I cringed when Sen. Marco Rubio said of Donald Trump at a campaign rally recently, “I’ll admit … he’s taller than me, he’s like 6 feet, 2 inches, which is why I don’t understand why his hands are 
the size of someone who’s 5 feet, 2 inches – and you know what they say about men with small hands. You can’t trust ‘em!”
Yes, in case you aren’t sure that was the first male appendage joke in U.S. presidential campaign history, as far as I’m aware. (It’s hard to imagine Lincoln telling people “I wouldn’t vote for Douglas because from what I hear his Master John Goodfellow is more like a Master John Tragically Sad Fellow – wink, wink, nudge, nudge.”) (Master John Goodfellow, by the way, is an actual 17th Century euphemism – you can look it up.)
The crowd cracked up at Rubio, but I’ll bet inside a lot of them were thinking the same thing I was: “Is this fourth-grade recess or a presidential campaign?”
Or maybe not, it could just be me. I’m told I’m old-fashioned about a lot of things.
I don’t think there should be commercials on TV for medicines that solve the apparently endless woes associated with going to the bathroom. Listen, if we need the stuff, we know where to get it,OK!
I think men should hold doors open for ladies.
I think gas stations should go back to full serve.
And I think presidential candidates should be better than us. Otherwise, why are we voting for them?
This has nothing to do with my feelings about Rubio, by the way, or the fact that he’s a Republican and I usually vote Democrat. I’d say the same thing if, God forbid, Hillary or Bernie stooped as low.
I don’t want a president who stoops, period — Democrat or Republican. I want a president who is above that kind of behavior. I really do.
I can hear some of you now: “Well, Trump started it!”
Yeah, well, like my mom used to say, that doesn’t mean Rubio had to finish it. By descending to Trump’s level, he cheapened himself and hurt himself with voters, in my view.
Of course, his campaign views it differently, according to a Washington Post piece this week: “Marco Rubio has been gamely experimenting with a new strategy, attempting to outdo Donald Trump in his own carnivalesque reality TV arena. Rubio has suggested that Trump urinated in his pants backstage at last week’s debate, presumably meaning that Trump lost control of his bladder in a fit of terror over the Florida Senator’s withering attacks. Rubio has also ridiculed Trump’s ‘horrible spray tan.’ Rubio has even mocked Trump’s ‘small hands’ … One Rubio adviser explained Rubio’s descent into the lowest of lowbrow Trumpian antics by claiming, ‘We came to the conclusion that if being a part of the circus is the price you have to pay in order for us to ultimately be able to talk about substantive policy, then that’s what we’re going to do.’”
So this was planned juvenile behavior.
Which somehow makes it worse.
Call me old-fashioned, but that is simply not presidential.
Old fashioned..not at all. Our nation needs steady, thoughtful, inspirational leadership. Whatever the Republican Party is devolving into is not leadership. Would the adults please grab these “boys” by the ears and show them the door? BTW Christie wasn’t a surprise but Ben Carson’s endorsement of Trump….I have no words.
Thank you, well said.
Dr. Carson knows what America needs! It’s time for all of us to be Americans, not Republicans or Democrats or we are all lost.
At first I thought these debates were maybe a little comic relief, reality show style, and then they would get down to the serious business of the issues affecting our country and the entire world. Time is marching on my friends, Mr. Trump is many points ahead; Former Presidents of this great nation are turning over in their graves. We should be afraid, very very afraid.
No Andy, you are not old fashioned…….. you are truthful.
You are correct, the GOP debates this year have been a fourth grade recess…… a total embarrassment.
I have seen Mr. Trump on TV for many years, I always thought he came across as a bully and a blowhard, I am now convinced that he is.
Kasich is the only GOP candidate acting presidential, the other three have turned into a laughing stock for daily ridicule in the press and denouncement around the world.
Hillary or Bernie will trounce whoever survives the GOP sandbox, it looks like Trump will be the one.
The Grand Ole Party is not so grand anymore, they are imploding right before our eyes.
The next time Trump begins his antics at a debate, the other candidates should walk off stage, the moderators should follow, and they should find a room with a lock on the door and continue the debate without him. All it would take is one cameraman to follow.
right on
The GOP is a joke! I can see Chris Christie joining the trump revolution but not Ben Carson. What was been thinking?
Hear!Hear! The GOP has become a bad joke. At least they would be if Trump wasn’t so scary. The latest rally (cancelled) due to violence was inevitable. He incites hatred & violence, then steps back and let’s others go off the rails. He reminds me a lot of how Hitler started out. That frightens me. I hope it frightens people enough to get them out to vote for other candidates.
I agree with all. Today the Trump supporters are blaming the problems at the Trump rallies on the Liberals. Saying this is what the liberals always do. Trump and his cadre are not taking any of the blame. Grrrrr. I do think the Democratic candidates and organizations need to look at what need Trump is filling with so many people instead of attacking him, they need to address these needs. They will get nowhere attacking Trump.
Hey, guys… Trump is just defending our First Amendment right to beat the snot out of anybody we do not agree with. That’s America! Free Speech, Free Fists! God bless America!
Well said. The whole campaign is comic at best and frightening at worst.