{"id":5689,"date":"2015-08-06T17:16:06","date_gmt":"2015-08-06T17:16:06","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2015-08-06T17:16:06","modified_gmt":"2015-08-06T17:16:06","slug":"the_wizards_of_smart_misjudge_trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2015\/08\/06\/the_wizards_of_smart_misjudge_trump\/","title":{"rendered":"The Wizards of Smart Misjudge Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Listen<\/a><\/p>\n

RUSH: Let me offer to you a counter-theorem to much that was said here in the previous hou<\/a>r, and let\u2019s just recap previous hour as it relates to the Republican debate. There is other news out there, and we will get to it. You can count on that. In the Politico today there are two stories of note. The first one is in The Politico magazine, a story by Glenn Thrush (a Politico lifer) in which Jeb Bush is quoted as telling a high-powered Republican donor (summarized), “What\u2019s with this guy Trump? <\/p>\n

“What\u2019s with this guy? He\u2019s a buffoon, he\u2019s a clown, he\u2019s a butt hole,” except “butthole” was not the word used. A different one was. That\u2019s very unlike Jeb Bush. I mean, these kinds of things, the incivility of that? I mean, the Republican candidate consultants always preach taking the high ground, taking the high road. “Don\u2019t descend to the depths personal insults. That\u2019s just not who we are, and it\u2019s so unbecoming. We cross the aisle! We must show that we\u2019re responsible. We must show that we can govern. <\/p>\n

“We must show that we can cooperate. We must show that we are willing to listen to the other people\u2019s ideas. We must show that we are willing to be bipartisan.” And Jeb Bush, of all people, starts calling Trump names! The second story, also in The Politico… No, I take it back. The second story was at DCWhispers.com, and it\u2019s about how Republican donors instructed… I mean, the big-money donors instructing other Republican candidates on that stage tonight to take Trump out, that tonight is the night, that they are fed up with this.<\/line><\/p>\n

They don\u2019t think Trump\u2019s real. Trump is doing nothing but screwing up the plans that they have had for the last eight years, and particularly the last four years to get themselves in charge of the US Treasury. And by God, they\u2019re not gonna sit around and let this guy get in the way. So Republican candidates have been ordered by the big money donors to take Trump out tonight, whatever that means. Senator Rubio is cited in this story as the one who got the biggest marching orders to take Trump out.<\/p>\n

Then back to The Politico, a story about how the debate moderators tonight at Fox have a “secret plan” to deal with Trump if he refuses to play fair, if Trump refuses to obey the rules, such as respect the limits on speaking time. And they\u2019re crazy, by the way, like a one-minute period to comment and 30-second rebuttal. And they say that if Trump tries to dominate and if Trump gets out of control. And if Trump veers too far off the beaten path, they have a plan. <\/p>\n

In the previous hour, I, your highly trained broadcast specialist, began speculating on what they could have up their sleeves as the secret plan. Just a wild guess. Now, all of this is based on conventional wisdom held by the Republican establishment, or as I have often referred to them as the Wizards of Smart. And I would include the Republican donors, these big-money donors supposedly giving the orders to Republican candidates they are financing to take Trump out tonight. <\/p>\n

Now, the theory goes like this. All of these Republican donors and establishment types at the party level giving these orders to take Trump out are preparing a strategy against somebody who doesn\u2019t really exist. In other words, I think they are misunderstanding and mischaracterizing Trump based on their own prejudices. And you can hear it in the words that they utter. They are constructing their own talking points and then reacting to them. <\/p>\n

Among those conventional wisdom talking points is that Trump just rants and raves, and he is a crazy, out-of-control, unpredictable madman who isn\u2019t serious. He is a braggadocios narcissist. This is what they think of it. And my point to you, then this theory is that they are dead wrong in their assessment of Trump. I think it\u2019s a pretty safe bet to say that they\u2019re wrong, because they\u2019re wrong about a lot. They\u2019re wrong about the Democrats. <\/p>\n

They\u2019re wrong about understanding what liberalism is. They\u2019re wrong about dealing with Obama. They\u2019re wrong about how the American people are reacting to all of this. But they don\u2019t know that. They think they are a mirror. In fact, it\u2019s worse. They\u2019re not a mirror; they think they are defining and setting the tone for others. So if their opinion is that Trump is this ranting, raving, out-of-control embarrassment, they think everybody else sees him that way, too. <\/p>\n

And so they are preparing a strategy to deal with somebody who really doesn\u2019t exist in the way they think he exists. And I say that because the theory here is that they don\u2019t really know who Trump is. They\u2019re afraid of Trump, and therefore they have concocted an image or a straw man version of Trump that isn\u2019t the case. For instance, what if I were to say to you that if you really study Trump when he\u2019s being interviewed — not when he\u2019s making a speech and he\u2019s the only guy on the stage.<\/p>\n

I mean, you can\u2019t make an assessment or compare that to what this format\u2019s gonna be. But when he\u2019s interviewed by somebody, is Trump not the essence of brevity? I mean, how long does it take Trump to make his point? One sentence? He doesn\u2019t have to rant and rave. He comes across as a madman simply to these people because he says things that, why, they\u2019re not spoken in public! You don\u2019t call people losers, and you don\u2019t describe… Even if it\u2019s true, you do not describe illegal immigrants the way he does. <\/p>\n

It just is not right! <\/p>\n

It just isn\u2019t done!<\/p>\n

This is not going to be helpful to us!<\/p>\n

But how long does it take him to say what he says about illegal aliens and the crimes that they commit? It doesn\u2019t take him 10 minutes of ranting and raving. He does it in a sentence or two. Trump can be the personification of Shakespeare\u2019s “brevity is the soul of wit.” He doesn\u2019t spend a lot of time making his points. In fact, I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if Trump is able to say everything he wants to say within these silly time limits tonight. <\/p>\n

<\/a>Trump may be the one guy that doesn\u2019t need to go outside the time limits to make his point because he gets in, gets it, and gets out. He doesn\u2019t tiptoe around it. He doesn\u2019t speak in innuendo and get close to him and hope you understand what he really means. He tells you, and then he\u2019s finished. But the Wizards of Smart concocting these plans and figuring a deal on how to control Trump are making a mistake in the way they are assessing Trump and making a mistake in assessing why Trump is popular. <\/p>\n

And boy, this is common. <\/p>\n

They\u2019re assuming he\u2019s popular not because of him. Because they think their own base is kooky. They think their own base voters, the Tea Party? They\u2019re afraid of \u2019em \u2019cause they\u2019re conservative. And they believe that Trump is appealing to people because Trump appears to be out there on the fringes like these people are. That\u2019s why Jeb and some of these others say they wish to get the nomination despite the base. <\/p>\n

I told you that many in the Republican establishment are embarrassed, for example, to show up the Republican convention with a lot of the base there. I mean, they just are. It\u2019s an elite-versus-common man kind of thing. They\u2019re just embarrassed. How long does it take…? You watch Trump. If you study him, how long does it take him to counterpunch? A memorable counterpunch. <\/p>\n

Somebody insults him and he comes back with something, and does it in a sentence or two. He doesn\u2019t do it in two minutes or three minutes. He really is brief. He gets in, gets it, and gets out. That\u2019s one of the reasons why, by the way, I think he\u2019s so effective. Make a note, folks: This is inarguably true. The fewer words it takes you to make your point, the more powerful your point is, particularly in a setting like this. <\/p>\n

What did he say about McCain? “I don\u2019t like people who were captured. I like people who weren\u2019t captured.” How long did that take? One sentence, and the entire establishment is pulling their hair out in fits of rage over this unnecessary insult of a great Republican hero. “I like people that weren\u2019t captured.” Didn\u2019t take 30 seconds. Didn\u2019t take a minute. Didn\u2019t take 10 seconds. <\/p>\n

On Lindsey Graham: “He doesn\u2019t seem like a very bright guy. Yeah, he came by. Asked me support him. Asked me for some money. Yeah, I\u2019ve got his phone number. Here\u2019s the phone number.” How long does that take? Didn\u2019t take a minute. Trump isn\u2019t the guy they\u2019re preparing for. This is a distinct possibility. They\u2019ve got this image of Trump and he isn\u2019t that image. Just like they have images of many conservatives that aren\u2019t true, aren\u2019t accurate. <\/p>\n

Okay, that\u2019s that. Just an alternative theory. Something else to put in the hopper and ponder. And, by the way, I should tell you CNN is not doing a countdown to the Republican debate tonight. Now, normally they would if they were televising it, but since they\u2019re not, there\u2019s no countdown. CNN is barely even talking about it because of course it\u2019s on a competing network, Fox News. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: One of the things, ladies and gentlemen, that I had noticed. I mentioned this in the previous hour. A number of Drive-By commentators are starting to say things about Trump that they never, ever thought they would say. Four or five of them have done mea culpas. Chris Cillizza and a couple of others that you would know names, who originally wrote pieces mocking Trump, just laughing at him.<\/p>\n

“What a novice! What an amateur! This isn\u2019t how you win. This is not how you do politics. This guy, he\u2019s only in it for his own personal promotion,” blah, blah. They\u2019ve all done 180s now, and they are writing pieces explaining what they were wrong about, and the things that they misjudged. <\/p>\n

A number of others are writing pieces and saying on TV that just in the last week Trump is taking on an entirely different persona, that he\u2019s actually looking and sounding presidential. He\u2019s got a tax plan that he\u2019s released. On policy and so forth, he\u2019s actually coming across now with a new dimension. Accordingly, a lot of these people… Jeff Greenfield wrote a piece last night that was written somewhat in fear. You could sum up the piece by saying the article was, “Oh, my God, can this guy really win? He might be able to!” <\/line><\/p>\n

So in a short period of time, Trump\u2019s gone from being an impossible joke, a distraction, a clown, somebody just in this for personal promotion, to, “Oh, my God! Uh-oh! Gee, you know what? This guy could win!” Here, listen to Howie Kurtz, sound bite number seven last night, Megyn Kelly\u2019s show. She said, “You have been hearing a different kind of messaging from Trump, Howie? Is that right?”<\/p>\n

KURTZ: Here\u2019s the news flash: Donald Trump is toning it down. He hasn\u2019t said anything inflammatory or taken a whack at anybody\u2019s head in a week. He is such a dominant front-runner right now, Megyn, that he realizes that he doesn\u2019t need to be the Don Rickles candidate hurling out insults. This is the sign of a guy moving from outside agitator to maybe being a plausible nominee. There\u2019s no point anymore. I mean, he\u2019ll punch back at people who he thinks unfairly criticized him, but there\u2019s no point anymore in ridiculing individual journalists.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, he was doing more than ridiculing individual journalists, but these journalists have thin skin, and you start attacking them, and that\u2019s all they are aware of. But what if this is true? What if now Trump is becoming, as they say, more serious and that there\u2019s less bombast and less of what got him noticed? The theory would be that Trump has achieved the objective of getting noticed and he\u2019s done it in a memorable, unforgettable way. <\/p>\n

He\u2019s now defined himself.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s built up this reservoir of support based on people who know and trust that he\u2019s an outsider and willing to say so. But now he\u2019s starting to mellow and get serious as a candidate. These guy… I\u2019ll tell you the next thing, the next spate of predictions. You watch. The next spate of predictions gonna be along the line of, “Trump is blowing it! He\u2019s not who he was when he started out. He\u2019s becoming the kind of candidate that his supporters don\u2019t want.” <\/p>\n

You watch. That will be the next prediction to come down the pike, \u2019cause I think they\u2019re setting this up. Here, I\u2019ll give… Here\u2019s F. Chuck Todd, and this was on, I guess… What was this? The Today Show this morning. Matt Lauer said to F. Chuck, “You know, we could have a real discussion tonight on things like immigration and Iran and ISIS, and it could be more about the steak and less about the sizzle. What do you think about that,” F. Chuck?<\/p>\n