Monday, October 3, 2016

A Reserved Brit on Donald Trump's Problem With Impulse Control

Edward Luce writes for The Financial Times:
Mr Trump is still within three to five percentage points of Hillary Clinton. It is her good fortune, however, that Mr Trump seems incapable of self-discipline. He could be on course by now to winning the White House. Instead, by continuing to tweet indiscriminately and speaking without an edit button he is indulging his worst instincts. At 70, you do not change a lifetime’s habits...

As Napoleon advised, never interfere with the enemy while he is in the process of destroying himself. Only drunks and sociopaths tweet at 3am. Mr Trump is a teetotaller. If he must issue broadsides in the small hours, he should choose his topics wisely.

Last Friday morning, America awoke to a series of Trump tweets attacking the former Miss Universe, Alicia Machado, as “disgusting”. The first was sent at 3.20am...

Can he control his impulses for just 36 more days? It is possible. Mr Trump has shown he can stick to his teleprompter for brief stretches of time. But it is doubtful. Being himself is what got him on to that podium in the first place.

Even if he were able to exercise self-control, it will be hard for wavering voters to lose the impression that he is an unhinged egotist who cares more about women’s figures, say, than US national security. Or worse, that he does not know the difference.

Forget depriving him of the nuclear code. How about changing his iPhone passcode? In the dead of night, while America sleeps, Mr Trump will always be tempted to reach for that button.


It's time for Libertarians for Trump to disband. This is getting embarassing.

-RW

3 comments:

  1. Libertarians for Trump will disband the evening of November 8th once it's official that Trump has lost.

    ReplyDelete
  2. http://blog.dilbert.com/post/151288850856/presidential-temperament

    ReplyDelete
  3. Actually a leader who was more interested in women's figures than nuclear war sounds like a good thing. All we have to do is hide the football, right?

    ReplyDelete