I’m [CANDIDATE NAME}, and I approve this message.
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No. As I said, it’s his job to surround himself with competent people who can effectively do the jobs he appointed them to do. If one or two “staffers” create a public relations debacle then it can be dismissed as an aberration. If it’s a weekly occurrence then you’ve got a candidate who clearly has terrible leadership and management skills.
A President doesn’t actually handle most of those crises personally either. He delegates most of the duties to people he trusts to implement his policies effectively. President Bush didn’t catch hell over Katrina because people expected him to personally patch the levy system or drive in the trucks carrying aid to survivors, he caught hell because he appointed an unqualified political crony as the director of FEMA.
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That’s a fair point, they did speak specifically to the fact the President would be delegating. But I’m trying to emphasize the trivial nature of the offense.
Holding a President responsible for Cabinet members: totally sane.
Holding a President responsible for who changes the toilet paper in a certain restroom of the Pentagon: clearly deranged, I hope, and yet it’s just as much a “delegated” responsibility in his hierarchy.
Holding a President responsible for the graphic designer who chose a faded, barely visible image that’s relevant only as a political gotcha: left to the advanced student but surely somewhere in-between. Probably closer to “janitor” than “Secretary of State,” but that’s just me.
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The Office of the President requires the utmost in public relations and communications.
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“put the US back in business”
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I don’t know. Can you name a progressive candidate who blames “staffers” for publishing horribly racist, sexist, juvenile and otherwise offensive messages in their name with that kind of regularity?
The only other Presidential candidate I can think of who pulled the “yes that was published in my name but it was actually someone else’s fault” card that often was Ron Paul, who allowed racist newsletters to be published under his masthead for nearly a decade before later disavowing any knowledge or responsibility.
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It also occurs to me that the error is even more trivial than it appears - this story has legs mostly because Nazis!!1! Ie. by dumb random bad luck, rather than because of the magnitude of the actual error (failing to check that a historical uniform was American).
If the image showed historical WWII Australian uniforms, the error in process is just as grievous, but it wouldn’t bring out this circus. (It’s not cool* to belittle the sacrifices and value of allies to America’s prosperity, making it somewhat more awkward to mock the same mistake).
- regardless of how many Americans do it
Yeah, it should be “Put the S.S. back in business.”
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[quote=“funruly, post:26, topic:61777, full:true”]The Office of the President requires the utmost in public relations and communications.
[/quote]
I’d argue that the extreme slickness of modern US presidential PR is to the detriment of America. A president with a less-polished spin-team would have less chance of being re-elected, but also less chance of convincing the country to charge into bullshit wars and the like. The office “requires the utmost in PR” more for its own good than for the good of the nation. 
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That seems to conflate the means (good messaging) with a specific end (bad wars).
Advocating for presidential campaigns to have less competence in communications and public relations would cede more power to biased media outlets and post-Citizens United corporations.
Incompetent messaging allowed Bill Clinton’s healthcare reform to be killed, Howard Dean to be defined, and Kerry to be Swift Boated.
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Sure sure, it doesn’t matter, it’s just an honest mistake, people only care because it’s Trump and Natzies…
His office presented a missive to the American public, depicting what was once a sworn enemy and still today representative as one of the world’s most despised regimes historically in a graphic that associated that regime with Trump.
Then they quickly presented a scapegoat to fire instead of taking collective responsibility.
But no big deal right, it’s just he can’t manage or hire people to manage communications. Does he need that? What’s the big deal? Is this campaign some sort of test?
I’d much rather hassle a presidential candidate over whether they can handle a foreign or domestic crisis, for instance, what if his White House sent diplomatic communiques to the EU and Israel with pictures of Natzis on it… how would they handle that?
LoLzers. Diplomacy. Is. Everything. And. Always.
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By rapists!
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I know times are hard; but surely you don’t become an intern for the Donald Trump for President campaign without being some sort of true believer. Not while Wal-mart and McDonald’s are hiring, at least.
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I think you’re overstating the case, but nonetheless the comparison’s apt… because while I have no idea if Trump is actually a racist (and I sincerely doubt Ron Paul is) both men have a record of exploiting the fears of racists for publicity, money and political influence. I’ve heard a guy make a persuasive argument that race-baiting is actually more morally reprehensible if you’re not a racist, because at least if you’re a racist you’re honestly acting on your beliefs (“I mean, say what you want about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, at least it’s an ethos.”).
I certainly hope that’s the explanation. If it was me, I’d be going “but the army guys in the USA all have hats just like that! What do you mean those are Germans?” while trying not to choke to death on repressed giggles.
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My bet is lifted.
If he was good at picking staff would he really be so good at firing people?
Because irony is priceless!
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Is “it was the intern” the adult version of “it was a social experiment”?
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You know who else put Nazi soldiers on graphics?
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Let me translate that :
“I don’t have enough money to pay a graphic designer”
Donald J. Trump
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