#PP4PM

Canada might come to its senses soon enough, possibly even this spring. Pierre Poilievre (#PP4PM) just torched Canada's Liberal prime with a beautiful takedown. The Conservatives set a trap and the Liberals walked right in. It was beautiful.

Schiff memo a trap? No problem.

According to a Hot Air report, the Democrats' own memo on the FBI investigation is not intended for release, rather it's purpose is as a trap for the president:

Democrats warned that releasing the Nunes memo would damage national security. Some who looked at the memo after its release didn’t really see how that would be the case. But it turns out Democrats could have been describing their own memo. According to a report at Fox News, the Democratic rebuttal memo is loaded with information on sources and methods in an effort to put the White House in a bind.

If it's a trap, it's an easy fix:  give the memo to the FBI and have them determine what needs to be redacted. It would show that the president is trying to work with the FBI to protect sources.  That diffuses the Schiff memo trap and might even come off as conciliatory. Problem?  No problem.

Debate Wrap, it's a Trump trap

Donald Trump is a genius. He did what he had to do in the debate last night because he has set himself up brilliantly going forward. At the end of the debate, as expected, everyone has retreated to their corners and claimed their candidate the victor.  That's patently ridiculous. The debate itself has become somewhat akin to kabuki theater - each candidate plays to their voters or perceived 'getable' undecideds. This was moreso the case yesterday, despite 80 million viewers.

Who won the debate doesn't matter; who helped their chances to win the White House is what matters, in that regard there is some analysis I can add to the blizzard of post analyses already out there today.

First let me summarize the post-game reviews. The consensus is that Hillary Clinton won on points. Trump won first30 minutes, Hillary won the next 30 minutes and the last 30 were fairly even with Hillary winning by a bit. But that's debate points.  The debate winner doesn't get a medal, let alone the White House.

As an aside the moderator Holt interrupted and fact checked Trump something like 13 times, at one point arguing with the candidate, and Hillary a total N'once'. Zero.  The same was true for crowd scoldings; he clearly had a bias for the Democrat and will be rewarded with possible medals from fellow media talking heads for tilting the floor in her direction.  He was not terrible, but he was not impartial.  To me, that's not a pass.

Rush Limbaugh pointed out today that the media is measuring the debate by old standards.  He may be right. It's too early to tell, but let me postulate this - it's a trap.

Donald Trump did what he had to do - he stayed relatively even keeled and still stood up for himself. By being on the stage he proved he could behave in a way befitting the office.  More importantly, he did not go for the jugular of Clinton - a woman.  Doing so would have done him more harm than good.  By not doing so, he leaves room to go after her very hard in the next debates and allow him a pass when and if he does. He's proved he could be civil, the media claims he lost - he has an excuse to go hard at her the next time.  He can be relentless because he's behind and come off as tough but not get the bully label.

If that's Donald Trump's plan it's truly brilliant and I would not put anything beyond the scope of his strategy.  The next debate will prove that to be true or mere speculation on my part.  I don't think it is.

Thursday Hillary Bash - Dems step in Trump trap

Most every Thursday for a couple of years now, I've been publishing notes about Hillary Clinton's scandals and issues in the hopes that it might serve as a reminder when it came time for her renewed march towards the White House. You can find that litany here.

Most recently, it would appear that Donald Trump, either wittingly or not, has laid a clever trap for Hillary Clinton, and her election team has stepped right into it.  It started out with Trump sarcastically comment that he hoped Russia could find Hillary's missing 30,000 emails.  Democrats pounced. They suggested that he was committing an act of treason. The media jumped all over it too.

Clinton camp responds to Trump calling on Russia to release emails pic.twitter.com/fKsv03OO9z

— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) July 27, 2016

It would seem, quite simply, that having government emails on an unsecured server has actively encouraged a foreign power to commit espionage. 

So there's that. Some more sarcasm along those lines from Trump and his campaign and supporters should go a long way here.