The Trump Express Goes Off the Rails

English: Donald Trump at a press conference announcing David Blaine's latest feat in New York City at the Trump Tower. The photographer dedicates this portrait of Donald Trump to Tony Santiago, Wikipedia editor Marine 69-71, perhaps the most officially recognized and accomplished content contributor to Wikipedia, for his outstanding contributions to improving articles related to his Puerto Rican heritage. He is also a close friend. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It has now become clear that, with two and a half months to go before Election Day, Republican nominee Donald Trump's presidential campaign is a runaway train headed for disaster.  The gaffes, the bridges he's burned and his controversial policies have combined to make Trump toxic to all but a few supporters who still believe a businessman who's never held political office could solve their problems.

For one thing, any candidate can take potshots at the record of their opponent and/or the person currently running the country.  But Trump has gone for misinformation, misogyny, racism and any other tactic against Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton and her onetime boss, President Barack Obama, in an effort to prove that you really can do and say anything to get elected. Then he'll say 24 to 48 hours later that he was only kidding.  Please, leave the sarcasm to late night TV comedians, Mad magazine and bloggers like us.  Some examples of Trump's alleged humor include:

• Implying an assassination attempt on Clinton and whoever is her Supreme Court nominee, which he said would be taken care of by "Second Amendment people".  Trump later said that he meant the National Rifle Association and other gun rights advocates, but we heard him the first time.
• Trump claims that Obama and Clinton were the co-founders of ISIS.  Actually, it was President George W. Bush who unwittingly helped to create the Islamic State when he tried to withdraw U.S. military personnel from Iraq before he should have.  Here, Trump is no different than other Republicans with selective amnesia.  They tend to blame Obama and Clinton for the sun rising in the east, while conveniently forgetting that Bush left a big mess to clean up that continues to this day.
• Trump's foreign policy so far consists of building walls, being pals with Russian president Vladimir Putin and getting rid of trade agreements that he thinks don't make America better.  He's also come up with another way to screen for potential terrorists disguised as immigrants--by proposing an ideological test.
• On the same topic, Trump seems to believe that Clinton is not well enough to take on ISIS.  Is that another way of saying only a man can handle one of the most important jobs in the world?  Or does he know something we don't?
• Behind in most every poll since the GOP convention, Trump warns of possible election fraud in some places come November 8, and that he might challenge the results.  That is, if the GOP doesn't fix it for Trump first.

While Clinton's been saturating battleground states and NBC's Olympics coverage with her campaign ads, Trump has yet to spend a dime.  Why should he, with all the free media he's been getting every time he opens his mouth?  Lately though, just like any other politician who's trailing, Trump has been blaming the media for his problems.  Must be easier than looking in the mirror.

Naturally, Clinton doesn't mind all the attention being paid to Trump's foibles.  Just as long as less attention is being paid to her e-mail problems, the Clinton Foundation, and polls that say the former Secretary of State is almost as untrustworthy as Trump.

Trump's verbal shenanigans are causing Republicans to question their loyalty to the party.  Some are either staying home on Election Day, or doing what was once unthinkable--voting for Hillary Clinton.  But most will roll their eyes and vote for Trump, even if it means that congressional candidates are steering clear of him and might possibly lose the Senate.

There are some who say that Donald Trump never really wanted the job of President, that he's only in the race to promote his properties and TV shows.  But after two decades of Bill Clinton's scandals, Bush's wars and Obama's perceived ineffectiveness, Americans wanted someone who could rise above gridlocked politics, violence and general malaise and make things better again.   Bernie Sanders tried to be that person, but Hillary Clinton was too much to overcome.

Donald Trump could be that guy, too, if he could get his act together and take his destiny seriously.  Otherwise, this train's not bound for glory.  He'd better prepare for a crash landing.

The Wrath of . . . Trump

English: Donald Trump's signature hairstyle (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

No sooner had the balloons dropped following Hillary Clinton's historic nomination speech at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, the Republican challenger Donald Trump inserted himself into the headlines again.

This time, it's what happened at the DNC the night before that set The Donald off.  Khizir and Ghazala Khan, Muslim-American parents of a soldier who was killed in the Iraq war, delivered an emotional speech before the convention in which they denounced Trump not only for his anti-immigration policies, but for running what they called a campaign of hatred.

Trump responded in tweets and interviews, asking why (A) husband Khizir spoke and not his wife (she said she was afraid of losing it on national TV, not because of some Muslim edict), (B) why he made "vicious attacks" against the GOP candidate, and (C) why the Democrats used the Khans as plants to make him look bad.  See, the Democrats wanted to prove that they could be as jingoistically patriotic as the GOP.

On the subject of sacrifice, the Khans and Trump seem to be on different planets.  The Khans believe their son made the "ultimate sacrifice" when he was killed by a suicide bomber in Iraq.  Trump's idea of sacrifice apparently comes from spending millions of dollars on constructing buildings named for himself, and for being what the GOP likes to call a "job creator".  Neither Trump nor his children have ever seen military service.

Trump has been pilloried not only by Clinton and her fellow Democrats, but by other Republicans who are keeping him at arm's length and military families.  Despite this, Trump is fortunate that this is August and not November.  He's been known to put his foot in his mouth before when it comes to minorities, women and certain religions, but it works for him because that enables him to steal media oxygen from his opponents.  That's why he's the nominee.

Maybe in a few days, folks will forget about what Donald Trump said as the news media moves on to something else, and the Khans will become just footnotes in this campaign.  Unless Trump gets the urge to say something stupid again.