It’s The Candidate

Loading

Mona Charen:

There is a view, widely shared among those in the know and those not in the know, that it’s safe to vote for Donald J. Trump because he will be surrounded by smart people who will guide him, counsel him, and above all, prevent him from making catastrophic mistakes. I think this is profoundly mistaken.

My experience in politics — working for Nancy Reagan, Ronald Reagan, Newt Gingrich, Jack Kemp, and a smattering of others, has taught me that there is no great cabal of “wise men” who guide candidates or office holders and ensure that the ship remains on an even keel. These are all humans. The candidate is key. His character, his judgment, his instincts are what determine the direction of policy. His advisors mostly seek to ingratiate themselves with the candidate or office holder, rarely to guide him. If the principal says “Don’t tell me what I can’t do, tell me how to do what I want” the underlings jump to do it. Besides, there is always disagreement among the advisors. The candidate/office holder gets vigorous arguments to do X and to do non-X. Everything depends upon his decisions.

If, God forbid, the candidate is mentally unstable or venal, the greatest advisors in the world will not prevent the wreckage he can do.

Read more

0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
3 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Looks like the bird that landed on Bernie Sanders podium was’nt lucky after all despite what we have heard and seen from the usial dumber then a sack full of rocks liberals and journlaists It guess it was just wanting to rest its wings

So when will National Review announce officially that they are now backing HRC?

Mona’s past experience as a yes man leads her to project onto Donald Trump.
Has she not noticed how he waits until he needs certain things done, then hires the right people to guide him in doing it, then he wins and wins and wins?
Does she really think Donald Trump could do this if he merely surrounded himself with an inner circle of yes men?
She represents most of those yes men wannabes at NRO who see themselves out of jobs under a leader like Donald Trump.
Fact is, the world is in a thorny place.
Perhaps no one can undo all the damage.
But it looks like the folks at NRO will be there to blame Trump whenever anything spirals into an even worse situation than it is at present.