“I can’t believe I’m losing to this guy”
by Tom Sullivan
Political satire sometimes leaves a mark that lingers. I would have sworn the old joke involved an eye-rolling Al Gore debating George W. Bush in 2000. In fact, it was “Saturday Night Live” in 1988. Jon Lovitz played Gov. Michael Dukakis to Dana Carvey’s platitude-spouting George H.W. Bush (“Stay the course, a thousand points of light … stay the course”). Future former Sen. Al Franken wrote the Dukakis line, “I can’t believe I’m losing to this guy.”
Democrats Dukakis and Gore both lost to a George Bush.
NBC News just announced the lineups for the two-nights of debate among Democratic candidates for president. Ten each night, beginning Wednesday, June 26. Barring any unforeseen accidents, resignations or removals from office, one of those Democrats will face off against Donald J. Trump. Unless Trump decides he doesn’t want to, like he decides which laws he’ll obey.
Democrats might remember that old joke when taking on Trump. He’s not the sharpest tool in the shed, but he’s got an animal cunning that his whole life has helped him evade accountability before the law. It may yet serve to prevent accountability before voters in 2020.
The New York Times revealed on Saturday that U.S. cyber warriors have pre-positioned “potentially crippling malware” inside Russia’s electrical grid “and other targets.” Unnamed officials in three months of interviews told the Times the code is there “partly as a warning, and partly to be poised to conduct cyberstrikes if a major conflict broke out between Washington and Moscow.” The commander of United States Cyber Command, Gen. Paul M. Nakasone, describes such efforts as meeting the need to “defend forward.”
A 2018 military authorization bill and a classified document known as National Security Presidential Memoranda 13 signed by Trump last summer provide authorization for such actions without presidential approval.
Now, back to Trump not being too sharp:
Two administration officials said they believed Mr. Trump had not been briefed in any detail about the steps to place “implants” — software code that can be used for surveillance or attack — inside the Russian grid.
Pentagon and intelligence officials described broad hesitation to go into detail with Mr. Trump about operations against Russia for concern over his reaction — and the possibility that he might countermand it or discuss it with foreign officials, as he did in 2017 when he mentioned a sensitive operation in Syria to the Russian foreign minister.
Good call. The Times report Saturday night set him off:
So to recap: it’s treasonous that the New York Times reported on U.S. cyberstrategies that according to you are… not true? pic.twitter.com/0YfRCt7lUu— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) June 16, 2019
The Times responded it had described the article to “the government” prior to publication and “President Trump’s own national security officials said there were no concerns.”
Trump has told so many lies, he can’t tell what the truth is when he hears it from someone else about an operation he himself authorized. Or Donald simply considers it treason to report information that might upset Vladimir and that Trump Tower Moscow deal he still dreams of. While his thumbs yammer about “THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!”, Trump’s own people worry he’ll give away secrets to America’s enemies.
And still, he could win reelection in 2020.
For his part, Dubya had trouble putting together a coherent sentence without turning it into a Bushism. Yet he managed to launch the biggest foreign policy disaster since Vietnam after relentlessly selling it to America with lies. For all its undermanned incompetence, a Trump White House staffed by family members may do it again.
The 2020 Democratic candidate for president (and there are some very, very smart ones) cannot afford to find themselves in a position of saying, “I can’t believe I’m losing to this guy.” Already, they are planning to make foreign policy and issue. But it is not attention to issues that made Trump a survivor, and certainly not intelligence. Beating him will take more than smarts. It will take political savvy and an ability to connect with voters on a personal level that, for all their intelligence, Dukakis and Gore could not.