There is no cure for the Touch of Death, or Dim Mak as it's known in those cheesy martial arts movies.
Legend and comic books tell us that it is a precise and forceful strike, with delayed yet fatal result, sometimes taking days or weeks to do its work.
It is subtle, quick, almost unseen, and usually delivered by a monk or some warrior priest with a topknot. Uma Thurman used it to great effect in "Kill Bill: Vol 2." When she was done, she flashed a smirk of wistful sadness.
That's what happened to
Kelly didn't flash the smirk of sadness. She doesn't wear a topknot. But at the Republican presidential debate in
Trump gutted himself with his own vulgarity.
And he was immediately banned from the conservative RedState Gathering in
If it hasn't happened already, it will happen soon, profound realization blossoming in Trump's blue eyes, and thinking back, he must see Kelly in black on the set in
Many Republicans missed it, perhaps blinded by legitimate disgust of their milquetoast party leaders, a disgust that Trump knows how to feed. And many liberal Democratic analysts missed it too, thinking Trump did passably well. Perhaps they were too busy thinking of issuing snarky tweets.
It happened so quickly. But it happened. I saw it. And I think you saw it too.
Kelly: Your Twitter account has several disparaging comments about women's looks. You once told a contestant on "Celebrity Apprentice" it would be a pretty picture to see her on her knees. Does that sound to you like the temperament of a man we should elect as president, and how will you answer the charge from
Trump: I think the big problem this country has is being politically correct. ... I've been challenged by so many people, and I don't frankly have time for total political correctness. And to be honest with you, this country doesn't have time either. This country is in big trouble. We don't win anymore. We lose to
And you, The Donald, are the biggest loser. Republicans are finished with you because American women vote.
Women don't like men saying privately -- let alone on the set of "Celebrity Apprentice" -- that a woman should get on her knees.
Later, raging at Kelly on rival
RedState turned its back on him and disinvited him.
"I'm not going to have a guy on stage with my wife and daughter in the crowd who thinks a tough question from a woman is because of hormones," said RedState's
Boom.
Such is the power of the Touch of Death.
But before some of you embarrass yourselves writing angry letters to my editor denouncing me as a liberal Democrat, consider this:
Ask women what they think about it. Don't tell them Trump said it. Tell them a powerful man said it, a rich and arrogant man who gets what he wants. You'll get your answer. Their eyes will tell you. They'll take those eyes with them to the polls.
Just imagine the Democratic commercial, with Kelly's question, the line about a woman on her knees set off in large, bold type on the screen, Trump in red, white and blue, bloviating, an angry puffer fish puffing about political correctness, and later his ugly "blood coming out of her wherever" line.
If by some miracle Trump is the
That
But the Clintons wouldn't run it. Surrogates would.
Trump climbed in the polls by playing the establishment critic, even as he served the establishment's interests by sucking up the media oxygen from true conservatives like Sens.
He plays the tough guy. But he couldn't handle it when Kelly asked him a straight and fair question, without any of that Uma Thurman attitude from the "Kill Bill" movies.
Bill: "
Thurman, as the Bride: "Of course he did."
Bill: "Why didn't you tell me?"
Why didn't Kelly tell us?
Because she's a journalist doing her job, asking the questions that Democrats would ask if Trump were the Republican nominee.
Let the Dim Mak do its work. You can see the effects already. We're simply waiting for the Trump campaign to pick a soft, dry place to fall.
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John Kass is a columnist for the Chicago Tribune who also hosts a radio show on WLS-AM.