Donald Drumpf Was Set Up

[KamaAina]

http://gawker.com/donald-trump-was-set-up-1762814564

The word came in from our best-sourced Fox News Kremlinologists: Fox News had settled for Donald Trump. Roger Ailes had given up on the hapless Marco Rubio. Megyn Kelly was sounding conciliatory, granting that Trump appeared more and more presidential. Rupert Murdoch himself tweeted that the party would be “mad not to unify” around nominee Donald Trump. It worked: Donald Trump arrived, unsuspecting, for his ambush.

Trump was beginning to make noise about skipping tonight’s contest. Bill Kristol (lol, I know), practically reported that Trump had decided to use his Super Tuesday victories as an excuse to skip all future debates. Could it be that all of that chatter was designed to assure Trump that Fox’s moderators would go easy on him? Was there some cunning strategy behind the fashioning of this pre-debate narrative of Fox’s inevitable Trump acceptance?

If so, it was a brilliant maneuver. Tonight we saw the attempted assassination of front-runner Donald Trump, beginning early and sustained for almost the entire night. Fox prepared elaborate multimedia presentations designed to make Trump explain away his erratic positions and policy proposals. They hammered him on Trump University and got him to flip-flop on immigration. All night, Fox’s moderators forced Trump to directly reckon with his contradictory positions and statements, complete with video packages illustrating those contradictions. No other candidate faced a similar onslaught....

If indeed Fox lured Trump into an ambush, it would be perhaps the canniest move the conservative establishment has made this entire election cycle, and the first documented example of anti-Trump coordination actually working (to whatever degree it will turn out tonight “worked”).

[Agnosticsherbet]

1. I think this article is correct.

We will have to see if it hurts him, or if the anti-establisment Republicans simply get stronger after the establishment attemplted to take him down.

[CincyDem]

2. Having watched the cage match last night for the entertainment value...

...it was over the top obvious that it was a set up. The powerpoint graphics were all loaded, including followup graphics to counter his first response.

As hard as it is to believe, it was like watching a train wreck in slow motion.

On one hand, I couldn't have been happier to see The Don get hammered although it worries me from his ashes will rise a Kasich whom I have always said will be more difficult to beat than Trump.

On the other hand, it was a pretty f'ing scary demonstration of the power of media in shaping public opinion. Megyn was surgical like Obi-wan but there actually did come a point in the pummeling where all I could think was "enough already". Now - it probably wasn't enough because Trump's supporters are so dense they need to get hit with the whole baseball bat. Still - just seemed like she was enjoying it just a little too much and it showed what a network can do when they really choose to pull out the lightsaber.

All that was missing was Megyn singing "Singing in the Rain" while she hammered him. LOL

[flamingdem]

3. The ambush seems not to bother Trump much

After the debate he said that he was expecting worse. Or, that was an act, who knows.

I'm surprised he didn't object to the multimedia evidence, that's highly unusual in a debate.

[global1]

5. Hell Hath No Fury LIke A Trump Scorned.....nt

[xloadiex]

4. If this is true

What might they have in store for Bernie?

[RufusTFirefly]

6. Excellent question, except...

... Bernie's thoughtful, courageous, and principled.

Trump is all bluster, which is why he can be flummoxed.

[tblue37]

11. Because he doesn't lie or waffle, Bernie doesn't have to try to keep

weasel claims straight, explain away contradictory claims, or remember which lie he told to whom.

[FlatBaroque]

13. It does not matter when you are a legitimate human and not a bullshitting con artist. /

[lumberjack_jeff]

15. I'm not confident that Bernie is less palatable to Fox than Trump. n/t

[melman]

7. What Ailes hasn't figured out yet

is that the Fox audience likes Trump better than they like Fox.

[unc70]

8. Fox had done similar against others in previous debates

Having videos and charts ready to go. I wondered last night if Fox had prepared for Trump for the earlier debate but somehow had not used it. Probably because Trump skipped that debate. Set up? Ha!

[Egnever]

9. Clearly a set up but.

They miss the boat entirely. To trump supporters it will just be another example of the establishment trying to manipulate them and will only serve to harden his support.

[FlatBaroque]

14. Yes, I said the same last night. And its the same for the Democrats

every heavy handed attempt by the establishment of both parties to determine the outcome is backfiring.

[tblue37]

10. Actually, most of Trump's fans will react *against* FOX for setting up and

ganging up on their idol.

I read comments on the FOX Facebook page after the debate, and a lot of people were complaining about the fact that only Trump was treated that way, and only Trump had to deal with prepared graphics being used against him. Many of them said they had been loyal FOX viewers for years, but that they would never watch or defend FOX again.

[LittleBlue]

12. The trap was ruined by the penis questions. The media took the bait again

I thought the same thing last night. It was a brilliant set-up, or would have been, had they not asked about the size of Trump's hands. Rubio shot himself in the foot with the hands comment.

Instead of the news cycle dominated by Trump's flip flops and lack of knowledge on policy, every headline was about Trump defending the size of his penis. The trap degenerated into farce from the beginning. No matter how many times Trump was caught red-handed, the media couldn't resist the tabloid-like headlines over policy. Go look at he headlines: Cock fight, Trump defends size of penis, debate delves into Trump's drawers, etc.