And thus does another term enter the political lexicon. Donald Trump offered this analysis of the 2008 Democratic primary race after a weird rant about Hillary Clinton’s extended bathroom break, in which he declared she did something so “disgusting” that he couldn’t bring himself to explain it. Trump then declared that Hillary got “schlonged” in the primaries, which may trouble some Trump supporters … who will have to decide whether this is an “elegant,” “classy,” or merely “great” argument:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=084w-xazRvI
According to Dictionary.com, there is only one definition for “schlong”:
noun, Slang: Vulgar.
1.
the penis.< Yiddish shlang literally, ‘serpent’ < Middle High German slange < OldHigh German slango
We are not responding to Trump but everyone who understands the humiliation this degrading language inflicts on all women should. #imwithher
— Jennifer Palmieri (@jmpalmieri) December 22, 2015
ABC’s Good Morning America was so unhappy about it that they bleeped the word, even in print:
“Even a race to Obama, she was gonna beat Obama. I don’t know who would be worse, I don’t know, how could it be worse?” he told the crowd. “She was favored to win and she got [expletive], she lost, I mean she lost,” he told the crowd.
“But I watched her the other night, it was hard, it was really hard because there were a lot of other things on better, including reading books and reading financial papers which I actually enjoy reading.”
The GOP frontrunner also attacked Clinton for taking a bathroom break during the most recent Democratic debate.
“I know where she went, it’s disgusting, I don’t want to talk about it. No, it’s too disgusting. Don’t say it, it’s disgusting, let’s not talk, we want to be very, very straight up. But I thought that, wasn’t that a weird deal,” Trump said.
To take a lighthearted view of this, one could argue that Trump meant that Hillary got beaten by male privilege in the Democratic party … naaaah, no one’s going to buy that. Well, almost no one, and no one outside of Trump’s dedicated fan base.
On the less lighthearted side, this crass and classless stream of consciousness might delight the true Clinton haters, but it’s not going to improve views of Trump among other voters. It will give Team Hillary even more openings to play the victim card after Republicans successfully defused the War on Women meme in 2014. It’s sheer buffonery, which suffices for entertainment but does not paint the GOP as a serious option for Obama in 2017.
Update: Contra the commenters, I’m not arguing that this is going to derail Trump in the primaries. I’m making a general-election argument about how this will play with voters when Trump has to face one candidate head-to-head instead of a crowded primary field.
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