jimnyc
09-20-2017, 09:05 AM
And from the Washington Post no less. But that's because it's from the opinion section.
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All in all, Trump has had a pretty good eight months
Eight months of President Trump is one-sixth of his term. By analogy, he is standing on the fourth tee of his first round. His score is one over, largely because of penalty strokes for the flubbed response to Charlottesville and some out-of-bounds tweets (offset in part by superb federal responses thus far to Hurricanes Harvey and Irma). What have he and his team accomplished? Any golfer knows it’s far too early to guess at the final score, but we can identify the actions and words that will define the first eight months and endure as notable.
The president has delivered three significant speeches: his “American carnage” inaugural address, his speech to the assembled leaders of Sunni countries wherein he demanded that they demand of their religious authorities the preaching of a message that the terrorists would find their souls eternally damned, and his “West is best” speech in Poland. All were significant for the bluntness of messages that resonated with large parts of America that believe the president said things that needed saying, and which President Barack Obama refused to say at all and President George W. Bush said only in diluted form.
He has appointed Justice Neil M. Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, thereby guaranteeing at least for a time the continuation and perhaps strengthening of “structural federalism,” the robust defense of the First Amendment, and a generally hands-off policy on election law and redistricting. The balance is delicate, and if Justice Anthony M. Kennedy retires next year and is replaced by another Gorsuch, it will likely be preserved for a decade or more. If more than one vacancy occurs and the president keeps to his word (and his record on judicial nominations — his appointments to the circuit courts have been slow in coming but steady in their originalism), Trump’s most enduring legacy will be his mark on the courts.
These nominations, by the way, are the real deal-breaker with conservatives, not the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, Obamacare repeal or anything else. Many things are important to them, but the Constitution is No. 1 and national security No. 2. Breaking faith with the president’s GOP coalition partners on the courts would shatter conservative support for the Trump administration. There is no sign that the president does not grasp this fundamental truth. Media reports of poisonous relations between Trump and House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) seem almost absurdly comic in their hyperbole, as do predictions of doom from the base because of a “deal” on DACA. The Trump-congressional GOP coalition government gets along well enough.
Rest - https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/all-in-all-trump-has-had-a-pretty-good-eight-months/2017/09/19/eeb431f8-9c93-11e7-8ea1-ed975285475e_story.html?utm_term=.dbc461918329
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All in all, Trump has had a pretty good eight months
Eight months of President Trump is one-sixth of his term. By analogy, he is standing on the fourth tee of his first round. His score is one over, largely because of penalty strokes for the flubbed response to Charlottesville and some out-of-bounds tweets (offset in part by superb federal responses thus far to Hurricanes Harvey and Irma). What have he and his team accomplished? Any golfer knows it’s far too early to guess at the final score, but we can identify the actions and words that will define the first eight months and endure as notable.
The president has delivered three significant speeches: his “American carnage” inaugural address, his speech to the assembled leaders of Sunni countries wherein he demanded that they demand of their religious authorities the preaching of a message that the terrorists would find their souls eternally damned, and his “West is best” speech in Poland. All were significant for the bluntness of messages that resonated with large parts of America that believe the president said things that needed saying, and which President Barack Obama refused to say at all and President George W. Bush said only in diluted form.
He has appointed Justice Neil M. Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, thereby guaranteeing at least for a time the continuation and perhaps strengthening of “structural federalism,” the robust defense of the First Amendment, and a generally hands-off policy on election law and redistricting. The balance is delicate, and if Justice Anthony M. Kennedy retires next year and is replaced by another Gorsuch, it will likely be preserved for a decade or more. If more than one vacancy occurs and the president keeps to his word (and his record on judicial nominations — his appointments to the circuit courts have been slow in coming but steady in their originalism), Trump’s most enduring legacy will be his mark on the courts.
These nominations, by the way, are the real deal-breaker with conservatives, not the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, Obamacare repeal or anything else. Many things are important to them, but the Constitution is No. 1 and national security No. 2. Breaking faith with the president’s GOP coalition partners on the courts would shatter conservative support for the Trump administration. There is no sign that the president does not grasp this fundamental truth. Media reports of poisonous relations between Trump and House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) seem almost absurdly comic in their hyperbole, as do predictions of doom from the base because of a “deal” on DACA. The Trump-congressional GOP coalition government gets along well enough.
Rest - https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/all-in-all-trump-has-had-a-pretty-good-eight-months/2017/09/19/eeb431f8-9c93-11e7-8ea1-ed975285475e_story.html?utm_term=.dbc461918329