A “Don” is the boss, brain, and leader of a crime family. Think Don Corleone in “The Godfather.”
Teflon is a synthetic resin used to coat nonstick cooking utensils.
John Gotti (1940 – 2002) was an Italian-American mobster who became boss, or Don, of the Gambino crime family in New York City.
After he was acquitted in three highly-publicized trials during the 1980’s, he acquired the nickname “The Teflon Don.” Evidence came later that his trials had been riddled with witness intimidation, jury tampering, and juror misconduct.
Criminal prosecutions seemed to slide off him, as if he was coated in Teflon.
In the 2016 presidential election cycle we have another “Teflon Don,” the difference being that Don is a name and not a title.
Nothing negative sticks to Republican front-runner Donald Trump as he marches inexorably toward his party’s nomination.
We can list a litany of his racist, sexist, Islamophobic, and other insulting comments that would have ended the campaign of ordinary politicians: Mexicans are rapists, bar Muslims from the country, Carly Fiorina has an ugly face, Megyn Kelly’s menstruation, Hillary Clinton’s urination, poking fun at a disabled reporter, questioning John McCain’s heroism because he was taken prisoner, calling George W. Bush a liar who led us into Iraq under false pretenses, are just a few of his “telling it like it is” pronouncements.
The results of this behavior are his continued rise in the polls and his nearly unanimous victories in the Republican primaries held thus far. The GOP establishment’s last hope is that he doesn’t garner enough delegates to bring to the convention in Cleveland this summer so they can deny him the nomination and pick someone else after a second or third ballot.
Good luck with that Hail Mary pass scenario. The Republican Party is imploding, and the detonator is the Teflon Donald.
Over on the Democratic side of the aisle we have the front- runner, Hillary Clinton. I’m going to call her the “Teflon Donna,” because for the last quarter-century Republicans, and even some jealous Democrats, have tried to bring her down with semi-manufactured scandals. You can go on the internet and find as many as 22 in which she was allegedly involved.
Take a trip down memory lane and there’s Filegate, Travelgate, Vince Foster (his body should definitely be exhumed), Whitewater, futures trading, the Rose law firm, and her husband’s blow jobs in the Oval Office.
More recent are Benghazi and e-mails. There have been 32 congressional hearings about Benghazi, 2,780 questions asked, and 70,000 pages of documents at a cost of $20 million to the American taxpayer.
And what has been found? Zero evidence of wrongdoing and intelligence failures. That’s zero, the same as the number of female presidents in this country’s history.
Praise Jesus for this current e-mail scandal, or else we’d still be hearing about Benghazi.
Republicans and some anti-Hillary Democrats are praying the FBI can pull a rabbit out of a hat, arrest her, and deny her the nomination and the presidency.
Not bloody likely.
The November election will likely pit the Teflon Don(ald) versus the Teflon Donna.
It should be a slam-dunk for the Donna, but political expert Larry Sabato urges caution. He said, “When you think you can’t lose, you’re halfway to losing.”
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Carlo, I just read an article in the T&G op-ed section by WaPo’s Dana Milbank that makes a lot of sense. Read it if you haven’t already. Even though Donald has said so many outrageous things, he connects with people more than Hillary does. That can’t be dismissed. I agree with him that a lot, possibly the election, rides on Hillary’s VP choice.
I dunno. I can’t wrap my head around Donald Trump winning the presidency. He’s alienated everyone except uneducated white male voters. The GOP in 2012 did an autopsy in which they realized they couldn’t win without the Latino vote. Here’s a guy who wants to build a 50-foot wall to keep out Mexican “rapists.” And when has an election ever been decided positively because of the VP nominee?
Carlo, I think you may be overlooking a YUGE part of Trump’s support, which is the white, uneducated, middle-aged female. Have you seen pictures from Trump events? Granted, they are usually holding Trump signs that cover their faces, but you can distinguish them from the males by the presence of boobs (man-boobs notwithstanding). They are just as prevalent as their male counterparts, from what I have seen.
If you get like 12 of these posts, I apologize – I am still having difficulty posting here. The site does not like me… 🙁
I read Dana Milbank’s column. He advocates Elizabeth Warren as a running mate. I like the idea, but it could backfire. There is so much sexism in this country that putting two women on the ticket might be too much for a lot of American men. And if the knock on Bernie is that he’s a socialist, which the opposition will conflate into communism, won’t they do the same with Warren? Picking Warren might do more to appease the left than to win the election. I still can’t believe that this country is stupid enough elect Trump. It’s stupid, I grant you that, but could it be that stupid???
Yeah, I guess you’re right about Warren. Too risky with 2 women and Warren’s lefty politics. But I don’t think you can count Trump out. He has a way of communicating with an audience that makes you feel good. I can feel it, but my politics are too far to the left to want him. And I have enough sense to know that, regardless of his politics, he is too big a risk to be POTUS. Hillary, for all her good qualities, can’t seem to relax enough to make a good connection with her audience. Not like her husband, who’s a pro. Milbank is wrong, because like you say, he is a sop for Berniacs, but it doesn’t help with right-leaning voters. But I still think that her VP selection is extremely important to her chances of winning. I’ve seen so much Hillary-bashing online. It’s just as bad from the left as it is from the right. She needs a solid anchor who wouldn’t be too big for his britches to be VP. And yeah, it would have to be a man.