Things Are Getting Nasty...

This isn't a political blog. It's certainly not intended to be a blog about nothing but Donald J. Trump, and I'll try to post things occasionally that are about something other than Donald J. Trump. At the moment however, he's by far the most interesting thing in the political world, and just when you think things have gotten as crazy/weird/strange/unbelievable as they can get, things get stranger, weirder, etc.

The Wow! of the moment is a back-and-forth between Trump and a representative from Rand Paul's campaign. The Paul campaign threw the first punch, with a video ad featuring some old video of Trump in which he expresses a desire for universal health care, says the economy does better under Democrats, and says nice things about Hillary Clinton. Yes, it's embed-able:



For good measure they even threw in a clip of President Clinton's infamous sentence about the meaning of "is."

Would The Donald care to respond? Yes, oh yes, and here it is, as quoted in the Washington Post:

Rand Paul is doing so poorly in the polls he has to revert to old footage of me discussing positions I no longer hold. As a world-class businessman, who built one of the great companies with some of the most iconic real estate assets in the world, it was my obligation to my family, my company, my employees and myself to maintain a strong relationship with all politicians whether Republican or Democrat. I did that and I did that well.

Unless you are a piece of unyielding granite, over the years positions evolve as they have in my case. Ronald Reagan, as an example, was a Democrat with a liberal bent who became a conservative Republican.

Recently, Rand Paul called me and asked me to play golf. I easily beat him on the golf course and will even more easily beat him now, in the world in the politics.

Senator Paul does not mention that after trouncing him in golf I made a significant donation to the eye center with which he is affiliated.

I feel sorry for the great people of Kentucky who are being used as a back up to Senator Paul’s hopeless attempt to become President of the United States--- weak on the military, Israel, the Vets and many other issues. Senator Paul has no chance of wining the nomination and the people of Kentucky should not allow him the privilege of remaining their Senator.  Rand should save his lobbyist’s and special interest money and just go quietly home.

Rand’s campaign is a total mess, and as a matter of fact, I didn’t know he had anybody left in his campaign to make commercials who are not currently under indictment.

Would Senator Paul care to respond? What do you think? (This was sent to the Post by a Paul campaign strategist.) 

Wow, that took a while to read.

First, Ronald Reagan spent 20 years as a conservative before running for President, not twenty minutes. He changed out of conviction. He campaigned for Goldwater in 1964 giving one of the great conservative speeches of all time, setting the intellectual agenda for a generation of conservatives.

Donald Trump couldn't set the intellectual conservative agenda of anything, not even the tiniest rooms, never mind a country. He is devoid of ideas other than he likes the idea of power and getting attention for foolish statements and bluster.

Rand Paul is the one following in the footsteps of Reagan, setting the intellectual agenda for a conservative movement of change. Rand stands for principle. He has detailed plans to end our debt by balancing the budget in 5 years. He has a detailed flat and fair tax that would be a huge tax cut for Americans while ending the corporate welfare gravy train for people like Donald Trump. He has real plans to defeat the Washington machine like term limits and forcing Congress to read the bills.

While he appreciates Donald's golf skills, I will note that [the game] was on his home course that he plays often. And he does sincerely appreciate Donald's generosity to the eye clinic. In fact he has mentioned it often, including in his op-ed and speeches this weekend.

It's all hugely entertaining and lots of fun. The most interesting part for me is that Trump is highlighting Paul's political pickle in his home state. On the (very likely) chance that he doesn't get elected president, Senator Paul wants to have his senate seat to fall back on. Unfortunately, his senate seat is up for election in 2016 and Kentucky law doesn't allow candidates to run for two offices in the same election. Paul is lobbying the state very hard to change the law on his behalf, which may or may not work. You can read more about that here. 

The Post's story is here. Now if you'll excuse me, it's time to pop some more popcorn and keep watching the best show in town. 

Days until Election Day: 453