RUTHFULLY YOURS

Did one robotic moment in a single debate really bring down Marco Rubio in New Hampshire, probably finishing him off nationally? Unlikely.

It’s difficult to believe that voters would turn on a candidate over one gaffe — yet, somehow, it can also make perfect sense in this cycle. Either way, let’s stop pretending that 2016 voters are concerned about authenticity. What they’re really asking of politicians is for better acting while delivering canned lines. Because they’re all canned lines.

Nearly every candidate is a talking-point-spewing automaton. What Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Jeb Bush, and Ted Cruz say — and even much of what Donald Trump says — is prefabricated, tested, and constructed to appeal to whatever subsection of the electorate they hope to entice. The most talented candidates can repeat those lines, jokes, and touching anecdotes with the same bogus earnestness every single time. This is their real talent. I mean, even Trump — probably the only top-tier candidate regularly going off script — strings together many of the same absurdities in mind-numbing platitudinous loops, and his fans eat it up.

Still, there’s no question that Rubio failed to deliver on this front last week. And while he’s no more prone to offer calculated responses than is Clinton or Sanders, Rubio let the political world create a caricature. All the usual suspects joined in, because, whether you like him or not, Democrats fear Rubio more than they do any other Republican.

The robot talking point was regurgitated in dozens of articles and a million tweets, and by political cartoonists. Activists, lacking basic self-respect, began following Rubio around in robot outfits. The Washington Post explained what it all meant — “what Marco Rubio’s robotic debate performance reveals.” Well, it probably reveals that we — pundits, bloggers, media, and probably most voters — like to turn candidates into one-dimensional cartoon characters who can be easily mocked, categorized, memed, and dispensed with.

Caricatures are easier to hate, and also easier to support. Trump the brash fighter. Mitt Romney the out-of-touch job killer. Cruz the Machiavellian meanie. Jeb the awkward establishmentarian. Bernie the pure-hearted ideologue. Rubio the robot. You know how it works.

While this line of attack, brought on by his own performance, almost certainly had something to do with his showing in New Hampshire, I’m not fully sold on the debate theory. Whatever you make of Rubio’s positions — and I’m not crazy about plenty of them – he’s an impressive politician. According to CNN, voters broke away from Rubio at the end, but exit polls (and you can take them for what they are) show that while the debate mattered to many voters, Rubio fared only slightly worse than most other Republicans.

Here is another example of a fine journalist using age as criticism….Neither Sanders nor Hillary are “senile”defined as “having or showing the weaknesses or diseases of old age, especially a loss of mental faculties.” Hillary has been corrupt and mendacious all her life and Bernie has been a hard lefty all his life. To attribute their serious shortcomings to their age is wrong and vulgar- akin to Trump’s reference to Caly Fiorina’s looks. rsk

PBS, a venerable leftist institution long since past its prime, hosted two other leftist institutions past their prime, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, for the special Wisconsin edition of the Democratic Party’s newest hit show, Who Wants to Be America’s Top Socialist.

“I believe in government,” Bernie Sanders declared. And that was the theme for the night.

A political party that does not believe in G-d or that 2 + 2 = 4 believes in and passionately loves government. Its perverted love affair with government gave birth to two political hacks who couldn’t manage to mow the lawn without setting it on fire, but who want to run the country and the world.

In an eye-meltingly mustard yellow jacket, the uniform of some alien space armada invading the planet, Hillary Clinton glared balefully into the camera and promised the nation twice as much free stuff in return for their submission to her ruthless rule. Bernie Sanders, who kept coughing as if he might not live through the debate, never mind the election, upped the ante to three times as much free stuff.

The FBI is investigating whether Hillary Clinton’s State Department improperly directed contracts to Clinton Foundation donors, in possible violation of public corruption laws, Fox News is reporting.

Three sources confirmed the previously-unknown investigation angle to Fox reporters Catherine Herridge and Pamela Browne.

“The agents are investigating the possible intersection of Clinton Foundation donations, the dispensation of State Department contracts and whether regular processes were followed,” one law enforcement source told Fox.

Examples abound of Clinton’s State Department opening doors for Clinton Foundation donors, as well as to the then-secretary of state’s friends and political allies. (RELATED: Ethics Complaint Says Big Clinton Donors Got State Dept Access)

According to one Fox source, the FBI opened its public corruption probe in April 2015, months before the bureau officially opened its investigation of Clinton’s use of a private email server to maintain her email account. Investigators seized Clinton’s server from a New Jersey data center in August after two “top secret” emails discovered on the device.

Another Fox source says that approximately 100 special agents have been assigned to the investigation and were asked to sign non-disclosure agreements. The purpose of that step is unclear — it could be that FBI officials want to protect classified information or that they want to prevent leaks about the case.

Hillary Clinton Is Now Tied To At Least Four Investigations By Federal Agencies

The State Department’s inspector general last year subpoenaed the Clinton Foundation for documents related to work that required approval from the Hillary Clinton State Department, making it now at least four investigations involving the Democratic presidential candidate being conducted by federal agencies.

According to The Washington Post, the State Department inspector general’s subpoena, which was filed in the fall, also sought records related to longtime Clinton aide Huma Abedin’s concurrent employment in 2012 with the State Department, the Clinton Foundation, and Teneo Holdings, a Clinton-connected consulting firm.

Clinton’s critics have asserted that the overlap between the State Department, her family’s foundation, and Teneo during her tenure created potential conflicts of interest. The book “Clinton Cash,” which was released last year, laid out numerous examples of the Clinton Foundation’s wealthy donors gaining special access to Clinton’s State Department. Other examples have emerged from the release of Clinton’s State Department emails.

No, this has nothing to do with New Hampshire. A former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) said former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton should withdraw from the race for president of the United States — her email scandal is that serious.

“I think Hillary Clinton, for the good of the country, should step down and let this FBI investigation play out,” Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn (Ret.) told The Daily Caller. Flynn led the DIA from July 2012 until August 2014. He said anyone who compromised intelligence at this level of classification has no business running for president.

The documents “had to be moved off electronically or removed out of the secure site physically, then it had to be put onto an unclassified email system,” Flynn said. “Someone who does this is completely irresponsible, but totally unaccountable and shows a streak of arrogance to the American public that is unworthy of anyone thinking they can run for President of the United States.”

“This is unbelievable,” Flynn said. “I don’t think anybody should be talking about her being potentially the next President of the United States.”

Flynn was referring to special access programs (SAP) documents, which are at the highest level of classification. Normal classified documents are placed in a storage facility known as a Special Compartmentalized Information Facility (SCIF). That’s not good enough for SAPs. “Top Secret” clearance is not enough for a government official to see an SAP document, and one SAP clearance does not entitle you to access another SAP program.

Hillary Clinton may be saying publicly that she’s “100% confident the FBI email probe will fizzle,” but with every new leak that comes out, the public can see that the case for her indictment has been strengthened.

In the latest exclusive from Fox News, Catherine Herridge and Pamela K. Browne report that the “top secret” intelligence, recently found on Clinton’s server and deemed too damaging to national security to release, passed through at least a dozen of her underlings’ email accounts.

A U.S. government official close to the FBI investigation told Fox that “the accounts include not only Clinton’s but those of top aides – including Cheryl Mills, Huma Abedin, Jake Sullivan and Philippe Reines – as well as State Department Under Secretary for Management Patrick F. Kennedy and others.”

There is no public evidence they were authorized to receive the intelligence some of which was beyond Top Secret.

A second source not authorized to speak on the record said the number of accounts involved could be as high as 30 and reflects how the intelligence was broadly shared, replied to, and copied to individuals using the unsecured server.

“My contacts with former colleagues and current active duty personnel involved in sensitive programs reveal a universal feeling that the HRC issue is more serious than the general public realizes,” Dan Maguire, a former strategic planner with Africom, and with 46 years combined service, told Fox. “Most opine they would already be behind bars if they had apparently compromised sensitive information as reported.”

New York Post columnist Michael Goodwin told Fox News’ Bill Hemmer that with every new leak that comes out, additional pressure is put on the Department of Justice and the White House to indict Hillary.

“Every revelation adds to the weight in the public domain, that she should be indicted,” Goodwin said. “And if she isn’t, this raises the bar on them. It makes it a tougher hill for them to climb if they do not indict her. It must be explained to the public.”

Trump is a vulgarian. Trump is a winner. Trump is not a real conservative. Trump is this, that, or the other thing. Everybody has an opinion.

I have to start by confessing that I like Ted Cruz as a principled conservative. Trump is more like Winston Churchill’s line about Russia: He’s a riddle wrapped in an enigma. Everybody talks about Trump, but nobody knows what he believes.

Let’s look at his actions so far. Forget his words.

The first big fact is that we’re talking about Trump at all, among an exceptionally good field of GOP candidates – much better than Bob Dole and John McCain. Almost any of our runners is better than the Hillary-Bernie socialist throwback team. Hillary could be indicted soon – not saying she will be, but the evidence keeps piling up for culpable and extremely dangerous violations of national security in her State Department. The words “espionage,” “massive bribery,” and “sabotage in time of war” might leap into the headlines any day now.

The second major fact is that Trump keeps defeating the Party Line cartel. Trump’s daily jiu-jitsu blows against the media are unprecedented in recent decades, ever since the P.C. police took over.

That is a big achievement by itself, because Trump’s big mouth is making it possible for millions of Americans to speak their minds honestly for the first time in many years. Big, big news.

Yes, he sounds like a guy on the street in New York or Jersey, but our freedom of speech is worth it. If Cruz wasn’t running, I would certainly vote for Trump, just because the United States needs a break from years of politically correct witch hunts, courtesy of Al Sharpton and the Weird Sisters of Macbeth, come back to haunt us. Obama would never have made it big in politics without years of leftist media indoctrination of the American public.

It was easy to dismiss him as the blowhard with the bouffant, the vulgarian whose bellicose manner could appeal only to the dim and angry. What his detractors failed to see — or, if they did, to acknowledge — is that China, borders and Muslim immigration are issues that very much needed to be raised
This little note comes as a response to my friend and regular Quadrant contributor James Allan, whose piece in the latest Spectator Australia takes Donald Trump to task for his personality and lack of credentials as a movement conservative. Jim isn’t alone in these charges, which also have been made rather grandly by National Review, the most influential US journal of conservative opinion. All are criticisms I understand and ones I’ve made myself.

I don’t blame anyone for thinking that way, especially when they’re not witnessing American politics up close and firsthand, as am I. Back home once more in my native land, I am thinking that way, and it’s why my opinion has changed. Don’t get me wrong — I’m not on the Trump train by any means — but it’s become impossible to ignore the mogul’s serious appeal to voters, not just as ‘an outsider’, a man who vows to throw a wrench into the machine, but for the priorities and anxieties he raises.

Attacks on Trump’s conservative credentials usually cite comments from years gone by about abortion and healthcare. Without going into those points too deeply, we can say quite confidently that those aren’t positions weighing heavily on the average Trump voter. They’re neither driving nor hindering his campaign. Rather, Trump is running on three issues: trade inequality, immigration, and the question of Islam’s compatibility with the West.

Never mind that Trump donated to the Clinton Foundation, the power couple’s all-purpose slush fund. Forget that he hailed Hillary when she was Secretary of State. What this pompadoured contradiction offers is an alternative — not a good one, to be sure, but that is beside the point

I had long believed Donald Trump to be no better than a blowhard capable of attracting fans but not votes. How wrong I was, as his victory in New Hampshire attests. But conventional wisdom and precedent offer little guidance to what comes next. With US voters even more irritable than I could have imagined, it is apparent that standards of consistency, logic and substance expected of every other Republican candidate just don’t apply to Donald Trump.

Never mind that this pompadoured contradiction has donated to the Clinton Foundation, the power couple’s all-purpose slush fund. Never mind that he praised Hillary Clinton when she was Secretary of State. Who among his “conservative” supporters cares that his position on health care is similar to that of the socialist Bernie Sanders, who thrashed Hillary in New Hampshire. And where was Trump in 2013 when Ted Cruz, along with Senator Jeff Sessions, led the fight against amnesty for illegal aliens?

One has to see Donald Trump as a cultural phenomenon, rather than as a conventional political candidate. Back in 2012, the likes of Trump would have been laughed out of the Republican race; indeed, his promulgation of “birther” conspiracy theories about Obama rendered him a non-starter in the primaries of that year. Back then, Trump was not taken seriously precisely because the Republican base naively believed the party’s establishment would effectively oppose Obama’s attempted radical transformation of the United States. There was no perceived need nor appetite for a candidate bent on summoning the pitchforks and flaming brands of popular revolt.

Today, though, given what is widely perceived to have been the total failure of the congressional GOP leadership, voters have latched on to the candidate promising “creative” political destruction: he will tear it all down and build something allegedly better in its place, although just what Trumpism’s shining new world will look like is anyone’s guess. Interestingly, his only coherent and practically articulated policy is the promise to halt Muslim immigration. It seems that, while voters may or may not be prepared to swallow all manner of populist nonsense, they have a sharper awareness of the existential threat to the West and its values than do the political elites. The voters, in other words, may be stupid, but they are less stupid than the powers that be.
They are right, too, in accepting the oft-demonstrated truth that nothing can equal the stupidity of what passes for the Republican Party establishment. The three-cornered campaign of mutual destruction between Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio and Chris Christie in New Hampshire has ensured that none can emerge as the standard bearer, as did Mitt Romney in 2012. Indeed, having quite probably destroyed Rubio’s candidature without any gain to his own, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has now withdrawn from the race. Bush staggers on to South Carolina, driven on by dynastic entitlement and having blown $35 million to secure no better than fourth place in New Hampshire.