What makes a great politician?

[David Lockmiller]

(01-15-2018 07:51 PM)L Verge Wrote:  David - I get the sneaking suspicion that you are a Trump-hater, and I can live with that even though I would like our country to move on to much more important topics - and things that require our elected members of Congress to work on (which many seem not inclined to do).

However, I believe we started this thread with a rather innocent question as to what makes a good leader, with the emphasis on traits that many consider derive from Lincoln's qualities. Can we get back to the main historical point? And may I remind folks that there was just as much spewing of hatred about Lincoln as President as what we see today. History does repeat itself, and our nation does survive - sometimes miraculously.

I believe that the question was: What makes a great politician?

I should like to point out that Donald Trump, with no previous political experience, won the Republican Party nomination over several well-known Republican politicians also vying for the nomination. And, then, he won the election for President over the Democratic Party nominee for President who was supposed to be, almost by acclamation, the first female President of the United States. The presidential election was not even close in the electoral vote.

If you believe the question has been answered in this thread as to what made Donald J. Trump a great politician in 2016, I must confess that I missed that post or those posts.

As to your "sneaking suspicion" that I am a Trump hater, I must also confess that I supported wholeheartedly the presidential aspirations of Senator Bernie Sanders.

I attended two rallies for Bernie Sanders -- in Oakland, Ca on my birthday May 30 and in San Francisco on June 6. I took a number of photographs at both locations and made photographic collage posters. I sent the 2 posters by Fed Ex to his campaign office in Vermont along with a letter stating my support of his campaign; I never got a response.

After the presidential election, Bernie Sanders came to San Francisco to support San Francisco Supervisor Jane Kim in her run for the state Senate. I went to the rally at Kim's campaign headquarters and as he was making his way to a car for his next appearance, I handed him copies of the same two posters. At first, he was hesitant to accept the rolled up posters and he asked what it was. I informed him that it was a photo collage of his appearance at his campaign rally of June 6. [That day of June 6, 2016 could not have been very pleasant for him because AP published a report before his speech that night that enough super-delegates had just declared their support for Hillary Clinton that she had won the Democratic Party nomination. The now meaningless California primary was held the next day, June 7.] Senator Sanders took the photo collages, flashed that beautiful smile of his to me in thanks, and got into the car and drove away. It made me feel good.

The New York Times Editorial Board endorsed Hillary Clinton for President on January 1, 2016. The New York Times Editorial Board, the columnists, and reporters all wrote in support of Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders for the nomination of the Democratic Party. And, most of the New York Times readers, especially influential women, were for Hillary Clinton. I wrote so many counter comments to all of this biased reporting and Clinton supporter comments that you would not believe it if I were able to show all of them to you. Many times, the comment reviewers would not even post my comments or waited until just before the close of comments to do so (when most readers had passed on to other stories). Only Paul Krugman (who referred to Bernie supporters like myself as Bernie Bro cult members) would consistently permit my comments in opposition to what he had written in his columns.

You may remember that all of the national polls had Senator Bernie Sanders winning over Donald Trump by significant margins. But that did not matter because the vast majority of the Democratic Party superdelegates had been sewed up by Hillary Clinton before the first primary had been held and New York refused to change its primary voting laws to permit the state's 3 million Independents to vote for Bernie. So, Hillary Clinton became the Democratic Party nominee for President and the rest is history.

I was just thinking earlier today what a sorry mistake (really two) that I had made on election day. I worked that day as an election worker here in San Francisco. I had intended to write in Bernie Sanders name for President when I voted but I falsely learned several days before that write-in's were not permitted any longer in California. So, when I voted myself, I left the Presidential vote blank [it did not matter in California which was a solid Democratic state that Hillary won by 3 million votes over Trump as I recall].

But this was not the very sorry mistake that I made that day. We switched roles on the election desk throughout the day and a young lady came into vote wearing a Bernie Sanders sweatshirt when I was the greeter and the person who checked the voter rolls. I wanted to tell her that I was also a Bernie Sanders supporter, but I thought that would be inappropriate and did not do so. She asked if she could vote for Bernie Sanders and I told her "no." We were so busy getting the polling place open in time that I failed to read one of the papers handed to me by the man in charge. It turns out that Bernie Sanders' name could be written in for President; he had qualified specifically as an acceptable write-in. This was a revelation to me the next day when I read the paper. I have thought about that young lady a number of times since that day. I wish that I could at lease apologize to her personally for that mistake.

The poll workers worked late into the night of the election. One of the other workers checked her phone and learned that Trump was either winning be a large margin or had already won. We were all dumbfounded.

So, the question remains: What made Donald Trump a great politician?

It sure as H*** wasn't honesty! Readers may recall that Abraham Lincoln was referred to as Honest Abe both before and after his election (in fact, to this day) and that is one of the primary reasons that he was a great politician . . . because he could be trusted as President. The Washington Post recently reported that as of Jan. 10 (after less than a year in office), President Trump has made 2,001 false or misleading claims since taking office. I think that the number of Americans who would refer to Donald Trump as being honest could be counted on the fingers of one hand, and that includes his wife and, of course, Mike Pense. So, all he needs is two more (maybe Cotton and Perdue would also call him Honest Donald Trump).