Snookered

“… trouble, oh, we got trouble, right here in River City, with a capital "T" and that rhymes with "P" and that stands for pool…” …Ya’ got Trouble…written by Meredith Wilson for The Music Man… Congratulations to Donald Trump, he was a mark, right out of a con game or a pool hall, and he just got played big time. By the time he heard, along with everybody else, that Joe Biden was dropping out, Kamala Harris’s campaign was already up and running. As someone who prides himself on winning every deal, he got caught asleep at the switch prior to Joe Biden announcing he was quitting the 2024 presidential race. Totally confident, Trump was busy blustering, making up cute names, trying to be witty and he got snookered. His campaign is a pure top-down operation, it’s all about him, he gets the press, the attention, makes all the decisions, and everyone stands around and waits for him to tell them what to do or say. Maybe, if he’d hired some political pros, guys who work off analysis, experience, and look for these types of situations, he wouldn’t have got blindsided-the Dems caught him totally asleep. I’d be willing to place a sizeable bet that Biden’s decision was finalized at least a week ago. I’m amazed that in Washington D.C., where a secret is just gossip that hasn’t been repeated several times, they managed to keep this under wraps. It’s nostalgic, kind of like being back in Chicago in the old days. In Chicago politics years ago, the boss, Mayor Richard J. Daley strolled out of a smoke-filled back room, the decision had been made and everyone had their marching orders. Surprisingly, the Dems who are a notorious leak machine-kind of like Ernest Hemingway once said, “…A great person to tell gossip to, it goes in one ear and straight out their mouth…” managed to keep it quiet. The adults in the room, the power brokers and big money donors had worked out the details, the press statement was written, and things were quietly in motion. They moved fast, silenced dissenters and seemingly blocked out marginal candidates who might want to run to get a little attention, have some fun, meet girls, and get to sit in a first class on a jet. While the media and pundits were yacking about how difficult it would be for Biden to step down and someone else to run, notice how a slew of Kamla Harris TV/online spots amazingly appeared minutes after Biden’s statement. You don’t slap together a quicky for a presidential candidate, there’s preparation and a lot of “takes” involved. I’m married to a working actress and am familiar with how much goes into filming. They didn’t have time to do these on the fly, they were already filmed and, in the can, ready to go. Trump’s reaction tells me he was caught totally flat footed. His initial reaction was it wasn’t fair, it was illegal, and he should get a rebate for all the money he spent campaigning against Joe Biden. Naturally, nobody paid much attention to any of it. Trump is at his best when he’s in attack mode, waving his arms, calling people names, spit flying out of his mouth, but he’s not believable as a victim, he’ll need to work on that, maybe he finds a course at the local community college. Trump basically needs to re-shuffle the deck. He has a new target, a moving target that doesn’t have the legislative or leadership profile of a standard presidential candidate. He’d just chosen JD “Trump Lite” Vance, a MAGA favorite to rev up the base and run up margins in red states, rather than choosing someone more moderate to appeal to the swing voters in the middle. This may be like Mom used to say, “…don’t be talking when you should be listening…”