BloggeRhythms

Fox New’s Chris Stirewalt tends to be a fair and open minded journalist. Yet even he, and those like him, have problems comprehending the methodology and capabilities of high-performance individuals such as Trump. Nor can they readily conceive of the speed at which he works.
       
Stirewalt’s unfamiliarity with results-oriented “closers” can be seen in his column from yesterday in which he addressed Trump’s agenda as “ambitious” in its objectives to "remake the American health care system, re-write the tax code, overhaul the nation’s immigration policies, launch the most expensive infrastructure program in American history, re-negotiate trade policy from top to bottom and curtail drug abuse, all while creating a new paradigm for foreign policy and national security.” 

To that Stirewalt writes: “Whew…” Going on to opine that: “By assembling a list so mind boggling, Trump was, in the strictest sense, setting himself up to fail. It would be impossible for any president to make even a down payment on such a list of promises in his first 100 days.”

And then, in the very next line, Stirewalt continues: “But, despite lots of turbulence, Trump is starting to make progress on some of his plans, particularly on health insurance and immigration. The moves have been halting at times, but, halfway through the first 100 days, the forward progress is unmistakable.” 

So here we have a political writer who’s taken both sides of an argument he created himself, which he then proceeds to speculate upon by relating that it’s presently unclear as to whether the steps being taken “toward effective governance in the past week are the new norm or a blip in what has mostly been a chaotic and unfocused start. 

“Will we look back 50 days from now and say that the middle of March was the start of the real Trump presidency or will it be a footnote in a larger story about executive insufficiency?”

Reaching his own conclusion, Stirewalt goes on: “That will depend on Trump’s development of self-discipline equal to the task. Tweetstorms issued in fits of pique or other distractions prove only too appealing to reporters eager to write the story of the reality show host overwhelmed by office. 

“If it remains a chaotic, cutthroat affair pulled weekly into new and pointless controversies surrounding old grievances from the election or Trump’s internal and external grudges, there’s no hope of success. 

“Whether Trump finds victory or meets his Waterloo after 100 days will be in direct proportion to his ability to bring calm and focus to his still-unfinished administration.” 

Thus, what Stirewalt’s really presenting is an argument analogous to predicting the outcome of a sporting event. Which brings up the memory of Dallas Cowboys quarterback, Don Meredith, who said back in 1970: “If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we’d all have a merry Christmas.” And in a nutshell, that’s what Stirewalt’s column yesterday was all about, if's and but's.
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As far as the real world is concerned, while the new POTUS seems to be proving to be in the right regarding the scandals his opposition is trying to create, four more issues are now trending favorably in his direction. 

Adam Shaw titled his column @FoxNews.com yesterday: “Is the left's Trump outrage backfiring?” 

Mr. Shaw writes: “HUD Secretary Ben Carson, speaking to department employees earlier this week, sparked outrage when he referred to slaves as “immigrants.” 

"That's what America is about, a land of dreams and opportunity," Carson said. "There were other immigrants who came here in the bottom of slave ships, worked even longer, even harder for less. But they too had a dream that one day their sons, daughters, grandsons, granddaughters, great-grandsons, great-granddaughters, might pursue prosperity and happiness in this land." 

While the NAACP and Chelsea Clinton were both among those offended by Carson’s comparison and actor Samuel L. Jackson tore into Carson in an R-rated tweet, the “problem was, then-President Barack Obama made a similar comparison before.”  

In a 2015 naturalization ceremony, Obama said: “It wasn't always easy for new immigrants. Certainly, it wasn't easy for those of African heritage who had not come here voluntarily and yet in their own way were immigrants themselves." 

Additionally, the Federalist found 11 times Obama had referred to slaves as immigrants, noting there was barely a peep of outrage each time.  

Then, “Twitter was apoplectic when Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, recently said Americans may have to choose between buying a new iPhone and health insurance. 

"Well, we're getting rid of the individual mandate. We're getting rid of those things that people said that they don't want. ... Americans have choices, and they've got to make a choice," he said on CNN. "So rather than getting that new iPhone that they just love and want to go spend hundreds of dollars on that, maybe they should invest in their own health care.” 

“Chaffetz was accused of everything from being OK with poor people dying to “reviving the ‘poverty is a choice’ argument." 

Yet in 2014 Obama was asked in a Spanish-language town hall about those who said they can’t afford premiums. Speculating about someone making $40,000-$50,000 a year, who thinks an insurance option that costs $300 a month is too much Obama said: “I guess what I would say is if you looked at that person’s budget and you looked at their cable bill, their telephone … cell phone bill, other things that they’re spending on, it may turn out that they just haven’t prioritized health care because right now everybody is healthy." 

And then: “Some were put out after the Trump team recently put out green versions of his famous “Make America Great Again” hats, branded with a four-leaf clover. While said clover is considered a symbol of good luck, some Irish news outlets and others on Twitter grumbled that the three-leaf clover was more appropriate. 

“The shamrock is a three-leaf sprig of clover and is associated with St Patrick's Day,” The Irish Independent complained. “The four-leaf clover is a plant, that's rarer in abundance. It's also a sugary, oat piece that's usually found in a box of Lucky Charms cereal.” 

Yet Obama did something similar in 2012 when his campaign produced an “O’Bama” shirt with a four-leaf clover. While the error was noted, it produced little outrage, and even some apologists. 

“I think that’s creative license,” Kevin O’Neill, a professor of Irish History at Boston College, told The New York Times.” If you can add an apostrophe, why not a leaf.” 

The last item on the list concerned a Trump White House statement on International Holocaust Remembrance Day that “provoked condemnation when it left out any reference to Jewish people – the main target of Hitler’s genocidal atrocities. “ 

The statement said: “It is with a heavy heart and somber mind that we remember and honor the victims, survivors, heroes of the Holocaust. It is impossible to fully fathom the depravity and horror inflicted on innocent people by Nazi terror.”

While a number of Jewish groups were critical of the omission, former Democratic vice presidential candidate, Tim Kaine, went further by comparing the statement to Holocaust denial, saying: “President Obama, President Bush always talked about the Holocaust in connection with the slaughter of Jews. The final solution was about the slaughter of Jews. We have to remember this. This is what Holocaust denial is.”  

However, his former running mate Clinton released a statement in 2013 that also did not mention the Jewish people.  

The statement said: "Each year, we gather together to commemorate the victims of one of the worst tragedies in human history. Indeed, almost 70 years after the end of World War II, we continue to honor those lives that were brutally taken during the Holocaust by the Nazis. This machinery of systematic extermination also took the lives of Roma, gays, persons with disabilities, and others deemed inferior or undesirable by the Nazis."  

“The statement did condemn Holocaust denial, while also mentioning other genocides, including in “Cambodia, Srebrenica, Rwanda and Darfur.” 

So, it seems that in his first 50 days, Trump has begun making significant inroads toward fulfilling his agenda, as pointed out by Chris Stirewalt. And at the same time, his leftist rivals are going backwards as their propaganda misfires by showing them as major-league hypocrites.

Which means that it seems to be predictable that the more mud the left slings in the future the worse they and their former leaders, Obama and Clinton, will look when the truth comes out. 

That’s it for today folks.

Adios