On one occasion back in March 2008, when Barack Obama was running for the Democratic presidential nomination, the candidate fled rather than answer a barrage of pointed questions from the Chicago Sun-Times’ Lynn Sweet and other reporters.
Which prompted the political blog the Hotline to wonder, “If he can’t face Lynn Sweet, how can he face Al-Qaeda?”
If Donald Trump, the noted front-runner in the Republican presidential primary, can’t face Fox News’ Megyn Kelly, how can he face the Islamic State?
Trump, as is his wont, has thrown the political world into a frenzy over his decision to pull out of the Thursday night debate on Fox News because the forces of Fox have not kowtowed to his demand that it remove Kelly from the lineup of moderators.
In what seems like a lifetime ago, Kelly clearly got under Trump’s skin in the first GOP debate in August when she pressed him about his history of saying degrading things about women. In the heated aftermath, Trump famously declared that during the debate Kelly had “blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her — wherever,” totally proving her point.
During his many years as a businessman and reality TV star, The Donald has gotten very used to getting his way. Month after month at the top of the GOP charts has done little to diminish his sense of self-importance. So it must have come as quite a shock when Fox supreme leader Roger Ailes had no interest in caving to his demand that Kelly had to go because she is biased against him. Fox even put out a news release taunting Trump.
Trump’s campaign persona is based on being the tough guy. He’s fond of saying he’d prevail in dealing with the planet’s evil dictators and other random bad guys through the sheer force of his personality. But like so many classic bullies, he clearly doesn’t like being hit back. And Kelly has not backed down at all during their five-months-plus feud.
Kelly was positively glowing on The Kelly File on Tuesday night after Trump announced he was bailing. Particularly entertaining was her odd-couple conversation with guest Michael Moore, the noted lefty filmmaker/provocateur. Moore seemed completely dazzled by Kelly’s feat of running off The Donald. “Everyone has been trying to do this for months, and you did it,” he enthused. Moore seemed utterly flabbergasted by the notion of Trump trying to go it alone without the all-powerful Fox. Talk about when superpowers collide!
Trump’s fellow GOP alpha male Gov. Chris Christie took time out from humiliating a questioner who asked him about leaving flooded New Jersey to campaign in New Hampshire — “Do you want me to go down there with a mop?” — and calling a Jersey Shore mayor “crazy” to pounce.
“America wants a fighter who shows up,” he told Kelly, reminding us that he showed up even when he was relegated to the kid’s table at one of the debates. Palling around with losers has got to be an even worse fate than having to stand up to the fearsome Kelly.
Ted Cruz, Trump’s chief challenger in the GOP donnybrook, wasted no time in teasing the cowering billionaire, noting that Trump is a “fragile soul.” And if Trump is so petrified of Kelly, Cruz proposed that the two GOP leaders go it one-on-one. “We’ll do 90 minutes, Lincoln-Douglas, mano-a-mano, Donald and me,” Cruz said, no doubt sending both Lincoln and Douglas scouring Eternity for libel lawyers.
Source: USA Today | Rem Rieder
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