Sit Down and Shut Up

Today is Labor Day, the traditional beginning of a US Presidential campaign. If today is the beginning, what have we suffered through for the past fifteen months? As we head into the home stretch and in the interest of a little holiday humor, I thought I would count down the five people I want to sit down and shut up until November the eighth. Without further ado:

Number 5. Kellyanne Conway. Ms. Conway came to national prominence on August the 17th as Donald Trump’s campaign manager. Ms. Conway is an able political strategist and pollster and I want her to sit down and shut up because, frankly, she scares the shit out of me. She has proved to be an able handler of the Donald and her political instincts so far have been spot on. If she is allowed free reign, and her advice is heeded, this election could be closer than I imagined just a few weeks ago. So please Ms. Conway, sit down and shut up.

---

Number 4. Anthony Weiner. Anthony Weiner is the husband of Hillary Clinton’s most valuable and trusted aide, Huma Abedin. Mr. Weiner , once again has run afoul of his twitter account sending questionable pictures of himself to a follower. Mr. Weiner obviously has a problem and being connected so closely with the Clinton campaign it is just a distraction we don’t need so please, sit down and shut up.

---

Number 3. (Tie) Scottie Nell Hughes and Jeffrey Lord. These two Trump surrogates are about to drive me to drink. Ms. Hughes strikes me as an opportunist of the worst kind. Her full throated defense of the Trump campaign has always seemed to be just a means to an end. Her credentials are wispy at best but she has parlayed that exposure into a paying gig at CNN.  If she truly believed in what she has espoused in her public comments, she would not be supporting Donald Trump. And Jeffrey Lord, who’s claim to fame was being a political director in the Reagan administration and who has been in and out of controversy ever since with his free lance columns aligning himself with the Andrew Breitbarts of the world is just out of touch with mainstream America. They both need to sit down and shut up.

---

Number 2. Kayleigh McEneny. The perky blonde twenty-something Trump surrogate regularly appearing on CNN at least has some solid credentials. Harvard Law graduate with a JD from Georgetown and advanced studies in politics and international relations at Oxford. Impressive but I have to wonder what influences acted on her to say the kinds of things she does and support Mr. Trump. I suppose that lack of life experience has a lot to do with it. Younger adults are prone to believing hucksters and con men. She just needs to sit down and shut up.

---

Number 1. Donald Trump’s Twitter account. If Mr. Trump wants to seriously contend for the President of the United States, someone in the campaign needs to take over the Donald’s Twitter account and save him from himself. Time and again, Donald and his unbelievable tweets have gotten him into trouble and have knocked him and his surrogates off message for days at a time. It’s crunch time and the campaign cannot spend a minute trying to explain or apologize for an ill fated tweet sent without adequate reflection. @realDonaldTrump sit down and shut up.