I’m trying to channel my inner Hunter Thompson but it’s so effing cold here in Vegas, forget the mescaline, bring on the hot toddies. I want to curl up under the covers and drift off to Bing Crosby singing Christmas carols over and over until my brains thaw out. This kind of weather makes you think the Russians were right all along and we are headed for global cooling. I mean Obama and Kerry can blather on all they want about global warming, but why is it whenever they have one of their dimwitted climate conferences we get an unbearable cold snap? And in Las Vegas!
Oh, well. I can’t complain. They gave me a, yes, huuuge suite at The Venetian where the debates take place tomorrow with a huuuge picture window overlooking, guess what, the Trump Hotel. As I type this I can see the gold word TRUMP (huuuge, of course) emblazoned atop the edifice while just to my right I see The Donald himself speaking live to a yet again huuuge Vegas crowd on CNN on the 80, okay 70, inch screen in my suite. Is this what life under Trump will be like? We could do worse. Where’s the room service menu?
Now Hugh Hewitt is speaking on CNN, acknowledging what we all know — that Trump is a master of the media. In my view, he is THE greatest at media of any politician to run for office in America (or probably anywhere) ever. Is that enough? Time will tell.
I’m a little nervous about the polls showing him ten points behind Hillary in the general and note with interest that Marco Rubio is the only Republican candidate with a solid lead head-to-head lead over Her Chappaquaness. (How any sentient human being could vote for this woman is beyond me. Maybe heartless serial liars are the new black.) But I have to admit the novelist/screenwriter in me is wildly curious about a Trump presidency. Everyone else seems banal by comparison. And everyone else is. That’s their problem.
That doesn’t mean I won’t want to throttle him if he loses to Hillary in the general. We’re living in the most dangerous times since World War II, with a current president who is the most unfit person conceivable to lead us. Replacement by Her Chappaquaness would be the continuation of a nightmare into oblivion. Nobody’s ego, not even Trump’s, is anywhere near as important as that she be defeated.
I don’t care what candidate you support, the souls of the dead of San Bernardino will be hovering over that debate stage Tuesday night. This kind of butchery cannot be allowed to continue on our soil — hopefully not anywhere. Even more, it cannot be allowed to expand.
The most disturbing fact to emerge in the last few days is that our head of Homeland Security, Jeh Johnson, evidently put the kibosh on surveying social media accounts of Middle Easterners applying for visas. That is nothing short of political correctness gone insane. There is no place more important to examine visa applicants than on social media. Social media is how ISIS does its work. Johnson shouldn’t just be fired, he should be publicly humiliated and sent off to… oh, forget it. Calm down, Simon. You’re in Vegas. The craps tables are still open. In fact they’re always open. So not to worry. Just go downstairs and take a chance. That’s what Donald would do. Fortune favors the daring, as they say.
See you tomorrow after the debates.
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