Kurtz: Trump revives talk of Vince Foster
posted at 11:21 am on May 24, 2016 by Allahpundit
A Twitter pal, seeing this story, wondered how long itll be before Trump accuses Hillary of being a lesbian. I thought hed save that for the fall, as a flourish during our Very Presidential presidential debates, but it seems like hes emptying the chamber early on Clinton dirt.
Maybe h**l tuck it into his acceptance speech at the convention. Itd be a fine prcis for the new GOP.
When asked in an interview last week about the Foster case, Trump dealt with it as he has with many edgy topics raising doubts about the official version of events even as he says he does not plan to talk about it on the campaign trail.
He called theories of possible foul play very serious and the circumstances of Fosters death very fishy.
He had intimate knowledge of what was going on, Trump said, speaking of Fosters relationship with the Clintons at the time. He knew everything that was going on, and then all of a sudden he committed suicide.
He added, I dont bring [Fosters death] up because I dont know enough to really discuss it. I will say there are people who continue to bring it up because they think it was absolutely a murder. I dont do that because I dont think its fair.
Its a show of character on Trumps part that he refuses to smear his opponent with unfair accusations that he knows little about while reassuring reporters that the whole things very serious and very fishy. As it turns out, this story was published in the same paper literally three minutes before this op-ed by Michael Gerson about Trumps enthusiasm for conspiracy theories went live on the site. Gerson learned a hard lesson here about writing critically about Trump: You may think your indictment of him is comprehensive, but just wait an hour.
Yesterday I said I thought a campaign of (mostly) personal attacks is his best bet against Clinton. Does this data undermine my theory, though? Or does it support it?
If character matters, arguably Trump pushing conspiracy theories about Billarys murderous ways hurts him by making him seem kookier and more demagogic than he already does. But maybe character doesnt matter anymore; it sure didnt in the Republican primary. (It sure didnt when Bill Clinton beat George Bush!) And everything depends on whether people believe Trumps theories or not. If the Clintons killed Vince Foster finds new life among younger voters who already dislike Hillary and dont remember our first national go-round with this topic 20 years ago, the publics view of Hillarys temperament, not Trumps, will decline. Clinton dirt, real and imagined, is an easy way for Trump to close the gap with her among voters who cant otherwise imagine elevating him to the presidency. In the end, #NeverHillary is the best counter to #NeverTrump.
One more point. Theres truth to this:
Turning the election into a sh*t-flinging contest plays to Trumps strengths, even though hes matched up with a sh*t-flinger par excellence in Billary. I dont like Ruffinis phrasing about the party becoming susceptible to Trumpism, though. Republicans chose him knowing who he was. Cruz spent months making the case that Trump was no conservative; it scarcely mattered. Id say its more the case that GOP voters apparently didnt care much about ideology or ideological combat before Trump got in than that, by turning the primaries into a mud fight, he somehow made them susceptible to his brand of populist nationalism. Maybe they wanted a nationalist whod gut-punch Democrats (he fights!) all along and they simply accepted people like Bush, McCain, and Romney because thats who the party leadership was putting on the menu. To a nationalist, a conservative Republican is preferable to a liberal Democrat, Im sure but not ideal. The lesson of the primaries to me is that not only does conservative ideology not matter nearly as much to conservatives as many thought but that conservative authenticity can be bought cheap by a candidate willing to expel enough vitriol at the GOP establishment and their pals across the aisle, embodied by the Clintons. That is to say, to a lot of voters sticking it to Billary is ideological combat. Hasnt it been so for a long time?
Related Posts:Source: http://hotair.com/archives/2016/05/24/trump-vince-fosters-death-which-i-havent-brought-up-on-the-trail-is-very-fishy-dont-you-think/
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