Quick Takes (v14): Being Presidential

Quick Takes

I stumbled upon an article recently, one in which Josh Earnest, President Obama's current press secretary, spoke horribly about then candidate Trump, and was called on it by NPR's Mara Liasson.

First, Earnest, reading from prepared remarks.

The Trump campaign for months now has had a 'dustbin of history'-like quality to it. From the vacuous sloganeering to the outright lies to even the fake hair, the whole carnival-barker routine that we've seen for some time now. The quest now is about the rest of the Republican Party and whether or not they're going to be dragged into the dustbin of history with him. And right now, the trajectory is not very good. 

And here's Liasson.

This might be a little nit-picky but in your prepared remarks you said something that struck me as very Trumpian and not very Obama-like, when you talked about Trump's fake hair. That's a hallmark of Trump, to comment on somebody -- your opponent's appearance. It's not something that I would ever expect to come from the Obama White House. I'm just curious, This was in your prepared remarks. What was the thinking behind it?

Earnest struggled to defend the comments a year ago in the press briefing, and he was of course attacked by the guy who attacked Carly Fiorina's looks, and Heidi Klum's and all the rest, the very presidential Donald J Trump. Both on Twitter and in one of his famous call-ins to Fox & Friends, Trump said

Isn't that disgusting for a presidential representative to make that comment? I assume he was joking, but for a presidential person representing us in such tough times - we have terrorism and all of the problems - for him to make that comment I thought it was so ridiculous. 

And I laughed, and laughed, and laughed.

Of course it was a ridiculous comment for Earnest to make, speaking from behind the official podium. I mean, everyone saw that woman inspect Trump's hair down there in South Carolina, right? So we certainly don't want to push fake news on anyone.  And, to his credit, Earnest admitted his comments about Trump's hair were comments he wished he hadn't made.

But -- and that's a big, nowhere-near-a-10 kind of but, Bob-- for Trump to call anything anyone has said "ridiculous" and "disgusting" and to worry about an unpresidential appearance of someone's comments?

Stop it. Just stop it.

Trump, who doesn't believe our own intelligence reports about Russian hacking, who says it coulda been a 400 pound guy on his bed, or China, or anyone.

Trump, who is engaged in a Twitter war with Alec Baldwin because of an impersonation on SNL.

Trump, who is engaged in a Twitter war with a steelworkers union official who called out the POTUS-elect for his less than fully transparent comments about saving Carrier jobs in Indiana.

Trump, who by his random tweets has caused American businesses - AMERICAN BUSINESSES - to lose huge hunks of market value, billions of dollars, in mere minutes.

Trump, who pretends that no one was talking about his potential conflicts of interest before he got elected, as if everyone just fell off the turnip truck and realized that the T-word was blazoned on buildings and LLCs all over the world.

Trump, who has his daughter sit in on meetings with foreign heads of state.

Trump, who attacks American media companies employing thousands of Americans because they don't 'treat him right' whatever the hell that means.

Trump, who tweets that Americans maybe should lose their citizenship or go to jail for using their free speech rights.

Trump, who...

Stop it, you're killing me!