DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Palus Politicus Bob Woodward New Book - Rage

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I cannot say that I am surprised. What did surprise me was that Trump even talked to him....

Play it Down.... the virus... we all saw it, now it is known.

I don't think anybody is going to care.

I care. He's a horrible person. Who in their right mind would want him for POTUS.

This certainly seems very bad for Trump - to say he was basically lying in February (and knew this was going to be very bad) -- especially given public statements that "this is just like the flu" which persisted for more than a month after he tells Woodward ("this is much worse than the flu, but I need to play it down") -- that's dereliction of duty on behalf of a president.


At the same time -- how does Woodward ethically justify sitting on this information for 6 months (in order to write a book?). It's not like "I heard from an ex-aide to the President that he is trying to play this down" -- this is the PRESIDENT HIMSELF. ON TAPE.

I don't know if this information would have meaningfully changed the debate back in March. But Woodward doesn't either -- and the potential that this would have drastically changed compliance with shutdown orders at a time when real people are dying? That's a bit messed up.

Also, I know some conservatives on this thread are going to latch onto my Woodward Criticism -- so I'm going to repeat that Woodward sitting on this isn't an "answer" to what Trump said. He is still on tape saying that he lied to the American people about a crisis.

Bob Woodward dismisses claims he could have saved lives if he had published Trump's COVID-19 comments earlier because he didn't know where the president was 'getting his information' and if it was true

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...ks-earlier.html


There's his answer, but I think he should have published earlier.

I saw this on the news last night. It’ll be interesting to see if, at all, this affects anything.

It’s tough to be a leader in any time, let alone a national crisis. You don’t want to cause panic, but you shouldn’t lie or mislead either.

I’m not a huge Trump fan (or Biden fan), though I don’t see this as a huge deal myself.

Shut up! What a terrible thing to say. A new low. There are over 100,000 US families still mourning their dead relatives. They care.

Pffft trump supporters won’t care.

He is entitled to his opinion, as misguided as it may be. Trump's base probably won't be moved to any extent, but for those voters 'sitting on the fence', it should help them in their choice in November...

Still a horrible thing to say. And IMO...nobody is sitting on the fence at this point.

You're right! There is more than sufficient evidence that everyone should have their minds made up by now...

Your post reminds me of the time when Trump used a sharpie to revise a hurricane map -- so that it wouldn't look like he made a mistake.

It was treated as a joke about his vanity. But that was a move that also could have cost lives.

trumps actions on the virus are based on getting reelected. Not the health and safety and lives of american people. trumps actions have killed US citizens.

Interesting timing.

I think anybody with half a brain knew what he was doing. This isn't a revelation. He lied just about every step of the way during this Pandemic.

That’s your takeaway?!
The timing?
Not the words?

Man... you’ve truly gone to the dark side dude.

Tricky situation for sure. On one hand I agree with him, that he can't show fear and publicly panic. I also think that if he did and he locked down the country the left would cry "FASCISM!"


On the other hand he had a direct affect on the anti mask, go out in public MAGA community.

There is something in between, but I don't think anyone could have handled this perfectly in country of our size.

The thing that kills me is apparently there are people who actually listened to Trump for guidance in dealing w/the virus. LOL..............who is dumb enough to listen to any politician for guidance for such an important decision?

I didn't listen to Trump. I did not listen to the governor of SC. I did not listen to any politician. I researched the topic and listened to the experts. And we can go back to all the old threads and see that I recognized that this virus was going to be a huge problem while others were still making jokes about it.

But, it doesn't surprise me that the left is yet again making this a political talking point.

What I can't wrap my brain around is how this information was just given to Woodward. Trumps own words.... Did he not even realize the poopstorm he was setting up for himself? The guy is on Twitter all day and night talking about how all these hoaxes are out to get him and then sits down and says all that?


I know that in the grand scheme of things what I just laid out isn't that important... but I just don't think my brain can tackle anything else until I can get past this.

That is the problem, many of his followers listen to his advice like dont worry about masks ( I dont ), liberate! This has killed US citizens, still is by causing outbreaks.

J/C

Trump's a horrible person. Biden will likely have horrible policies.

It's two awful choices. I hate that Biden's entire public campaign seems to be I'm not Trump and to paint Trump in as bad a light as possible.

People know Trump is horrible. Who is Biden?

He's not Trump and that's enough seems to be the consensus on the left. To me, it mirrors the lousy thinking that got Trump elected-He's not a Washington insider and that's enough.

I'm sick of these "who sucks less" choices.

I don't understand how people expect change when we constantly settle for underwhelming at best options.

If people really want change, demand better options.

With regards to the book,
Trump's a spiteful, incompetent idiot, but I can kind of understand trying to downplay the virus. The personal human cost side is horrible, for sure, and more could have been done, but downplaying it to dampen the impact to the economy/stock market isn't entirely without merit. Definitely wish that Trump could have done a better job with the human side. But then, he's Trump.

Question is why did he down play it? Was it for the economy or for his re election? I assume the latter.

It may not be fun to watch, but Biden is doing this the right way.

He is very conservative by the the standards of the current Democratic party (discounting Gabbard (who is not a Democrat), he is easily the most conservative democratic nominee who ran in the primary).

I think that he really believes that he can "tie the nation back together" and unite centrists from both parties in a "return to normalcy" or something like that.

But that's not what the average Democratic voter (who is far to the left of Biden), really wants. So it's hard to push that as an election narrative, and it risks ostracizing Bernie/Warren supporters, who need to show up if he is going to win.

OTOH, if this election just becomes a "do you like Trump or not" - then he is in a very good standing, because Trump is not particularly popular. That allows him to be a centrist when he needs to be -- to be a true Democrat when he needs to be.

It's a good message -- but it hasn't always been successful. The Democrats failed with this message in 2004 (John Kerry) - but then again, Bush in 2004 was more popular than Trump is now.

Those choices aren't mutually exclusive. He was obviously in way over his head with the COVID problem and tried to lie and minimize his way thru it. A strong economy might be the only thing to divert focus from his bumbling with the pandemic and go a long way toward getting him re-elected.

Interesting? The timing is based on when Trump decided to be interviewed....

It's not really unusual for somebody to do interviews - write a book, and then release the interviews when the book comes out.

It's not really unusual for a book to come out six months after the interviews (It is very fast, actually, but Woodward is very experienced and has a huge editing team, I'm sure).

Of course there is an economic incentive for Woodward to have this out before the election. But presumably that was known before Trump agreed to sit down for an interview.

To all these interesting timing comments. How about trump suggesting a vaccine may come out before election time?

It appears we have a fundamentally different view of the word "right."

Attacking someone else's faults is a rather lousy way of leading imo.

Bringing people together by attacking his opponent would appear to be almost oxymoronic.

Can he win with this strategy? Maybe, perhaps even probably. But, it might be polarizing the sides even more, which seems to me to be a big part of many of our country's problems.

Mudslinging being accepted and even cheered for isn't a good development in my mind. The ends justifying the means type thinking leads to all kinds of despicable things, and this sort of thinking is becoming more and more normalized and pervasive.

Edit: Trump does it, too. I don't like it either. Don't be like Trump.

I agree with you - I wish we lived in a society where we could actually have an informative debate with an exchange of ideas.

I wish we lived in a society where - say - Elizabeth Warren's debate technique worked (regardless of whether or not you agree with her, she is one of the few politicians today who really debates facts and ideas.)..

We don't.

And this election isn't about policies or ideas -- it is about having a leader who is fundamentally fit to lead. Biden wouldn't have been my choice - but he is light years ahead of Trump in this regard. That is a point worth making.

I don't think it is wrong to point out key failures of your opponents governance. Trump really did mismanage Covid-19 -- and that is something worth pointing out.

We should not make up lies to scare voters about our oponents "If Trump wins there will be no more abortion" or "Biden is going to take away all our guns" -- are both fearmongering more than they correspond to actual facts.

Does being more fit to lead than Trump really make someone fit to lead?

It's just frustrating that this is where we're at. Seeing career politician Joe Biden championed as some great agent of change, when I'm not sure he could change a flat tire, is depressing.

How do we get to a point where we can exchange ideas? I don't see current events leading in that direction or even giving any hope that anyone in politics is really even trying to move things that way.

Actually that's not accurate. Biden has a platform and a web site detailing that platform if anyone actually cares enough to look.



I certainly agree with you and I'm not a huge fan of either candidate. But in this case, it's not your typical, "who sucks less". We have a president that does everything within his power to divide our nation. We are at critical mass and in this situation we find ourselves in, "who sucks less" is a pretty big deal.

It means that you vote for Biden when you have a binary choice.

Anyone arguing that sitting on this information for 6 months until the election nears isn't a partisan play is delusional.

Anyone that thinks it matters to the content of what was said is also delusional... and deflecting.

What are you even talking about?

I would guess it has less to do with partisanship, and more to do with selling a book (John Bolton did the same thing).

But I don't think it was ethical (see my earlier post).

It also doesn't subtract from what Trump said, on tape, at the time.

Boo hoo ...Rent buy support a clown ......expect a circus.

Always a pleasure to listen to the voice of the left.