* Again, why isn’t Jeb! having Columba front and center on the campaign trail with him, by his side and making a few speeches before women’s groups? That is a fair question especially since this is something that goes back to Grace Coolidge and Eleanor Roosevelt. It is expected that presidential candidates’ spouses will indeed be front and center on the campaign trail. Unless there is an extenuating circumstance (e.g. Mammie Eisnenhower’s alcoholism, etc) there simply isn’t a compelling reason why she shouldn’t be front and center on the campaign trail. Both Laura and Barbara were for their husbands’ campaigns. And, with such a politically connected family as the Bushes, come on. Even Bill Clinton is doing that much for Hillary. He is publicly supporting her campaign, making speeches, etc.
Of course, a practical issue is raised, perhaps it is the GOPs version of a Willie Horton moment or self-inflicted one. If Columba were to accompany her husband on the trail and she’s asked numerous questions of which she has to give lengthy answers (in English) this will more than make Trump’s point; namely, that illegal aliens are taking over this country and that we need to make America great again by building the wall, etc. etc.
And yes, I do think that this would work with Melania. JFK had Jackie on the campaign trail and Jackie is considered to be the best looking First Lady in recent presidential history. A First Lady Melania might change that. And again, it is expected barring some compelling legitimate reason, that spouses assume a public role on the campaign trail. She’s a woman, she can therefore reach some women voters or at reassure them that her husband is worth voting for. I give her credit for giving People magazine an extended interview. That shows she is willing to take a more public role to help her husband’s candidacy, which nearly every spouse of a major candidate for nearly a century has done.
In the case of Columba, the only compelling reason is that once she opens her mouth it will be obvious that she really can’t speak passable competent English for any extended length of time. And she’s been residing in the US for over 40yrs. That’s not a benefit for a campaign.
I also think that many women voters would tend to think “Gee, she can’t speak English and she could be our First Lady? What’s her name, Columbo or something? Doesn’t sound American. How can she relate to me? What I’m going through if she doesn’t even speak the same language? What was she, a maid or something when she came her? Did Jeb! leave his US girlfriend for the hired help, the way Arnold was banging his maid? Couldn’t Jeb! even get a decent American born woman?? No wonder he has to speak Spanish in his house, cause his wife who’s been here for over 40yrs can’t understand English, like the hired help. Maybe Trump’s right, this “low energy” dude really isn’t all that if his own frumpy dumpy wife can’t speak English and she’s lived her for over two generations.”
Trump’s overall point regarding illegal immigration still stands and now there a few among the nominees, with Cruz’s possibly questionable US citizenship status and Columba’s as well (is she a US citizen? That’s definitely a fair question to ask in the campaign, if it is phrased correctly).
* News ‘coordination’ has become more widespread. It isn’t just the nearly identical lineup of stories nightly on the network news, or the cover stories of so-called news magazines. The corruption and dissembling run much deeper, as seen in the prior Journolist scandal and now playing out among various disinformation outlets.
Unz, Sailer et al do the thinking world a great service by researching and highlighting such topics.
* I don’t think Rubio helped himself by having his wife and kids front and center in the audience because he doesn’t seem to realize the hazards of using your family to campaign if one of your kids is a modern teenage girl.
Every time the camera switched to his family you could see the teenager slouched and sulking, clearly communicating how much she despised being there. She looked like she hated being forced to look clean cut and hang around her lame old Dad, when she would rather be anywhere else, maybe with purple hair and a nose stud. Forcing a modern kid to go that long without texting or network her clique is worse than waterboarding them.
You often see Obama’s girls on TV with that same please-beam-me-to-Patagonia look.
* I hope some ad money goes into highlighting Rubio’s meltdown in this debate. The media’s reporting it now, but calling them unreliable would be overpraise. They’re not going to play a highlight reel a hundred thousand times like they did the Dean Scream.
* I was watching NBC’s “Meet the Press” this morning, and Chuck Todd had on as one of the panelists discussing last night’s debate Hugh Hewitt, who was identified as a “Rubio supporter.” Hewitt was strongly defending Rubio’s debate performance last night. This was the same Hewitt who served as one of the moderators of the CNN debate in Las Vegas where he asked Donald Trump a question of sorts dealing with the “triad.” After Trump answered in a way that revealed he didn’t know what the “triad” referred to, Hewitt next asked Rubio, who rattled off the definition of “triad.” I wonder when Hewitt became a “Rubio supporter.” That Las Vegas debate took place on December 15. I also wonder if Hewitt may have fed Rubio that question so he could have a prepared answer ready. The way he rattled off the correct answer made me suspect at the time that he was reading off a canned response. Last night’s hilarious events involving Rubio mindlessly repeating the same canned attack on Obama over and over again merely stokes my suspicions about the Hewitt-Rubio relationship. BTW, even though Rubio correctly defined “triad,” he never did answer Hewitt’s question, which was somewhat unclear. Moreover, earlier in the same debate, Hewitt erroneously referred to Ben Carson as a “pediatric neurologist surgeon,” which is a scream coming from a man of supposed erudition.
* I am a fan of New England and Bill Belichick, best coach of all time in my opinion, but Wade Philips’ Defensive game plan was a gem. Even with his quick release Brady hardly had time to set and pass, only the quick slants were working. But, I think the Bronco -Pats game was lost during the last two regular season games. New England wins one of those and the playoff is at Foxborough. I don’t think Denver beats Brady at home. Belichick electing to kick off to the Giants in overtime is the real head scratcher. Giants score a TD and overtime over.
