* It’s funny to remember that during the McCain kerfuffle some smart pundits said Trump had jumped the shark. They didn’t realize Trump’s honesty was part of his appeal.
Trump grew up hearing about war heroes who kicked ass, like Audie Murphy. Vietnam had them too, men like Roy Benavidez. McCain wasn’t that kind of war hero: he wasn’t a hero for kicking ass; he was a war hero for stoically getting his ass kicked.
And McCain used the coin of that suffering to repeatedly try to screw over the Republican base. It was great to see Trump take him down a peg.
Trump performed a similar service with the Bushes. Before Trump, a Republican couldn’t come out and say W. was a complete disaster. You had to qualify the disaster in Iraq by saying, “at least he kept us safe”. Trump heard Jeb say that and reminded him that W. was president during the civilian version of Pearl Harbor.
Trump has been the enema the GOP needed. He didn’t just beat Jeb, Rubio, and Cruz. He exposed them. None of them has a shot at running for POTUS again. They probably won’t even try.
* I’ve thought since the 1980s that Trump is pretty much the perfect surname to turn into a brand name–so good that I had to remind myself that the actual Trump Tower or whatever wasn’t as good as the name made you think it must be.
* The Germans did not “lure” the Italians into WW2. Mussolini happily jumped in, against Hitler’s wishes, when he thought the war was safely won and almost over. Germany had to keep rescuing Italy from Mussolini’s blunders in the Balkans and in North Africa. Without those diversions Germany would have had a much better concentration of forces on the eastern front.
