“And no cause is nobler than his elevation.”
Frank Bruni@The New York Times (9/10/16): “‘[Putin] does have an 82 percent approval rating,’ Donald Trump said during the special ‘commander in chief’ forum last week. It’s worth dwelling on that sentence, because it’s the key to what drives and guides his presidential bid. It’s the giveaway. For Trump, the whole point of political office is adulation, and adulation is the entire proof of a person’s worth. Rectitude pales next to ratings. Ethics are a sorry substitute for applause. And the methods by which a crowd is fired up don’t matter, so long as he can bask in the clapping. This is Trump’s core — or, rather, his terrifying lack of one.”
