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Trump Goes Off the Rails
It's easy to have become a little numb to Donald
Trump's theatrics on the trail over the last five months, but his
performance last night in Iowa shook them right back into perspective.
NBC's Katy Tur reports that, during a 96-minute speech, Trump compared
Ben Carson's self-described "pathological temper" to a "disease" like
child molestation ("If you're a child molester, a sick puppy, a child
molester, there's no cure for that - there's only one cure and we don't
want to talk about that cure, that's the ultimate cure, no there's two,
there's death and the other thing.") Personal attacks are one thing;
baselessly comparing an opponent (who is almost universally popular with
your own base!) to a child molester is jaw-dropping. Whether Trump was
tired, frustrated, cranky, whatever - this off-the-rails attack may have
been the best illustration yet of why so many folks believe Trump can't
make it over the nomination finish line. While most of his other
attacks on rivals -- "low energy," "puppets," etc. -- have played into
narratives with some grain of truth to them, this one is just
mean-spirited word association accusing a well-liked political figure of
literally *the worst possible thing* a person can do. And this comes
after plenty of reports that Trump was toning down his rhetoric, acting
like a more mature candidate and thinking more strategically about his
path. The question is: How and where could Trump's attacks on the
field's most popular candidate hurt him? And is "child molester" finally
the threshold for his bombastic language to start wearing on voters?
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