To Know Trump . . . Just Read the Herald

July 13, 2015

Donald Trump – the GOP’s one-man clown car – had a good weekend, as this piece from New York’s Daily Intelligencer notes.

A Guide to Donald Trump’s Weekend Circus

12-trump-rally.w529.h352.2x

Donald Trump, who is ahead or tied for the lead in three recent polls tracking GOP presidential candidates, had a very busy weekend. At campaign events Saturday in Las Vegas, Nevada, and Phoenix, Arizona, Trump delivered separate but equally rambling speeches that touched upon everything from legitimate national issues to Trump’s self-assessed intelligence to a joke about ISIS trying to compete with him by building a hotel in Iraq. Said Trump, who seemed to be improvising the speeches, “You know I don’t use TelePrompTers like the president — I speak from the heart.”

 

Right – a heart that’s filled with the buttermilk of human kindness.

On top of his good weekend, Trump is having a good Monday in the Boston Herald. Start with Joe Fitzgerald’s column.

The Donald adds something vital to ’16 prez race

Admit it, if he walked away from the presidential race this morning there is something about Donald Trump you would miss.

Perhaps not his politics.

Maybe not his temperament.

And certainly not his hubris.

Yet, there’s something refreshing about a candidate who doesn’t measure every word, who doesn’t wait to be told by parasitic handlers what his or her positions ought to be, and who doesn’t curry favor by pretending to embrace what special interests want to hear.

 

In her Lone Republican column today, Holly Robichaud sounds a similar note:

At a time when Republican candidates should be talking about the economy, the national debt, cyber-security and so much more, PC police have hijacked the 2016 Republican presidential primary.

They are having a collective hissy fit over Donald Trump’s candidacy and his comments about illegal immigrants. They have falsely accused him of being a racist for having the courage to speak out against 
illegal immigrants and the results of porous borders.

When Trump would not retract his statements, the media turned their focus on other GOP contenders, asking them to respond to the Donald’s comments. Now there is a push to kick Trump out of the debates.

As if it is dangerous to have free speech on the stage!

 

Free-of-common-decency speech, that is.

(The Unsinkable Adriana Cohen has also weighed in on Mr. We Shall Overcomb, but that reading is optional.)

One oasis of sanity in today’s Herald: Jerry Holbert’s editorial cartoon.

 

Screen Shot 2015-07-13 at 12.43.57 PM

 

Any way we can ground him until Election Day?

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Boston Herald Suffolks Up Again

December 2, 2013

It’s all gubernatorial all the time at the feisty local tabloid today.

 

Picture 1

 

Start with the Herald’s big announcement:

Herald, Suffolk U. team for gov race

On to the race for governor!

The Herald and Suffolk University, building on the success of an innovative partnership in providing in-depth coverage of the Boston mayoral race, are teaming up again for the Massachusetts governor’s race.SuffolkHerald_Gov1col

Respected pollster David Paleologos will offer his surveys and analysis exclusively in the Herald along with deep behind-the-numbers analysis in his featured “Poll Pal” column. Suffolk’s John Nucci will weigh in with commentary on the latest from the campaign trail alongside Herald reporters and columnists.

New this campaign cycle will be “Boiler Room,” a webcast featuring Suffolk students and professors joining Herald political staffers and GOP and Democratic strategists to look closely at the issues and campaign messages.

 

Here’s how that looks:

 

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And this:

 

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And this:

 

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We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: The Herald should be covering Suffolk University, not serving as its satellite campus.

But wait! There’s actually a Suffolk-Free Zone at the Herald, starting with Hillary Chabot’s column on the Menino Machine being up for grabs in the gubernatorial race.

The impending demise of Mayor Tom 
Menino’s king-making political machinery means Boston is wide open in the upcoming gubernatorial race — and even GOP candidate Charlie Baker is looking to make inroads in the true blue city.

“I think Boston will be very much in play,” said former Boston City Councilor John Tobin, who noted that the same well-honed operation that clinched statewide elections for Gov. Deval Patrick and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren will fragment when Menino leaves office in January.

“There’s a splintering effect,” Tobin said. “It took a long time to build that machine and it’s going to be interesting to see how the race takes shape.”

 

Not surprising then that Holly Robichaud’s piece predicts blood ‘n’ guts in the Democratic primary.

Nationally many congressional Democrats in vulnerable seats have already started to abandon the Obama regime and the Obamascare law. With millions more voters about to lose their employer health insurance coverage, the ranks of mutiny will grow.

Back here at home the division will be brought on by a nasty Democrat gubernatorial primary now that John Walsh is no longer the state party chairman. There will be no clearing of the field like Walsh did for Lizzy Warren.

It’s going to be a Democrat shootout at the O.K. Corral between Attorney General Marsha [really?] Coakley and state Treasurer Steve Grossman as they fight for their political lives.

That’s what Two-Time Charlie Baker is hoping as well.

(Crosstown rival Boston Globe, meanwhile, looks at a potentially pesky partnership Baker might have if Karyn Polito succeeds in a GOP lieutenant governor bid.)

Let the [your campaign spending estimate goes here] rumpus begin!

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Hell to the Chief for Vineyard Vacay

August 12, 2013

Man, is the Boston Herald grumpy today. And the object of its grumpitude is the Golfer in Chief, who gets half of Page One for starters.

 

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Then there’s a full page of kvetching about Pres. Obama’s vacationing ways inside.

 

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The Twitter piece, for its part, woefully underdelivers on the snark front with a grand total of two tweets:

“Is Obama auditioning for the Ginyu Force with that picture?” tweeted @mininerd_julia.

“Obama is the most powerful man in the world, but good lord does he need a golf fashion makeover,” tweeted Shane Bacon, a golf blogger for Yahoo! Sports.

 

But Holly Robichaud doesn’t disappoint. As usual, the Lone Republican is in the awkward position of being beside herself with anger at the Prez. (That actually makes her the Dual Republican, for those of you keeping score at home.)

Here’s Holly’s beef:

Oh no, it’s that time of year again. For the next week or so, it will be nonstop fawning all over the Obamas during their summer vacation on Martha’s Vineyard.

What restaurant did they dine at? What ice cream did they eat? What bookstore did they visit? Is John Kerry taking them out on the Isabella? Will there be a Kennedy sighting? Will Lizzy Warren wear her red blazer on the Vineyard?

Absent from the coverage will be the fact that the nation is suffering through another jobless recovery summer . . .

 

And etc.

We can’t remember if Robichaud wrote the same kind of column when George W. Bush went on vacation. We’d check if it weren’t so hot.

Crosstown at the Boston Globe, meanwhile, it’s all fun and games, just like Robichaud said. Start with a little front-page love:

 

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Then deliver the big wet kiss in the Names column.

 

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Yes, that is crazy-train engineer Harry Belafonte at lower left. Here’s the scoop:

Monday, Harry Belafonte will be in Oak Bluffs for a private screening of “Sing Your Song,” a documentary about the silky-voiced “King of Calypso.”

Over the weekend, Belafonte, 86, and his wife, Pam, stopped into Peter andRonni Simon’s Vineyard Haven gallery, and checked out Peter Simon’s portraits of reggae legend Bob Marley, who was a friend of Belafonte’s back in the day.

 

Sounds like fun!

On a personal note, the hardworking staff has a golfing dream of its own: to someday shoot our IQ.

If and when it happens, you will assuredly hear about it.

 

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Herald Op-Ed: Mass. GOP = Gone Off Party

February 6, 2013

It’s a rare day when the local dailies crisscross, but count today as one of them: A liberal Boston Globe columnist puts on the pompoms for Bay State Republicans, while a conservative Herald thumbsucker goes all frowny-faced on them.

Start with Scot Lehigh’s piece in the stately local broadsheet.

07012011_0701oped_winslowFinally, Mass. GOP has some likely candidates

KUDOS TO Dan Winslow and Gabriel Gomez, the two Republicans in this state willing to join the race for US Senate.

Apparently willing, anyway.

On Tuesday, Winslow declared himself “about 99 percent” ready to run, while Gomez, a former Navy SEAL and pilot, is making the Republican rounds, telling people he’s very likely to as well. Although GOP panjandrums speak well of him, Gomez, a Cohasset businessman, remains largely unknown.

Not so Winslow. A former district court judge and chief legal counsel for Mitt Romney and now a state representative from Norfolk, he is a familiar face in political circles. Speaking to reporters outside the State House, Winslow took pains to stress that as a Massachusetts Republican — “a different kind of breed from the national Republicans” — he puts a premium on reaching across the aisle in search of commonsensical compromise.

 

There! Didn’t take long to kick the national GOP to the curb, did it?

But wait – Lehigh’s not done saying nice things about the could-be Republican candidates:

Make no mistake here. In their willingness to step forward, both Winslow and Gomez aren’t just helping the GOP. They are doing the entire state a favor. Massachusetts needs the clash of ideas that a competitive two-party system brings.

 

Before the celebrating starts, though, there’s Herald columnist Michael Graham’s entirely dyspeptic op-ed to consider.

GOP can’t win from the top down

Party usuals have made Senate race a long-shot

So the Massachusetts Republican party establishment may have finally found a candidate it can whole-heartedly support in the upcoming U.S. Senate race — and he supported Barack Obama in 2008.

Gabriel Gomez, a former Navy SEAL, was reportedly being promenaded around to the GOP bigwigs in Washington by local party boss Ron Kaufman. Kaufman is one of the political geniuses responsible for the Massachusetts GOP’s tremendous record of “success” the past 15 years.

Just a reminder of the GOP establishment’s record. Since 2000, they’ve lost every single statewide general election except one — the fluke-election of Mitt Romney in 2002.

 

And Scott Brown too, Graham says, but no thanks to the party establishment.In fact, he calls the state GOP bosses “the Washington Admirals of American politics” (the headscratching staff thinks he means the Washington Generals, but we could be wrong). Regardless, Graham insists “there is no Massachusetts GOP.”

Not for lack of Graham’s trying, though. The most intriguing sentence in his piece is this:

Right now, more than half the Republicans in the state House of Representatives are graduates of the free, all-volunteer campaign schools my Herald colleague Holly Robichaud and I have hosted the past few years.

 

Really? Is that what newspaper columnists do these days? Graham and Robichaud aren’t Herald staffers, but if they’re going to be regular columnists, shouldn’t they be held to the same standard? Oh, wait – this is the Herald, which  has no problem with staff columnists headlining political fundraisers (See Media Nation and the Googletron).

So . . . never mind.

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Boston Herald’s Outside Track: Holly & Scott Tear the Sheets

February 4, 2013

Our feisty local tabloid’s Lone Republican needs a plus one.

Herald columnist Holly Robichaud goes through a very public breakup with former Sen. Scott Brown (R-Pickup and Go) today, right on Page One:

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And Holly doesn’t mince words in her column:

scottbrowncutoutOur honeymoon with Scott Brown just ended

I hate to speak ill of fellow Republicans, but there is no good way to spin that the GOP has been left in the lurch by former U.S. Sen. Scott Brown’s backing out of the special election. With less than 23 days to get 10,000 certified signatures for the ballot, the timing of his decision is like leaving a bride at the altar.

Republicans already face a well-known uphill battle because of voter registration, finance and organizational deficits along with a media bias. Declining to run would have been perfectly acceptable for Brown 60 or even 30 days ago, but by waiting until now he puts our candidate at a huge disadvantage.

What about all the people who stood out in the cold and rain, made thousands of calls and gave up their weekends to knock on thousands of doors? What about the party that has given millions of dollars? What about U.S. Sen. John McCain, who helped orchestrate Anchors-Aweigh John Kerry’s appointment as secretary of state?

 

Well, at least they’re rid of Kerry.

But don’t put Robichaud next to Michael Graham at your next dinner party – not after he wrote this on today’s op-ed page:

BrownSketch 12Brown’s bowing out clears path to future

Get back to Republican roots

Finally! Some good news for the Massachusetts GOP: Scott Brown isnot running for the U.S. Senate.

Why is that good?

It’s not because I don’t like Scott Brown. He’s a great guy and did a good job truly representing Massachusetts — as opposed to Ed Markey, who will do nothing more than represent the indigenous moonbat population.

But another Scott Brown run would have been a mistake, for him and for the party.

 

Graham goes on to list all the reasons it would have been a mistake, which you can check out if you care.

Just don’t tell Holly.

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Dearth and Taxes

November 26, 2012

Two – wait for it – very different takes on Taxachusetts in today’s local dailies.

Start with this glass-half-empty front-page piece in the Boston Globe:

Mass. tax revenues decline; budget trims loom

Looks for ways to curb spending; automatic cut in taxes ruled out

Facing weaker than expected state tax revenues, Governor Deval Patrick’s administration has curbed state hiring, halted an automatic income tax reduction, and begun identifying cuts in spending that may be necessary to balance the budget.

Recent tax collections have been unexpectedly disappointing, failing to measure up to last year’s levels. In October, revenues were $162 million short of budgetary estimates and $48 million below the level reached in October 2011.

State revenues are running $256 million behind budget and $33 million behind last year’s actual collection, officials said.

Cut to Ho-Ho-Holly Robichaud’s column in today’s Boston Herald:

Dems think state loses if you save $$

The never-ending saga of Taxachusetts is coming to our wallets soon.

Whether or not there is a need for more revenue, the fundamental problem is that Democrats have a delusional view about our money. They believe what we don’t pay in taxes is an expenditure on behalf of the state.

Hence, it is costing Bacon Hill tax dollars because we keep more of our savings and paychecks.

A bit tortured there, but emblematic of the glass-stolen-by-the-state school of politics.

See you when there’s a tiebreaker.

 

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Herald Sees Red Over Brownout

November 7, 2012

There is much weeping and gnashing of teeth and bitter recriminations at the feisty local tabloid over Scott Brown’s loss to Elizabeth Warren in the U.S. Senate bakeoff (Pow Wow Chow, anyone?).

And know whose fault it is?

YOURS!

This morning’s edition started out benignly enough with this front page:

But on the other side of that page was this dope slap of a column  from Howie Carr:

Bay State’s voters got faked out way too easily

Scott Brown never had a chance.

It’s amazing. This guy is probably the best retail politician in the state. He worked his way up the greasy pole, from assessor to selectman to state rep to state senator to U.S. senator.

“He’s for us,” his yard signs said. They might as well have said, “He’s one of us.”

But all of it counted for nothing. He couldn’t beat “the machine.”

“Anything is possible,” Brown was saying last night in his concession speech, “there are no obstacles you can’t overcome, and defeat is only temporary.”

Unless you’re a Republican in Massachusetts.

Bay State voters, Carr clucked, got suckered by a phony.

Holly Robichaud, on the other hand, was beside herself with anger (which is weird since she’s the Lone Republican, right?).

Voters disgraced themselves, state

It was a tragic night for the commonwealth, for taxpayers, for people who believe in the checks and balance of government, and for the GOP.

Voters sent a message that they like one-party rule and all the scandals that party brings to the table . . .

They want a U.S. senator who will vote 100 percent with the Democratic Party even when it kills the economy. They sent a loud and clear message that a Democrat can make any claim to further their career and there is no accountability. That’s right — do I as I say not as I do is the motto of our elected elite.

The defeat of U.S. Sen. Scott Brown is a disgrace. Unfortunately, Massachusetts will once again be the butt of every joke. President Obama refused to nominate our newly elected fake Indian senator to head up her consumer agency because she could not get through the confirmation process. Yet, voters turned a blind eye to all her problems. Voters will come to regret this decision.

Yeah, especially if Holly keeps yelling at us like this.

 

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Today’s the Day the Chinstrokers Have Their Picnic

October 12, 2012

Two local dailies, two different worlds of vice presidential debate post mortems. At the Boston Herald, it was joltin’ Joe time.

First up, Howie Carr:

Joe Biden makes case for . . . term limits

Hey Joe Biden, what’s so funny?

The only real takeaway from this debate is we really need term limits for politicians. Joe Biden was first elected to the Senate in 1972 at age 30. Somewhere around 1992, he should have had to go out and get a real job.

Nothing like having to answer to a boss to make you a little more humble. What’s up with the smirking? It seemed like Clint Eastwood was back up on stage, this time in character from “Gran Torino.”

“Get off my lawn!”

Not to mention don’t sit in my chair.

Next, Holly Robichaud:

Off-the-rails VP a boost for Paul Ryan

OMG. Vice President Joe Biden was an embarrassment not only to the Democrat ticket, but also for the country.

Clearly he was attempting to make up for the inadequate performance of President Obama by attacking Paul Ryan’s every syllable.

He overcompensated with the phony laugh and the constant interruption. It was hard to get over Biden’s wild-eyed look to hear what he was saying. The best word to describe his performance is: unhinged.

Wow. Not sure Holly’s all that hinged herself.

Even though it was two-on-one, Margery Eagan managed to hold her own with this minority report:

Goofy Joe Biden gets the job done

Joe Biden, the 69-year-old granddad best known for his gaffes and goofs, committed conduct unbecoming a vice president last night. He mocked Paul Ryan. He grinned and laughed too much. It was dismissive and annoying. It reminded me of Al Gore’s exasperated, exaggerated sighs at George W. Bush . . .

But good ol’ Joe did what Obama needed him to do. He attacked Ryan’s facts repeatedly (“With all due respect, you’re full of malarkey”). And he had a far better abortion answer for pro-choice women. (“I refuse to impose (my pro-life personal views) on others, unlike my friend here, the congressman,” who would criminalize abortion.)

Biden bought his boss some time. Panicked, demoralized Democrats can only hope Obama shows a quarter of Biden’s fight at his next debate.

Panicked, demoralized Democrats can also check out the Boston Globe, where Biden got a more modulated (read: less rapid) welcome from the chinstrokers.

Start with Derrick Jackson:

Is Biden’s performance enough to stop the slide?

HAMPTON, Va.

With so much of Thursday night’s vice presidential debate centered on foreign policy, incumbent Joe Biden had a clear path to victory. His depth of knowledge separated him from Republican challenger Paul Ryan. The cheers at a Hampton Democratic Committee viewing party were ample evidence that Biden said much of what these Democrats had wanted to hear from President Obama last week.

So we’ll take that as a yes.

Tom Keane issued a split decision:

Biden on policy, Ryan on style

In theory, vice presidential debates shouldn’t matter that much — only 18 percent in a recent Rasmussen Poll said it would be “very important” to their vote — and that’s the way it should be. Neither guy, one hopes, will be president and the basic task of each is to demonstrate, if disaster strikes, that he would be up to the job. Biden has proven before that he would be, and Thursday night Ryan seemed competent on a national stage.

Yet this particular debate did matter and especially for Biden. He had to stem the Mitt Romney surge that over the last week has remade this race. He may have helped slow it, but probably it hasn’t been reversed.

So we’ll take that as a draw.

And just for fun, we’ll throw in this Glen Johnson analysis:

Paul Ryan shows he is no pushover in debate

Presidential campaigns are akin to gestational periods, with months of campaigning giving voters time to slowly form their impressions of a candidate.

Against that backdrop, Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin stepped onto likely his biggest stage yet on Thursday night and showed an American electorate still getting to know the Republican vice presidential nominee that he is no pushover.

In a contentious 90-minute debate with Vice President Joe Biden, Ryan engaged in a frontal assault on a politician nearly three decades his elder. And he didn’t cower even when the discussion started with and kept coming back to foreign affairs – a supposed weakness for an economic policy wonk like him and strength for a former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee like his opponent.

So we’ll take that as an okay, and leave it at that.

 

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Debate and Switch

September 24, 2012

Both local dailies front-page debate stories today as campaign season shifts into high(er) gear.

Via the Newseum’s Today’s Front Pages:

 

 

 

The Globe piece is pretty straightforward:

First debate called critical for Mitt Romney

Higher stakes than for Obama

After months of sniping from a distance, President Obama and Mitt Romney are nearing the unsparing crucible of one-on-one debates that could alter the dynamics of the presidential campaign.

For Romney, particularly, the stakes are enormous.

After a month of missteps and missed opportunities — from his convention speech, to his reaction after the US ambassador’s death in Libya, to a video in which he described nearly half the country as government-dependent “victims” — Romney faces three debates in the national spotlight, beginning Oct. 3 in Denver, that could bolster or bury his chances.

“Unquestionably, he has to do well in the first debate,” said Rob Gray, a Republican strategist who was a senior adviser in Romney’s successful 2002 campaign for Massachusetts governor. “There’s more on the line for him, whereas Obama has proven before that he can handle it.”

The Herald, on the other hand, has three – count ’em, three – columnists on debate patrol. Start with Joe Battenfeld’s cover story:

A glimpse inside Mitt’s strategy

He’s not Mitt Romney, but he got to play one in debate practice. And he says the real Mitt needs to resurrect his personable performance from 10 years ago to beat President Obama in their upcoming face-to-face showdowns.

Jeffrey Robbins, a Boston attorney who played the role of Romney as Democrat Shannon O’Brien prepared for the debates in the 2002 Massachusetts governor’s race, divulged for the first time key details of the Democrats’ strategy to turn Romney into “Gordon Gekko” — a strategy that ultimately failed then.

Robbins predicts Obama’s debate plan will come right out of the playbook 10 years ago, when Democratic gubernatorial nominee O’Brien tried to reinforce Romney’s image as a greedy, out-of-touch businessman.

Bit of a stretch there, eh?

Next up is Holly Robichaud’s piece giving advice to Romney.

Like Brown, Mitt must pack a punch in his debate

Last week it was great to see an aggressive U.S. Sen. Scott Brown take on Lizzy Warren. After months of her endless whining commercials, Brown called her out on multiple issues — including her fake American Indian status, helping Travelers Insurance avoid paying poisoned asbestos workers and her whopping $350,000 salary for teaching one class at Harvard University.

Brown had the right combination of talking directly to voters and discrediting Fauxahontas. He showed how a candidate can remain likable, but still deliver a solid punch.

Our former Gov. Mitt Romney would do well to take a page out of this playbook. President Obama is not going to be forced out of the White House if Romney keeps playing defense. It is time to put points on the board.

Finally, Kimberly Atkins weighs in:

Wisdom of pols’ rules is debatable

WASHINGTON — The debate season is in full swing, and with it we are seeing the emergence of a nifty approach by some candidates as they prepare to face their rivals face-to-face: avoidance by agreement.

The true pioneer of this debate is U.S. Rep. John Tierney who, as the Herald reported, insisted sponsors of two of four scheduled debates with GOP challenger Richard Tisei focus only on certain topics and preclude the participants from asking questions of one another.

Of course, this conveniently will allow Tierney to avoid an issue both Tisei and national Republicans have focused on: his in-laws’ gambling ring and his wife’s federal tax-evasion conviction.

Atkins goes on to relate other debate-related kerfuffles before offering some free advice to candidates, such as “[Elizabeth Warren] could try to throw U.S. Sen. Scott Brown off  his well-rehearsed game by demanding that the candidates be barred from using the word ‘professor,’ thanking the moderator after each question or referring to a truck at any point.”

The hardreading staff would be all for that.

 

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