So... who wrote the NYT op-ed?

[hollodero]

Seems your media has some severe fun with that one.

Any suspicions?

[GMDino]

(09-10-2018, 08:00 AM)hollodero Wrote: Seems your media has some severe fun with that one.

Any suspicions?

It has to be someone thoughtful and articulate...so eliminates most of his closest advisors.  

All seriousness aside it could be anyone of a hundred people.  Who knows how many covers they threw in there with saying they were a "senior" member or using the term "lodestar" which would tie to VP Pence.

For all we know this could be a plant from Donald "I used to pretend to be my own PR guy to plant news stories about myself "Trump's playbook just to rile up his base.


He tweeted a the video of Clinton talking about the "deplorables" with a "Happy anniversary" tag this weekend.

He knows that anger and fear fuel them and those the only two honest emotions the man has or understands.

[Au165]

Plot twist....Trump had it written. I mean if this really was a movie this would be what it was haha.

[hollodero]

(09-10-2018, 08:46 AM)Au165 Wrote: Plot twist....Trump had it written. I mean if this really was a movie this would be what it was haha.

I'd think he's too narcissistic to assign an op-ed to be written in which he looks bad.

(09-10-2018, 08:15 AM)GMDino Wrote: For all we know this could be a plant from Donald "I used to pretend to be my own PR guy to plant news stories about myself "Trump's playbook just to rile up his base.

lol yeah, I always forget about that one.
Then again, he never pretended to be his PR guy to say bad things about him. Like no one really wants to date Donald.


Also, I would think it's a known person. I wouldn't dare saying it definitely, but I guess the NYT wouldn't print an anonymous op-ed from a no-name.

[Benton]

(09-10-2018, 08:00 AM)hollodero Wrote: Seems your media has some severe fun with that one.

Any suspicions?

Someone on the NYT staff.

[Sociopathicsteelerfan]

(09-10-2018, 10:37 AM)Benton Wrote: Someone on the NYT staff.

It's odd that more people haven't floated that this is a complete fabrication.  I'm not saying the NTY staff wrote it (I know your comment was tongue in cheek) but it could easily be written by someone outside of the administration trying to make it look bad.

[Belsnickel]

(09-10-2018, 08:15 AM)GMDino Wrote: It has to be someone thoughtful and articulate...so eliminates most of his closest advisors.  

All seriousness aside it could be anyone of a hundred people.  Who knows how many covers they threw in there with saying they were a "senior" member or using the term "lodestar" which would tie to VP Pence.

For all we know this could be a plant from Donald "I used to pretend to be my own PR guy to plant news stories about myself "Trump's playbook just to rile up his base.


He tweeted a the video of Clinton talking about the "deplorables" with a "Happy anniversary" tag this weekend.

He knows that anger and fear fuel them and those the only two honest emotions the man has or understands.

(09-10-2018, 11:02 AM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: It's odd that more people haven't floated that this is a complete fabrication.  I'm not saying the NTY staff wrote it (I know your comment was tongue in cheek) but it could easily be written by someone outside of the administration trying to make it look bad.

With the vetting that the NYT is saying they did, I doubt it was someone outside of the administration, or Trump himself. I think the big thing to keep in mind is that the media outlets tend to use "senior administration official" to mean a whole host of things. Essentially, if you work in the West Wing, you get that title. Assist Press Secretaries that have no real access are quoted in that way frequently. So I have zero doubts it is someone within the administration, but I have a ton of doubts about it being someone with any real weight behind them. My best guess is that it is a mid-level NSC staffer.

[hollodero]

(09-10-2018, 11:02 AM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: It's odd that more people haven't floated that this is a complete fabrication.  I'm not saying the NTY staff wrote it (I know your comment was tongue in cheek) but it could easily be written by someone outside of the administration trying to make it look bad.

As I said, I do not hold media people in the highest regard. But this would be a bit much to imagine, morally and business-wise, to mislead the public so blatantly and deliberately. 
And not checking the source or allow an outsider to pose as an insider and print this person's thought under the label "written by a senior adminstration official" would fall into that category.

I just don't see that.

[hollodero]

--- Disclaimer, I think the allegations itself are way more important than who made them, and they seem credible enough.

Smoehow things in the US tend to turn into entertainment shows, like this whodunnit. And at least I want to be entertained now... don't let it be the guy that just edits out the profanities in Trump's speeches while shouting resistance. I'd be mad, I might even switch the channel.

[*bfine32*]

Obama

[hollodero]

(09-10-2018, 12:43 PM)bfine32 Wrote: Obama

Nah. A man with a nobel prize would never behave like that.

[*bfine32*]

(09-10-2018, 12:52 PM)hollodero Wrote: Nah. A man with a nobel prize would never behave like that.

IDK, many say he is breaking protocol by slamming his replacement in public and actively campaigning.

[Belsnickel]

(09-10-2018, 01:05 PM)bfine32 Wrote: IDK, many say he is breaking protocol by slamming his replacement in public and actively campaigning.

He definitely is, and I'm not a fan of it. I get why he's doing it since he is probably the most popular politician we have right now, especially on the left, but I'm not a fan of that norm being broken.

[Benton]

(09-10-2018, 01:05 PM)bfine32 Wrote: IDK, many say he is breaking protocol by slamming his replacement in public and actively campaigning.

I'd say protocol for sitting and previous presidents went out the window with this one. 

[*bfine32*]

(09-10-2018, 01:17 PM)Benton Wrote: I'd say protocol for sitting and previous presidents went out the window with this one. 

Oh, no doubt we should blame Trump.

[BmorePat87]

A Pence staffer

[GMDino]

(09-10-2018, 01:15 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: He definitely is, and I'm not a fan of it. I get why he's doing it since he is probably the most popular politician we have right now, especially on the left, but I'm not a fan of that norm being broken.

He's also younger than most when they leave office.  And being involved is what he did before winning office.

It's not unexpected even if it is unusual.

[Belsnickel]

(09-10-2018, 02:03 PM)GMDino Wrote: He's also younger than most when they leave office.  And being involved is what he did before winning office.

It's not unexpected even if it is unusual.

It is still a continued erosion of norms. Norms bolster the written policies, procedures, and laws that we have. Without upholding the norms, the rest of it starts to crumble. I get that Obama doing this seems trivial to a lot of people, but when you look at it in the bigger picture, in the view that these norms have been chipped away at for decades, what seems minor is a part of a larger issue. The erosion of norms got us to this point, and continuing the same trajectory means we aren't going to see a course correction.

[samhain]

I'll go out on a limb and say Kellyanne Conway. I don't buy the Pence theory. Mike's good too much of a good soldier vibe to him.

Conway's a Washington lifer. She goes out and gets her ass handed to her about every other Sunday defending the president. Maybe she's a bit salty about it. Maybe her husband, who's been very critical of the president, put her up to it. It seems that I've read elsewhere that there were rumors of her being a suspected leaker in the past.

I wouldn't bet money on it, but she's my first guess.

[GMDino]

(09-10-2018, 02:12 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: It is still a continued erosion of norms. Norms bolster the written policies, procedures, and laws that we have. Without upholding the norms, the rest of it starts to crumble. I get that Obama doing this seems trivial to a lot of people, but when you look at it in the bigger picture, in the view that these norms have been chipped away at for decades, what seems minor is a part of a larger issue. The erosion of norms got us to this point, and continuing the same trajectory means we aren't going to see a course correction.

Sounds a little too much like "just be quiet and let them hang themselves" to me.  Sometimes things need to change.  Sometimes other changes occur to fight those changes.   Trying to bring civility back to politics seems, again to me, a worthwhile cause to move away from a norm.

Other than Bill Clinton I can't think of another ex-POTUS that would have done what Obama did in my lifetime.