
Never mind.
The question for next year's election is whether the insulter-in-chief can use the same tactic to win a second term. It depends on two other questions: who the
Yes, early polls are usually meaningless, but there are warning signs that should be heeded.
A new
More troubling is the drop in approval of the president's job performance from 46 percent last month, to 43 percent now. His record low approval rating was 38 percent, also in
Other statistics from the Fox poll that should concern the
None of this seems to bother the president, who engaged in more insults in a speech last week in
In that speech
But -- and this is a very big but -- there is also the issue of deportment, something taught at home and in school when I was a child. Manners, character, honesty, consistency and how others see you were also traits thought important to instill in young men and women.
Is the economy all that matters? Have we become that cynical? Perhaps some of his uncritical evangelical supporters might point to a verse which says, "The love of money is the root of all evil." (1 Timothy 6:10), or "Whoever loves money never has enough." (Ecclesiastes 5:10).
We are, or ought to be, more than what we possess. We are not in a civil war, despite what one might see, read or hear.
Before the Civil War started, our 16th president said something our 45th president might wish to consider: "We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."
The president might win a second term, insulting along the way, but will it have been worth it if he continues to appeal to the worst devils that are also in our nature?
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Cal Thomas, America's most-syndicated columnist, is the author of 10 books.