Lizard On A Rock

guess I’m still obsessing over this a bit…..

So, a quick thought exercise seems to be in order.

Forget which “side” you’re on, and consider what we’re hearing in the news pretty much since Trump got into this race.  Seemingly weekly, sometimes even daily, the press goes nuts over the latest statements made by Trump.  We’ve heard all the gaffes, (putting it politely) and stupid stuff he’s said (to be more honest) that has made headlines virtually every day.

The respective camps square off & debate on every news show, internet sites and even the tabloids.  Everybody gets mired in the minutiae of every detail of what he said by taking what he actually said (verbatim) and trying to assign various meanings to what they “think” he meant, even when it disagrees with his own explanation.  The talking heads go nuts and burn airtime supplanting anything else that might be important in the news that isn’t Donald.  Then, there’s even argument about what the talking heads were trying to say when they were trying to clean up his latest mess.

It’s no different than Kim Kardashian posting her latest selfie of her naked butt to “break the internet”.    Don’t forget, The Donald is a reality star, same as Kardashian, and is the  first to admit “there’s no such thing as bad press”.  He lives for the attention.

But, that’s not the point.  Really.

Take a few steps back, and ‘zoom out’, if you will.   Having a constant debate about “what he said” vs “what he meant” does absolutely nothing to clarify if he’d be a good president, quite the contrary, actually.  Further, the message gets lost in the noise, which is the opposite of what a candidate would hope to accomplish with his/her messaging.

Whether or you’re an Obama fan or not, one thing that is indisputable is he is a very intelligent, articulate and thoughtful orator.  Whether you agree with him or not, you know what he said AND what he meant.  The discussions are always about the substance of the message, not trying to argue about what he may or may not have meant.  And, NEVER is it about who he offended THIS time.

Shouldn’t effective communication be required of the President?  Don’t you enjoy listening to what the President has to say and understanding what it is he’s trying to say and then being able to have a constructive discussion about the merits of the message?  Why in the world would anyone want to have constant debate about what the hell he meant by what he just said?  Is it a good idea to have a president that sparks outrage every time he opens his mouth?  It’s nonproductive noise that diminishes by obscuring completely any message that may have been conveyed.

Maybe The Donald likes the vagaries of his message, it deflects scrutiny of the message itself.

In the end, the only thing in the forefront of my mind after listening to The Donald is a quote from W.C. Fields:

“If you can’t dazzle them with your brilliance, baffle them with bullshit.”