Marco Rubio last week made it official as he dropped out of the presidential race, and now I'm stuck with a joke I can't use!
Rubio, a candidate of much promise, cut his own throat by following advice from someone – I find it hard to believe he decided it on his own – to turn into an attack dog during the debates, unleashing a string of insults and sophomoric attacks at his competitors but mostly aimed at Donald Trump.
It didn't work.
Rubio was left looking like a miffed middle-schooler whose only ammunition was verbal nastiness followed by smirking looks at the audience that simply begged for applause.
He got the applause, but he didn't get the votes when it counted. And I truly believe his antics caused that.
TRENDING: To DEI for
He pushed the envelope and lost.
Another message from his epic performance: Don't gamble with Rubio in Vegas. His instincts for winning don't exist!
But dang it, now I'm left with wonderful quote that I wanted to add to the Rubio legacy of body part nastiness.
I can't claim it as my own, but I found it in my library, and it's attributed to one of my favorites – Noel Coward.
"Never trust a man with short legs; his brain is too near his bottom!"
It would have been perfect for Trump or Cruz to use to fire at Rubio at the next GOP debate. Trump would have had a field day with it!
But now that Rubio is gone and Trump refused to appear, the event was canceled.
I'll leave it for you to hang onto for another time. There'll be another time. The campaign is far from over, although I wish it were.
The debates made it a mess, and it's getting worse with threats and some violence. The main target is Donald Trump.
Whether Republicans are unhappy about the top candidates on their side, it's clear the Democrats are in a massive panic that their chosen one, Hillary Clinton, is in deep trouble. They may have thought she had a clear shot to the Oval Office, but Bernie Sanders turned out to be a stronger threat to her. And then there's Donald Trump.
So Democrats are scared, but so are the GOP big wigs. They just don't know how to deal with a man they considered a loose cannon that no one would take seriously.
To call that a "mistake" is a giant understatement, and both parties are paying a political price for it.
Donald Trump came out of nowhere and caught the attention of millions of Americans of both parties, and even the undecided, because of his blunt attitude and his frank statements about what ails this country.
He speaks like everyman and says what people have been thinking for years but what the politically correct politicians don't have the guts to say.
Americans do care about the porous border; the fact that the Obama administration undercuts the Border Patrol and state police and sheriffs, making their jobs almost impossible; the millions of illegal aliens in this country – many more than the 11 million the feds keep saying – who cause social, legal, educational and economic problems for American citizens; and all of this exacerbated by the continual arguments by elected officials that these people who are here illegally be given legal status if not full citizenship.
Americans say "no," and so does Trump. He has the courage to talk about it and say what he'll do to fix it – from a wall that works to strict immigration laws and support for law enforcement.
Both parties are in shock over such basic honesty from a person in the running for the highest office in the land. Will he attract Democrat votes? Probably. Many Democrats simply hate Hillary. They're up-to-here with the Clintons.
The Republican establishment is also in shock. Why else would they drag out Mitt Romney to try to devastate Trump? If Mitt were that good and believed by voters, he would have been elected when he had his chance.
But for a party that had voter support, those who got elected did virtually nothing to correct the problems – from the border to trade to education to health care and more. They talked a good line in campaigns, but once in office, they played patty-cake with Obama and sold out the voters and the country.
I admit, I'm a news junkie.
Having worked in news – as a TV investigative reporter, field reporter, news anchor, host of news interview programs, radio talk-show host for more than 25 years focusing on news and current events, and writer of commentaries on a myriad of news issues and I've interviewed thousands of news makers – I've earned my news stripes.
In light of that, I will tell you: I've just about had it with the incessant media coverage of the current campaigns with the emphasis on personalities, the unending personal attacks and the clear fact that media have lost any semblance of neutrality or balance.
Just by watching or reading, we know exactly which candidates they love or hate. It's a clear betrayal of journalistic standards, and the fallout may well be a total loss of audience.
There already is a deathwatch for newspapers and news magazines – a demise that, unfortunately, they earned.
Look out broadcast, your turn is next, and I can't wait until you all shut up!
The sound of silence – and all that – would be welcome.
Follow Barbara Simpson on Facebook.
Media wishing to interview Barbara Simpson, please contact [email protected].
|