Grading On the Curve

Imagine if you will when your kids were in school that the grades they received were directly proportional to their IQ score. For example, Sally who has an IQ score of 128 is asked what is the square root of pi times .13485 and Tommy who has an IQ score of 108 is asked what is two plus two times two. It wouldn’t seem quite fair would it?

It seems to me that is exactly what is happening in our Presidential election at current. Hillary Clinton is being asked very difficult questions, fair questions, but difficult and is expected to give detailed answers full of thoughtful specific policy proposals. To the contrary, Donald Trump is asked very general open ended questions, often times called “softballs” in the media, to which he responds with vague general hyperbole and he is being lauded for not offending someone.

I watched the Commander in Chief forum last night on NBC and was struck by how much of a flake Donald Trump really is. One of the audience members asked him a question and asked him to be specific in his answer and Trump basically blew off the question and offered no specifics whatsoever. Any other Presidential candidate in history would have been vilified but Trump gets a pass, I guess because he isn’t a politician and should be judged differently. Let’s look at some of the things Trump did actually say. He said that the current Generals advising the administration were awful and that he would bring in a new team of Generals, like the army does not have it’s own hierarchy. Those positions have to be earned but then again, “the Donald” knows nothing about earning something on your own merit.  Then he expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin because he had high poll ratings in Russia and because Putin called Trump brilliant at some point. Not that I am comparing Putin to Hitler but if in the 1940’s Hitler who, by the way, had high approval numbers from the German people had called Trump a brilliant leader would Trump be singing Adolph’s praises? Then Trump said that he felt as though the officials who had delivered his intelligence briefings were telling him “through body language” that they were unhappy with Obama’s leadership. What a crock of shit! These are intelligence professionals who are far more skilled at everything than Trump and would in no way project their opinions to Trump in any way shape or form. I do know a little about the intelligence community and I know as career officers, they are very careful not to get involved with politics. They take orders and follow them, period.

When is the press and the American people going to hold Donald Trump to the same standards as every other Presidential candidate in history? We realize that Donald is not as smart and as skilled at politics as others but that should not lower the bar on expectations and policy proposals. If this is the continuing path of this election the debates ought to be “must watch TV” and as long as Trump doesn’t drool all over himself, he will be declared the winner.