check it out. Look under ‘Patrick Leahy slash drink.’”

 Because if it's on the internet, it must be true.

And while we're discussing politics:

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is not running for re-election against Democrat Beto O'Rourke, but during an early morning interview on national television, it was clear the El Paso Democrat is on Abbott's mind.

For more than half of the 5-minute interview on Fox & Friends, Abbott talked about O'Rourke almost exclusively, never mentioning U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz -- the Republican O'Rourke is challenging in his campaign -- or Democrat Lupe Valdez, the Democrat running against Abbott this year.
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"Listen, he's been a cult-like, very popular figure the way that he's run the campaign," Abbott said of O'Rourke.

Abbott said as people learn more about O'Rourke's positions on issues "Beto O'Rourke is going to sink." Abbott compared O'Rourke to Wendy Davis, the 2014 Democratic nominee for governor whom Abbott beat handily.

The GOP still can't understand why O'Rourke is not floundering, since Cruz calls his opponent a "socialist" every chance he gets.  And yet Cruz "postponed" the second debate (it hasn't been rescheduled, conveniently for Cruz) because in the first debate he called O'Rourke a socialist every chance he got, and O'Rourke didn't run and hide and his numbers didn't falter.  So Abbott can only understand O'Rourke's support as a "cult."  I don't even think he's being sarcastic or merely inflammatory.  O'Rourke really defies that Abbot and Cruz think of as Texas politics. O'Rourke doesn't shy from his positions one inch, doesn't react when called a "socialist," doesn't even get into the argument (thus denying Cruz the oxygen he desperately needs).  By ordinary political standards, O'Rourke should be sinking; but he isn't.  Indeed, he just announced raising over $6 million to be devoted strictly to GOTV efforts.  The last time voter turnout topped 50%, Democrats won in Texas.  Will voters turnout this time?  $6 million can't hurt the effort.

So the whole thing has to be a cult that's going to sink, right?  Sure, right after Trump's tweet make the IRS and New York State decide there's nothing to see here.  I mean, what else have they got?