The Media Narrative on Trump Going into Tonight's Debate

As we see in the shabby treatment of Hillary, the media is driven by two things. 

1. They decide on a narrative

2. And once they do that the pack mentality takes over. The echo chamber transfers what was initially an accidental, contingent narrative into received truth, the conventional wisdom. 

Tonight based on what I'm hearing form the talking heads on CNN and MSNBC, the narrative tonight is that Trump needs to pull back a little, and show that he has 'Presidential temperament' and that he act overall Presidential. 

There is a sense that Hugh Hewitt is some hero for stumping him on the names of the heads of ISIS and his confusing Hezbollah and Hamas. 

My sense on this particular article of received wisdom is that as is so typical, the Very Serious People of the Beltway Press are full of it and mostly full of themselves. 

I think that Trump is largely right when he argued that the media more than the GOP primary voters are the ones clamoring for policy details. I notice that the press has been much more concerned in his case than of the other GOP candidates. 

The way I look at it is to ask this: What has made Trump such a favorite of the voters at thsi point? 

It had nothing to do with being Presidential in the sense of Beltway speak. Have actual voters demanded that he show a better temperament? It seems that what they loved is that his temperament has been according to Beltway etiquette.

What I think may be happening is that on some level the media is still bothered by the fact that all the things he's done that they think should spell his political doom haven't done anything of the sort. But calling Mexicans rapists, insulting John McCain and Megyn Kelly, none of this stuff has mattered. 

Surely if the Trump supporters were mortally concerned with temperament Trump would never have risen in the polls. He'd be about where the tough talking Rand Paul is. 

I think maybe the media is chafing a little bit and we some of the psychology that Paul Waldman eluded to in this post about why the press hates the Clintons. 

"And while I don’t have any direct evidence for this, I suspect that to at least some degree reporters share conservatives’ frustration that all the Clinton scandals and mini-scandals and pseudo-scandals haven’t taken them down. In a way it’s an affront to the power of the press. When we splash headline after headline about allegations of misbehavior across our papers, when we devote hour after hour on television to the fact that “questions are being raised,” well that’s supposed to make an impact. It’s supposed to drive the politician in question to the depths of ignominy. It’s not supposed to leave them in exactly the same position as they were when it started."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2015/05/22/the-political-media-dont-like-hillary-clinton-but-what-if-she-doesnt-need-them/

The press likes to think that it has this power and every once in a while someone comes up who mocks this belief. Trump has done this and maybe the media is kind of hoping that tonight is the night for that.

I heard someone on MSNBC even bring up the specter of Rick Perry's disastrous 2011 debate where he forgot the names of the 3 government departments he wanted to shutdown. 

So they are maybe hoping that Hugh Hewit who will be one of the moderators will be able to stump him again. 

We'll see. I don't think Trump will look as dumb as Perry-who I think it must be said, was really dumb. This didn't just show up that one night but all through his campaign. He would constantly mix things up and say erroneous things-even gave out the wrong date of the election. 

If he fails to mention some fairly esoteric case of naming every Islamic terrorist cell in the Middle East, my guess is the Trump supporters will think worse of Hewitt and not Trump.