The answer to all your questions is MONEY!
Don Ohlmeyer/Former NBC West Coast President
This quote is most often used in relation to sports. It made the news cycles again last week when the NFL, after claiming they were reinventing the kickoff for player safety, announced a plan to expand the regular season from 17 to 18 games. At 17 games, the playoffs are already a war of attrition. The answer of course, as Ohlmeyer said, is money. Despite the fact half the squad may be on injured reserve, replacing a third pre-season game with one that determines playoff contenders is a no-brainer, figuratively for the owners, literally for the players.
However, sports has no monopoly proving Ohlmeyer’s theory correct. I realized that when I read “Does Trump even want to win?” by Washington Post columnist Jim Geraghty (August 5, 2024). Geraghty presented a laundry list of behaviors, most recently his attacking Georgia governor Brian Kemp and his wife, that he suggested was the exact opposite of someone serious about winning an election.
- “Trump is laying the groundwork for another election conspiracy theory and another set of excuses if he loses the state of Georgia in November.”
- “Maybe it’s a sign Trump is panicked because switching Biden for Harris couldn’t have gone much better for Democrats.”
- “Saturday night was just the seemingly billionth example that at any given moment, Trump cannot prioritize anything…”
- He knows “…reporters are drawn to conflict, and ‘Trump vs. other Republicans’ is always a storyline that excites them.”
- “It is fair to wonder whether Trump’s heart is in his check-the-box statements about the policies he intends to enact.”
But Geraghty waits until the final paragraph to launch the most damning possibility.
Trump had a fairly easy path to victory against Biden, and beating Harris is still very much within the realm of possibility. But he just doesn’t seem interested in staying focused and putting in the work. Great pick, Republicans.
This has become a promising and exciting campaign. It was a pleasure to see our team going immediately to the battleground states for their first rallies together. And what rallies they were. Harris and Walz play very well off of each other. The wake up call has been answered. As far as what is motivating trump, I do think we have to be wary the efforts he and the MAGA crew will be doing to undermine and swing the election to his favor. All of those small (minded) contributors might be easily led like sheep to cause trouble at the polling places.