Trump used his blabbermouth to bet that Bernie wouldn't debate him, then backed out when his handlers warned it wouldn't look good to get crushed on national TV by a "second place finisher". (No wonder so many of the guy's casinos went bankrupt.)
We learned the day before yesterday that The Donald not only wrapped up the GOP nomination, but attempted to (brashly) call Bernie Sanders out to debate him. Not for free, but for a "charity pot" first proposed at $10 million then upped to $15 million. One would have thought if the guy really wanted to take on Bernie, he'd have lowered the threshold to increase the probability. But most of us smelled a rat from then. So no, we weren't astounded when the splenetic tycoon went the other direction - opting for less probability - making it appear he had no genuine interest in taking on Bernie. As Howard Dean put it, the guy is only "talking word salad most of the time". (And at the end I will show how the whole debate thing was a pile of rotten 'word salad' from the get go.)
According to Howard Dean, commenting on Chris Hayes' 'All In' two nights ago, after The Donald (speechifying in ND) burped out a spontaneous challenge to Bernie for a debate (paid for by $10 m in charity donations) - which Bernie then accepted on hearing of it:
"This is so typical of wacko Donald. He gets out there with his proposals and somebody calls his bluff and then he finesses, and dissembles and backs away. The only problem is that you shouldn't have this guy as President if he's going to back away from really tough people. I guarantee you no matter how tough Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton are, Vladimir Putin is pretty tough too. So I don't think the country can risk having Donald Trump as President."
Dean then went on to say, shoving the knife in further:
"This is going to be a lot of fun. I hope it happens, I don't think there's any downside risk for Hillary and there's an upside possibility for Bernie. I think Bernie Sanders would clean wacko Donald's absolute clock"
Of course, both Hayes and Dean agreed that it wouldn't make any difference to Trump's groupies, because hell, nothing he's said in any Reepo debates have up to now. So they will, of course, believe their man slammed Bernie irrespective of how poorly he really performed. But the good thing is that such a debate - if it actually occurred- would be among the most viewed events in the history of political TV, and 80 percent of the audience would not be Trumpie. Falling polls anyone?
Thus, the optics of little old socialist Bernie eating The Donald's lunch in front of 75 million TV viewers, must have created instant angst in the orange -haired buffoon's campaign staff. His advisors then likely warned him to backtrack and "maybe raise the stakes a bit higher to make it unlikely". Thus the revised limit of $15 million in charity donations.
Now, seriously, if The Donald had any balls at all, billionaire that he is - and so certain of Bernie's defeat- he'd donate the damned money to charity himself and welcome the debate.
But most gamers were savvy enough not to bet on that. Indeed, yesterday morning, reporter Julianna Goldman on CBS Early Show, noted she'd asked a Trump campaign official on the chances of holding the debate - on a 0 to 10 scale with 10 being certainty. The "official" - according to Goldman, wisely replied "zero".
Reinforcing that Trump is terrified of the actual prospect of a debate with Sanders was this breaking news bulletin, read out by Chris Hayes yesterday afternoon at 2:35 p.m. CDT, giving The Donald's excuse in his issued 'statement' for not engaging:
"Based on the fact the Democratic nominating process is totally rigged and crooked Hillary Clinton and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz will not allow Bernie Sanders to win, and now that I am the presumptive Republican nominee it seems inappropriate to debate a second place finisher. Likewise, if the networks want to make a killing on this event they are proving not to be too generous at charitable causes, in this case women's health issues. Therefore, as much as I would want to debate Bernie Sanders - and it would be an easy payday - I will wait to debate the first place finisher of the Democratic Party, probably crooked Hillary Clinton."
Which is total, unadulterated codswallop! Because The Donna knew all along, from the get go, that super delegates dominated the Dem primary process. Also, that since Hillary's NY win it has become abundantly clear Bernie would never be the first place finisher. So bottom line, Trump rendered this elaborate bullshit excuse because he knew how bad it would look ("optics") for millions to see him get his clock cleaned by a "second place" Dem finisher.
As one MSNBC commentator on the panel, Josh Barrow, observed about the Trump statement:
"The one thing I don't get about this Trump statement is how juvenile it is. Very few people seem bothered by the idea of an extremely juvenile President. I think it's a bad thing in its own right regardless of what his policies are. The President should not behave like a child and Donald Trump behaves likes child."
Indeed. And the first proof for Trump in showing maturity would have been standing by his word in agreeing to a debate, as opposed to chickening out when Bernie called his big mouth bluff.
What will the guy do when Putin calls his bluff on a nuclear deal? Maybe cry, stomp his feet and bawl: "I wanna go home, Mr. Bad Man!"
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