Gas Lighting

Over at Hot Gas, they have appropriated a term for what the media is attempting to do to Donald Trump's campaign. It is called "gaslighting", defined thusly:

It was derived from an underlying article at The Conservative Treehouse on the same subject but dating back to February of this year. Here is Bill Whittle on the subject:

That said, it seems that the latest attempt at this is the assertion that 20 or so people interviewed close to Trump's have said he has become "exhausted, bewildered". In fairness, this is a "re-tweet" of a piece that appeared in the N.Y. Times ~~ and we all know about that house organ, don't we? (Candid disclosure: I did not go to the Times' article as I know it's full of shit.)

But, over on the Monday morning open thread that contained the link to the WEX/NYT "exhausted, bewildered" fantasy piece, a commenter dredged up this graphic, a summary of the appearances by the two candidates thus far through mid-August:

The data cited brings to mind several questions:

(1) How "exhausted, bewildered" could a candidate be that appears at 19 events in 15 days?

(2) How energetic is a candidate who ONLY schedules eight events in the same time period?

(3) How does one reconcile the alleged popularity of Clintoon versus Trump when the former has been out-drawn by almost ten to one versus the latter?

In fact, Clintoon's appearances are scant versus Trump's and the turn out is paltry. Also note that the stats DO NOT show those turned away from the candidates' appearances. We know for a fact that Donald Trump has had turn-away crowds at may of his appearances as pictures of Jacskonsville and Daytona show.

Trump "turn-away" crowd at Jacksonville

And looking at the averages, we see that Clintoon's number was largely influenced by her appearances in Omaha and Colorado and Washington, D.C. (And you mean to tell me that ALL Ms Establishment could muster in D.C. was 4,000? Give me a break!)

As to energy, I don't see her doing any two-a-days and am given to understand that she only appears for 15-20 minutes at these shit shows while her panderers fill in for her. We all know from the You Tube videos that you cannot shut The Donald up, his enthusiasm abounds so.

And you want a really glaring comparison: take a look at the Kissimmee, Florida appearances. Clintoon on 8 August only drew an estimated 150 while Trump appeared before 8,000 after speaking to 900 at the NAHB convention earlier in the day. That means that about eighty times more people went to see Trump the same city a Clintoon WITHIN DAYS OF EACH OTHER in a swing state that the recent polls show Trump trailing Clintoon. (And, yes, I realize my logical fallacy here. But it's a point that has to be made.)

Bottom line is these stats show that narratives like the WEX/NYT are a glaring departure from reality.

Gaslighting yes, reality definitely not!

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