The Razzle Dazzle President

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"Give 'em the old razzle dazzle, razzle Dazzle 'em.  Give 'em an act with lots of flash in it, and the reaction will be passionate.  Give 'em the old hocus pocus, bead and feather 'em.  How can they see with sequins in their eyes?

What if your hinges all are rusting?  What if, in fact, you're just disgusting?  Razzle dazzle 'em, and they’ll never catch wise!" ~ Razzle Dazzle lyrics from the movie Chicago

| Subject: Map of Iran | Date: 09/15/2004 |

| Source: United States Central Intelligence Agency Factbook |

| This map was produced by an employee of the United

States Government, and therefore is in the public domain. |

Democrats and liberals, myself included, have a good time making jokes about President Trump being stupid. I’m not sure that's entirely fair. I think he’s; out of touch with the majority of the American people, dishonest, and selfishly immoral; but I don't think he's stupid.

If you've ever been to a magic show, you know the success of the show rests with the magician’s ability to look over here while he does something over there. Look at the rabbit, don’t look at the hands.

Trump's mastered the art of dazzling the masses. This is a guy who declared bankruptcy three times and still headed an NBC show based on the premise he was a great businessman one would want to do an apprenticeship under. This is a guy who was recorded bragging about grabbing women by their privates, and still got elected president thanks partly to evangelical Christian voters.

Not long ago, I couldn't turn on MSNBC without hearing the word, “impeachment,” umpteen times per hour. Then, seemingly out of nowhere we attacked Iran, killing General Soleimani, and the news cycle changed. Think about it.

While I can’t prove it, I think President Trump expected the assassination of Soleimani to give him as much positive press as the death of Bin Laden gave Obama. Instead, many Americans reacted negatively to being taken to the brink of another war, and our NATO allies are talking about pulling out of the area because we didn't clear the attack with them.

While it didn't work out that way, I think, he wanted it to, the military action did reduce the on-air talk of impeachment by, at least, 50%. Whether, or not, the reduction will be enough to help him in the next election remains to be seen.