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20 tweets,
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1. Appearances Can Be Deceptive
Those who think Trump lost today by re-opening the govt, don't know how politics works. Trump never looked more gracious, more moderate, and surer of himself than he did today. You will see. Remember, in the end, what matters is results.
Those who think Trump lost today by re-opening the govt, don't know how politics works. Trump never looked more gracious, more moderate, and surer of himself than he did today. You will see. Remember, in the end, what matters is results.
2. Nanacy Pelosi has but one calling at the moment: 'not delivering the wall.' Trump is in charge of national security, economy, federal workers livelihoods, air traffic controllers, TSA agents, IRS refunds, law and order, all of it.
3. Uneasy lies the head that worries about delivering on all the promises and all the responsibilities, not just some of them. And greater is the leader who delivers on all of it the right way, no matter how strong the temptation to stray.
4. I am glad he did not stray. I wrote this two weeks ago:
5. I have come to know Trump better than most. I am glad, despite verbal bluster, he never colors outside the constitutional lines. We are all better for it, transitory setbacks aside. I wrote this thread 18 months ago. See for yourself how it has aged.
6. We're living at a time when it has become well nigh impossible to win over members of the opposition party, no matter what you do. It was true for Bush, true for Obama, and it is true for Trump. The whole battle is about winning over some independents, without losing the base.
7. Trump won't lose the base if he delivers 'the wall', no matter how he gets there. And my sixth sense is that he made some inroads with the independents today by not doing anything radical, and showing grace in a minor defeat. A man who can take no defeat is weak, not strong.
8. Reeds that don't bend with the wind, break. Politics is the game of rolling with the punches. He showed today he can. It will stand him in good stead in the long run. You will see.
The End
The End
Oh, forgot to mention the root cause of how we got here. See if you can remember it accurately. Let me jog your memories, and for some, this may even be news, because it was never quite advertised well. 1/
And this will also answer a very important question often asked, by both the left and the right: If Trump is serious about his wall and not just jerking his base around, why didn't he get the wall funded during the 2 years Republicans controlled both the House and the Senate? 2/
Good question, isn't it? Well, here's why. The Republican House did pass the funding, but it could never get through the nominally Republican Senate. Public reason: Republicans needed eight Democratic votes for cloture which they could never get. 3/
Well, why did they need 60 votes for cloture? Why couldn't Mitch McConnell exercise the nuclear option (like Trump told him to) and change the senate rules, doing away with the 60 vote requirement, and consummate the cloture with a simple majority? 4/
Well, Mitch MConnell said he didn't want to change the time honored senate tradition (even though we all know Democrats will do away with it when they get hold of the Senate next time, the first time they need to). 5/
Mitch McConnell is no fool. The real reason he didn't exercise thee nuclear option is because he couldn't, and it made no sense to advertise that fact (poor Mitch gets a lot of flak for things he cannot say publicly). To exercise the nuclear option you still need 51 votes. 6/
Mitch never had the 51 votes to exercise the nuclear option -- because John McCain, Jeff Flake, Lisa Murkowski, and few others as well. Now you see the problem. There has never been a clear path to fund the wall ever since Trump's inauguration. 7/
Part of the reason Trump went to the mat this time was to finally show the nation that he hasn't exactly been slacking off on his campaign promise, there just aren't the votes in Congress to make it happen. 8/
He says he has alternative ways to get the funding, but he says it mostly as a negotiating ploy to make Democrats approve the funding. Democrats are no fools either in terms of playing politics, so they aren't fooled by it. 9/
Is he totally bluffing? Not really. He can legally do what he threatens to, say by declaring a national emergency at the border, issue some executive orders and such. But in spirit, it will be extra-constitutional. 10/
And my man Trump, unlike Obama, don't do extra-constitutional stuff, no matter what he says as a negotiating ploy or out of frustration. And I for one admire him for that. All these smears about his 'authoritarian tendencies' are just plain, demonstrable lies. 11/x
Read the above thread, then watch this segment and tell me you ever thought this could happen. Early days, but the tide is turning, just as I predicted above might happen.
