So, is Trump going to last until Election Day?

I'm having a hard time trying to figure this out.

Is Donald Trump a crazed psychopath like everyone seems to be trying to paint him as? Or is he just an over-indulged multi-millionaire whose ego has been repeatedly inflated by some questionable success and a stint as a TV reality star?

Or is there something more sinister afoot? (I'm pretty sure I've never used the word "afoot" before, but it unquestionably deserves its day in the sun!)

Is the GOP plotting something along the lines of having Trump spectacularly flame out maybe two months before the general election, and substitute a candidate who might appeal to most of the Trump supporters and many of the more centrist Hillary voters who might not actually "support" her?

What happens if Trump pulls a "Ross Perot" on Labor Day? Many of us older folk remember how Ross Perot, the bizarre little plain-tawkin' businessman from Texas was making a huge impact in 1992 as a third party candidate, before he let his rich man paranoia get the better of him and cause him to withdraw around mid-July while enjoying a 39% approval rating in the polls.

Only to have him suddenly decide to re-enter the race after qualifying for being on the ballot of all fifty states in September and he was officially back in the race on October 1st.

Too little, too late, too crazy. He squandered his chance to make a huge impact in history by being a rich dick with no experience at having anyone tell him anything he didn't want to hear.

I doubt he would have made a good president, much like I doubt another super-wealthy candidate would be.

Anyway, getting back to my point, there are major differences between Perot and Trump. If Trump decides the noise is too much and calls it quits, he's probably done. But in 1992 the Republicans had their own candidate, and he appeared on all the ballots in all fifty states. If Trump splits, the GOP probably won't have time to get whoever they choose to be on all the ballots.

So, if Trump crashes, we'll have a candidate who basically will run unopposed.

I suspect Trumps ego is much too fragile to allow him to take a loss on Election Day. He'll more likely quit while loudly accusing the "establishment" for being against him from the beginning.

And he'll have a reality show on Fox within six months of Hillary Clinton's presidency.

Probably something that aggrandizes him, without calling on his failed campaign.

Maybe "Celebrity Failure".

I wasn't there, but CT News Junkie was

Christine Stuart of CT News Junkie was at the Trump rally in Fairfield last night. Here's what she said:

Unlike Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s first rallies in Connecticut in April, Saturday’s event at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield included remarks from the Republican establishment.

While Republican officials were still trying to figure out what to make of Trump in April — they had pretty much made up their mind by August.

All of Connecticut’s 28 delegates to the Republican National Convention in Cleveland at the end of July supported Trump. Those who didn’t stayed home and didn’t attend the convention.

Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano, R-North Haven, was one who stayed away from the convention and has declined to support Trump.

“I have not endorsed Trump, nor do I see myself endorsing him at this time,” Fasano has said. “However, I do respect the democratic process and the fact that the people of our country chose him to be their nominee.”

To read the rest of the article and see more photos, click HERE.

Trump media request

Welp, it's 3:00pm on the day of the big Trump rally at Sacred Heart in Fairfield, and so far the Trump media crew hasn't gotten back to me with any press credentials, so I guess I'll go into work after all tonight instead of booking off to cover the spectacle.

I was hoping to get to witness this event from the press riser, which usually has a great view and a sound box where I can plug in my camera and record every delicious word the man says. Plus, I wanted to spend some time talking to the people who showed up for it. Not in a confrontational or condemning way, but just as a way to understand how their thought processes work, and how they ended up supporting a candidate who is demonstrably unfit to lead a Cub Scout troop, let alone the most powerful nation on Earth.

I even went as far as to create the politically neutral post below, just in case someone from Trump's media office checked out my blog. I was going on the assumption that they wouldn't have time to scroll down and carefully read some of my more blatantly partisan posts, but who knows? I don't think they bother to contact people they turned down with a reason for the exclusion.

Well, they're just going to have to hold their little hate-fest without me.

I never seem to get invited to the hip parties anymore! :)

Trump returning to Connecticut

I'm wondering if Donald Trump knows something the rest of the world doesn't.

He's holding a rally at Sacred Heart University on Saturday, and many knowledgeable pundits are scratching their heads about it.

Connecticut has been a very Blue state for quite a few years. Conventional wisdom says Trump shouldn't waste his time here, and he should focus on states he could win.

It should be interesting, to say the least.

Ten Years Ago Today

Ned Lamont changed the political landscape ten years ago. He came out of nowhere and defeated a three-term U.S. Senator in a primary, and who was widely supported by the entire Democratic party machine.

This year we had another chance to change things with the extraordinary presidential campaign of Bernie Sanders.

We don't always manage to get everything done we wanted, but each attempt portrayed by the gentlemen above does have an effect, and ultimately does make a difference.

For a brief moment ten years ago, Connecticut was the center of the political universe. And the phenomenon of political blogging played a part. The idea of "citizen-journalists" was unheard of at the time. Anyone with a computer and internet access could get a press pass for most events and write up their thoughts afterwards. If they had a video camera, even better!

Today blogging has taken a back seat to Twitter, Facebook, Skype, and other social media apps. If anything, they're even more immediate than blogging, since they often occur in real time. This is as it should be. Ten years before 2006, nobody even imagined what a blog was or could accomplish. Ten years from now, there will be something else that will make people forget Twitter.

(Probably cranial chip implants, but I'd rather not speculate.)

Anyway, here's the complete list of Primary Day blog posts from this blog, in chronological order. I do cringe at rereading most of my writings, but Kirby helped make up for my deficiencies. Here's the link to Primary Day Coverage.

And here's the BBC/Sundance Channel documentary "Blog Wars" in it's entirety, which focuses on the 2006 CT Primary, and features quite a few faces from the local and national blogging communities. Narrated by Director James Rogan.

Blog Wars from James Rogan on Vimeo.

Lastly, here's the video of the Blog Wars viewing party from December 2006. It was a fun event!