A thought keeps nagging at me: As long as Donald Trump is president, it's going to be like this. No matter how long he occupies the Oval Office, he is never going to become Presidential. He is never going to be a unifying force. He is never not going to be under the shadow of scandal, criminal wrongdoing and deeds that Republicans would insist were impeachable offenses had they been done by a Democrat. That's just who the guy is.
Maybe you already figured this out but I'm just now starting to feel foolish at being shocked by any of it. It's like being upset when a dog takes a crap on your lawn. That's what they do. Here are some links…
- Kevin Drum summarizes a newly-emerging alleged abuse of power: Did Trump or his aides make a deal to settle a $200 million dollar money laundering crime for a measly six million in exchange for possible dirt on Hillary Clinton? You know that song, "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas"? I keep hearing it playing in my head, only it's "It's beginning to look a lot like Nixon."
- As Ed Kilgore notes, Obamacare is a lot more popular than anything Republicans have offered up to replace it. And most voters — including a surprising number of Republicans — don't want to see it repealed. They want Republicans to work with Democrats to make it work better. But you know, the crazies will explode if it isn't repealed so it has to be repealed. (By the way: I don't quite get polls about how many people want it to be "repealed and replaced." Doesn't it matter to any sane human what you replace it with? I'll bet I could design a health care plan that even the most Obama-hating politician would think was worse than keeping Obamacare.)
- Frank Rich thinks that Republicans will abandon Trump in droves as we near the next big Election Day; that the new Republican Health Care plan is in a death spiral; and that we have a new "Saturday Night Massacre" in our future when Robert Mueller gets close to indicting members of the Trump administration.
- Dylan Matthews describes for us what Trump's idea of a tax cut is. Guess what kind of people get almost all of the benefits. Guess real hard.
- As Heather Long notes, people who used to be optimistic about the U.S. economy are scaling back their expectations. If Trump can't make businesses feel better about the future, he's really not good for much of anything, is he?
If you were wondering if Trump-bashing was the reason Stephen Colbert's ratings are up, know this: Last night's guest appearance by Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski gave the show its best ratings in two months. Wonder how many of those viewers stuck around for the musical appearance at the end by Scarborough's rock band. Hard to believe the man could be worse at anything in show business than he is at hosting a morning show.