The Republican Primary Is Now a Giant Kindergarten Spat--New Republic

[KoKo]

Trump had a devastating retort [to Jeb]: “The World Trade Center came down during your brother’s reign, remember that.”

By Jeet Heer
February 13, 2016
It’s a measure of the remarkably transformative effect Trump has had on the entire tenor of the Republican presidential contest that the entire debate felt less like a political discussion and more like a kindergarten meltdown.

“Donald, you’re not going to be able to insult your way to the presidency,” Jeb Bush lectured Trump in an earlier debate. But increasingly, there’s every reason to think Bush was wrong. Trump’s supreme skills at vituperation have taken him to the top of the polls, and led last Tuesday to a stunning victory in New Hampshire. And his vintage performance tonight—an exercise in pushing the limits which included calling both Cruz and Marco Rubio liars and drawing boos and catcalls from the debate audience, is unlikely to damage his perch high atop of the South Carolina polls heading into Saturday’s primary.

There’s no better proof of the success of Trump’s tactics than the imitation of his rivals. On Saturday night in South Carolina, with the notable exceptions of John Kasich (who tried with some success to play the adult in the room) and Ben Carson (who remains a strange wraith-like figure sleepily indifferent to everyone else on stage), the other candidates vied to outdo each other in insults.

Cruz claimed that Rubio was making promises to Latino immigrants in Spanish on Univision that he wouldn’t dare repeat in English. Rubio sassed back: “I don’t know how he knows what I said on Univision, because he doesn’t speak Spanish.” Along the way, Trump also called Cruz was “the single biggest liar on stage,” adding that the senator was “a nasty guy.” But the Rubio-Cruz spat, which seemed as personal as it was political, was matched in its intense juvenility only by the Bush/Trump fight, which seemed to symbolize the level to which Trump has reduced the debate.

Trump went out of his way to insult not just Jeb Bush but his brother, the former president, who is stumping in South Carolina. “Obviously, the war in Iraq was a big, fat mistake,” Trump said. “George Bush made a mistake. We can make mistakes. But that one was a beauty. We should have never been in Iraq. We have destabilized the Middle East. ... They lied. They said there were weapons of mass destruction, there were none. And they knew there were none. There were no weapons of mass destruction.”

To hear the GOP frontrunner disparage the last Republican president was remarkable. Although he had played with these themes before, he had never been so blunt. It was a powerful testament to Trump’s ability to open up the internal fissures of the party.

Continued at.....

https://newrepublic.com/article/129918/republican-primary-now-giant-kindergarten-spat

[mgmaggiemg]

1. i know...ain't it great ;)

[Wellstone ruled]

2. Don't think the recess playground monitor has a chance.

Even with a whip,gun and a chair. Lovin it,keep it up you nasty little rug rats.

[malthaussen]

3. "Now?"

All I can say is, the lead-time on that article must be on the order of a year.

-- Mal

[Zambero]

4. Liar liar pants on fire!

Now Teddy and Marco, stop smacking each other this instant and behave yourselves! And Donald and Jeb, go sit in the corner and write 100 times, I will not interrupt and will wait until it's my turn! Now class, we have two perfect little gentlemen here with Ben and little Johnnie. Why can't you all behave like THEY do? Donald, did I hear you just call them LOSERS again?!? Go report to the principal's office for a bit of "beyond waterboarding" corporal punishment!!!