Carville, from the ‘Bleeding Obvious’ File

“These guys have been outflanked, outmaneuvered, outsmarted, and they’re not taking it very well. They’re just going to have to stand there and just get beat because that’s what’s going to happen to Trump. He’s just getting slapped around every time you turn around. … If anything, he’s pretty stupid when it comes to politics.

— James Carville, saying he is not impressed with Donald Trump’s political skills, The Hill reports.

For Trump, Heaven Is a Boardroom and God Is Boss

For the record, I do not think I am God. I believe in God. If God ever wanted an apartment in Trump Tower, I would immediately offer my best luxury suite at a very special price. I believe God is everywhere and in all of us, and I want every decision I make to reflect well on me when it’s time for me to go to that big boardroom in the sky. When I get permanently fired by the ultimate boss, I want the elevator to heaven to go up, not down.

— Donald Trump, writing in “Think Like a Billionaire.”

Trump on Withdrawal from Iraq in 2007: ‘Declare Victory and Leave’

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Donald Trump has used up the last couple of news cycles repeating the ridiculous lie that Pres. Obama is the “founder of ISIS.” He also said the bloodthirsty terror group “honors” the president.

The flimsy basis of Trump’s false narrative is that U.S. troops withdrew from Iraq early in the president’s first term, and that ISIS arose to fill the power vacuum created by the U.S. withdrawal.

Never mind that ISIS began as an affiliate of Al Qaeda in Iraq, an insurgency that established itself in 2003 after the Bush administration fired more than 300,000 Iraqi soldiers and sent them home jobless, with few prospects and fully armed.

Never mind that the date of the U.S. troop withdrawal was specified in the Status of Forces agreement negotiated by the Bush administration and the democratically elected government of Iraq.

And never mind that Donald Trump himself was strongly in favor of the withdrawal at the time. When CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked Trump in March 2007 what he thought the U.S. should do, Trump replied “Declare victory and leave.”

[…]

Trump on Hillary in 2007: ‘Very, Very Brilliant’

TRUMP: Very talented, very smart. She’s a friend of mine, so I’m a little bit prejudiced. She’s a very, very capable person and I think she’ll probably be the nominee. We’ll see, but I think she’ll probably be the nominee. … I think she’s a very, very brilliant person, and as a senator in New York, she has done a great job. Everybody loves her. She just won an election with a tremendous majority and she really — she’s become very, very popular in New York. And it wasn’t easy.

– Donald Trump praising Hillary Clinton in an interview on CNN in 2007

One Day Priebus Grew a Pair

[RNC Chairman Reince] Priebus was on vacation when he learned that Trump had declined to endorse Paul Ryan, the Speaker of the House and a close friend. The chairman had a frank message for the nominee, according to two Republican officials briefed on the call. Priebus told Trump that internal GOP polling suggested he was on track to lose the election. And if Trump didn’t turn around his campaign over the coming weeks, the Republican National Committee would consider redirecting party resources and machinery to House and Senate races.

— Time

Trump at Fourth Place Among Black Voters

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Donald Trump’s place in the presidential race, trailing Hillary Clinton, Libertarian Gary Johnson and Green Party nominee Jill Stein among black voters. Harry Enten: “It wasn’t that long ago that Donald Trump liked to boast about his support from black voters… But Trump is polling worse among black voters than almost every single Republican presidential nominee since 1948 in polls taken between the party conventions and Election Day.”