Up town Trump you up...up town Trump you up

Mr. Trump has outsmarted us all.

As I write this he has erased a 12 point deficit in the WaPo Poll and surged to a 7 point lead in NC, and a small lead in NH.  WI is now in play. So is PA. Is there any reason to think he won't surge ahead in say, CO? He's already locked up FL, OH, IA...

Hillary! is buying ads in blue states.

Now, there's been a lot of bumps and self inflicted wounds along the way. That said, Mr. Trump's overall plan as worked brilliantly. First we see bombastic Trumpism (which backfired in a few cases, of course), followed by a few simple ideas, build the wall and make Mexico pay for it, stop Muslim immigration, etc. Now, in the final weeks, policy specifics.

Another thing, Mr. Trump's ads about Hillary! have been devastatingly effective, tough, hard hitting. You could never say that about Mitt or McCain.

So what's Hillary's! endgame here? I suspect that she wants to cloud things so we can go to a contested election where her cronies in the courts will throw it to her.

It almost worked for Algore in 2000.

The good news is, unlike W., Trump will fight back, tooth, claw, hand grenade and flame thrower. Remember the second debate with the four women Bill assaulted and the 'You'd be in jail' remark?

That, too, is more than you could say about Mitt, McCain and even W.

And that is why he's winning.

Pre-Debate Thoughts on Mr. Trump's Locker Room and the Culture War

The right, by which I mean the Alt-Right is winning the culture war.

Witness:

Twitter's stock is tanking.
The NFL's ratings are tanking (this is incredible).
Target is shelling out $20 million for new bathrooms.

To that end, let's look at this latest Trump imbroglio.

Listen, ladies. We all talk like that, you get that right? Your beloved husband has, over drinks with his buddies, said all kinds of lewd, risque things. Only beta-male nancies say they haven't and they're lying.

Now, back in the 90's the right (myself included)  used to stammer and stutter in these arguments about Bill, and those same culprits are not jumping ship on Mr. Trump. Condi Rice has condemned him, oh my! Great work on Russia there, Condi. Jeb! Bush is appalled. The same people who lost in '96, '08, and '12 are losing now.

It took the Alt-Right, Milo and Vox and Breitbart and Vdare and Kathy Shaidle to say the obvious. That is:

Juanita Broderick
Kathleen Wiley
Paula Johns
Monica Lewinsky

Etc. etc.

I won't watch the debate. I need a drink or five before these things and my gout just won't allow it.

I hear Mr. Trump is going on the offensive. well good.

Vehicles

Both William F. George and William Kristol have recently talked about Mr. Trump being the end of the GOP as a 'vehicle for conservatism'.

Whether or not that's true, I couldn't say. But the idea is endemic of the problem with modern conservatism.

We've talked about the problem in this space before but it deserves discussion again because its why we're in this mess.

Over the last twenty years conservatives have had this great ideology with ideas about school choice, enterprise zone, pro-growth tax rates, etc, etc...Works great in elections, right guys? This is why Mitt Romney is cruising to re-election and W. won a pair of landslides.

Look guys, no one cares about the ins and outs of public vs private garbage collection. William F. Buckley got that. Paraphrasing now, 'You guys worry about garbage collection, I'm going to save the world from communism.'

Now, the other fatal flaw we, not they, we, because I am certainly with George and Kristol, is the deification of Reagan. Hey, he was always president when I was a kid. So I tread lightly here. But you know what everyone remembers about Reagan? That's right, Morning in America and There's a Bear in the Woods. He had a few simple, strong ideas he conveyed. What were Romney's ideas? What about W's. Hey how about Bobdole?

Mr. Trump is doing the same thing. What do we remember? Crooked Hillary, Build a Wall...you know what your getting with Mr. Trump.