Trump Is Getting Closer to What I Call the Jesse Ventura Point.

[MineralMan]

Jesse Ventura got elected as Governor of Minnesota in a three-way race. He called himself an Independent, and managed to defeat both the Democrat and Republican who were running. It came as a big surprise to many Minnesota voters.

I'm sure it came as a surprise to him, too. Soon enough, he tired of the actual work of being Governor. Not long after that, the voters of this state grew tired of Jesse, as well. Seeing the writing on the wall, the former wrestler declined to run for re-election, to the great relief of almost everyone.

Trump didn't expect to get elected President. The job chafes his butt and other tender bits. I don't think he's happy in his work. Certainly, many people are unhappy with his work, as well.

I believe he has reached his Jesse Ventura Point just about now. Let's show him how we feel on November 6.

[Wellstone ruled]

1. Perfect example.

As usual,you nailed it perfectly. And we know how that worked out. The Guy wrecked the Education Department as well as others. But,Jesse sure did love himself,did he not.

[MineralMan]

3. I didn't move to Minnesota until 2004, so I did not get

to experience Jesse Ventura as Governor. Since then, he appears to have deteriorated into something sadly comical. I'm sure Donald Trump will experience a similar deterioration, if he survives very long after leaving office.

Both men were elected as a "thumb in the eye" gesture by disgruntled voters. I hope the voters are well gruntled this year.

[Capperdan]

26. Can't wait to see Trump deteriorate

It will be ugly, yet glorious.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

2. Difference is I don't think Ventura had quite the unchecked narcissitic ego that Trump does.

Getting elected as governor was a novelty for Ventura, but probably after a while there was a "Been there, done that, what's next" for him.

For Trump not to run for re-election, he'd be branded as a failure and I don't think Trump could stand for that.

[MineralMan]

4. Oh, Jesse Ventura has plenty of ego. A surplus of it, I think.

[Haggis for Breakfast]

44. Oh absolutely.

James Janos (Ventura's real name) sued U S NAVY SEAL, Chris Kyle, over a passage in Kyle's book, "American Sniper." Even though Kyle did NOT call out Ventura by name (referred to his as "scruff face&quot , Ventura still took offense and sued. After Kyle was already dead, Ventura demanded that Kyle's widow, Taya, pay his legal fees.

I STILL don't understand how Ventura won that law suit. It was Kyle's opinion. His right of free speech. His First Amendment right to express himself. But the fact that Ventura went after him and then his widow so aggressively sickened me.

And FYI -- Jesse WAS NEVER a NAVY SEAL. He keeps saying that he was. He's a liar. The program he was in was prior to the actual chartered, legal formation of NAVY SEALS. In other words, Jesse was a frogman. Personally, I think he's a twisted toad . . .

[yurbud]

5. Comparing Trump to almost anyone except a psychopathic brain stem baby is an

insult to that person.

Ventura may not have been a competent politician, but he is capable of coherent thought and speech, and also has some capacity to listen and absorb new information.

[Wellstone ruled]

7. The real story seemed to be this,

Ten days before the Election,Skip Humphrey thought he had the Election in the Bag and was bragging about it. Instead of doing out state Campaigning,he was doing House Parties and Metro Glad Handing.

[MineralMan]

9. Voters sometimes behave in unexpected ways.

I think that's the lesson, really. Trump is another example. Flukes.

[Wellstone ruled]

11. Watched this campaign do a full

one eighty in Rural Southern Minnesota. Ventura Lawn signs started to show up in the Reddest part of the State. Yes a fluke. Tons of hard core Rethugs crossed over in Southern Minny to send a message to the DFL,that they wanted to drop the Hammer on the Humphrey's.

[MineralMan]

12. Rural Minnesota is often unpredictable, I think.

Thus, we have Jason Lewis in the House. Perhaps the voters there will have had quite enough of him on November 6. I certainly hope so.

[Wellstone ruled]

18. Lewis did a bang up job

pandering to the White majority in his District. The Counties South of St Paul have always harbored a just below the surface racist element . While Training a new Sales Rep,who happened to be a African American,my experience and feedback was less than positive,actually very ugly,on my Sales calls two weeks later in that same area.

And,Lewis just played his subtle Race Baiting Crap.

[MineralMan]

20. Yes. However, as more and more people move out of the

immediate metro area, the tide is slowly turning, I think.

I have hopes for Angie Craig down there. We'll see in three weeks.

[Wellstone ruled]

22. That will take a generation.

As the Urban Sprawl continues toward Rice and Scott Counties,there will be change.

[MineralMan]

23. Yeah. But, we might just see Jason Lewis

be a one-term member of the House. That's a start.

[Wellstone ruled]

30. That Rascist A-Hole has to go,

never a doubt about that.

[geardaddy]

34. *tRump and Ventura are really more like this kind of fluke

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trematoda

[MineralMan]

35. Eww....

No liver flukes for me, thanks.

[geardaddy]

37. Me either.

I think both Ventura and Drumpf are more like parasites than flat fish. That's all.

[MineralMan]

38. I wish I had thought of that.

Good catch!

[geardaddy]

39. Thank you, good sir!

[lunasun]

6. Trump will run in 2020 imo

[MineralMan]

8. Perhaps. We'll see. It's quite some time until 2020.

Many things could happen.

[Gothmog]

10. watching fox news is not doing the job of being POTUS

all trump is doing is holding rallies and watching Fox News

[logosoco]

16. THIS and picking the least qualified people for the job

(I think he is doing that in an effort to make himself look good, he doesn't really care how badly they screw things up!)

[lunatica]

21. I think the opposite

He cares very much to screw as much up as possible as long as he benefits. He admires Putin because he’s the richest man on earth. Trump wants that role.

[Danascot]

13. Being president is the only thing standing between him and prosecution

Apparently he's above the law as long as he remains in office so he'll hold on to it with everything he's got.

[GeorgeGist]

14. Nobody ever call Jesse ...

T I N Y.

[MineralMan]

15. Well, not that we know of, anyhow...

[Haggis for Breakfast]

45. Although he did brag about not wearing underwear

because he said it . . . inhibited the free movement of . . . god, I can't go there.

[RestoreAmerica2020]

17. Interesting. Or, odious traitor, racist and sp in WH could resign today..

..claiming the usual--bone spurs. His voters will understand, then he can ride into the sunset somewhere, to someplace where he can eat triple layer, cocolate cake, 2 scoops of vanilla ice cream and watch faux news until he croaks, you know kick the bucket [Alternate Synonyms for "kick the bucket": die; decease; perish; go; exit; pass away; expire; pass; cash in one's chips; buy the farm; conk; give-up the ghost; drop dead; pop off; choke; croak; snuff it; change state; turn; die out; die off; die down] of course I meant croak, luck the bucket well into his golden years, yet retirement may be a good option for him right now.

[watoos]

19. Trump did not want to win,

as far as running again in 2020, that's up to Putin.

[elmac]

24. He's dug himself into a hole that he can't get out, made too many enemies, all his criminal family

has been exposed so his only survival is to remain president. He knows his ass will be in jail once he leaves office. He will not quit, he will probably refuse to leave is booted out, incite violence to do so.

[Cosmocat]

25. You and me are seeing two completely different Donald Trumps

Yeah, he has no interest in going the job of running this county as a democratically elected official.

That does not mean he going to walk away from it.

He needs it to keep him and his scumbag family from going to jail, first off. Second, he needs it to keep making him and his scumbag family reach. Third, he COMPLETELY gets off on the power trip.

This POS wants to be the dictator of the country until he dies, and turn it over to his son.

THAT is his goal here. I know this by his actions, and because he pretty much says it.

He wants to be able to do what the Saudis did - kill and dismember people. He wants people to have to kiss his ass eternally.

But, sure, the guy has already raised 100 mil for his reelection, and does a dozen or so campaign rallies a month, but is just going up and walk away from it.

[bronxiteforever]

27. Cheeto is the symptom of a virulent disease

There has not been one GOP break placed on this abomination of desolation Presidency.
Mitch McConnell would still be odious without Herr Drumpf.
Climate change will still be denied and hatred and stupidity will continue to rain down from that party regardless of who is in charge.
The GOP must be clobbered from here to eternity for at least 10 consecutive years if we are to survive. Right now I believe the thing could win a second term and that is no fluke.

I could be wrong and I would rather have your point of view but November 2016 convinced me that this Country is seriously ill beyond the crazy that is the Con. We can change it and it is going to be slog but we have no choice.

[Ferrets are Cool]

28. I love your synopsis, but

he LOVES the adoration of his loving crowds. That drug is an addiction that is hard to break.

[electron_blue]

29. As someone who suffered under Ventura, I can't wait for this to happen with Trump

I remember this well. I lived in Minnesota at the time and was one of the shocked voters who never thought he had a chance. I also remember he was so bad than when he left, the incoming Republican governor actually raised taxes and increased spending on public universities.

[grantcart]

31. I think he passed the "MOE POINT" and is about to hit the "CURLY POINT".

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

32. Trump and Ventura are superficially similar, but only superficially.

Ventura managed to get himself elected as a third-party candidate only because the major parties' candidates were a couple of suits. The GOP ran Norm Coleman, who had been a Democrat until he discovered his opportunities were better with the Republicans, and the Dems ran Skip Humphrey, the son of Hubert Humphrey, who had been a competent but uninspiring attorney general running on a boilerplate Dem platform and who could barely keep people awake. Then Ventura jumps in as the anti-establishment Reform Party candidate with some clever advertising, and I think he won mainly because he wasn't either creepy or boring. Unlike Trump, he had at least some experience in politics (he was the mayor of a large Minneapolis suburb), and he held political positions that were pretty mainstream, tending toward liberal: he was pro-choice, supported gay rights, public school funding, medicinal marijuana, and instant run-off voting, and promoted land-use reform and mass transit improvements, including the development of the light rail system we have now. With respect to economics he leaned a bit toward the libertarian model but not to an extreme extent. And also unlike Trump his campaign rhetoric was never racist, sexist or hateful.

When he won I was surprised, but I didn't freak out because I knew that if he did try to do something outside the mainstream he wouldn't be likely to get much support from the legislature because he didn't have the strong backing of either party. At first it looked like he might not make too bad a job of it because, unlike Trump, he actually listened to advisors. He appointed a few excellent judges (because he listened to the bar association, not political partisans). But things started to go south when he got into a war with the local media, which sometimes criticized some of his positions. The national media adored him because he was so unusual, but the local reporters did their jobs and actually paid attention to the nuts and bolts of government and started picking things apart. Like Trump, he publicly criticized the media for what he felt were personal attacks. IIRC, he called them "jackals."

After a couple of years, while still serving as governor, he got a job as a paid commentator on NBC for the new XFL football league. This rather Trumpish move caused quite a bit of controversy, and he was widely criticized for improperly taking advantage of his position as governor to get back into TV. His ego started to puff up quite a bit at this point - I don't think he had ever lost his fondness for the limelight - and his disputes with the local media got worse, with the result that his popularity really went downhill. He allowed his son to have parties in the state-owned governor's residence and mess the place up, and various other controversies kept popping up. He really turned out to be a pretty lousy governor. He decided not to run again because he said he didn't like the way the local media picked on him and his family.

Although he had in common with Trump a public loathing of critical media and a fondness for show business and publicity, I don't really think they are very similar. Both used anti-establishment messaging to get elected, and both are excessively fond of themselves, but I never thought of Ventura as evil, vicious or dangerous - he was just a blowhard who might have meant well (at least at first), but who should have stuck to his current jobs as a suburban mayor and a radio talk show host. Lately he seems to have become weird as shit, but really he's just an old eccentric with a braided beard and some novel conspiracy theories. Trump, though, is a whole 'nother critter. I don't think he'll decide not to run again just because his popularity is faltering - he's not capable of accepting the reality that he is unpopular because he only ever communicates with his cult-follower base. Ventura understood that he wasn't likely to win a second term, but Trump's ego won't let him go there.

[geardaddy]

36. That's an excellent synopsis of his term.

I remember voting for Skip and was surprised by Jesse's win. He did become an embarrassment to the state later in his term.

[Mr.Bill]

41. The main difference between Trump and Ventura

is that Trump is a criminal, and has been his entire adult life.

[CrispyQ]

33. Unless he strokes out, he'll run in 2020 & he could win.

Trump isn't going anywhere. Maybe he hates it, but he's hooked on the attention. He'll never get this kind of attention again. He's also starting to like the power - that he can break the law & nothing is ever done to him. He will run & he could win. There is just that much ignorance & bigotry in this country to make it happen.

[Power 2 the People]

40. He loves being on TV. Nothing pleases him more than holding prime time announcements about nothing.

He's not going anywhere voluntarily.

[Gothmog]

42. CNN reporter says Trump spending day 'watching a lot of TV'

Link to tweet

[muriel_volestrangler]

43. Like other criminal leaders of countries, Trump needs to stay in power to stay out of jail

and retain the illegal gains. And the longer he's in power, the bigger chance of getting laws changed to protect him. And pass on the loot to Ivanka, if he still cares about her. That's the big difference from Ventura.

[Initech]

46. Trump definitely doesn't give a shit about governing.

He only cares about having the title, making the deal, and kicking out everyone who's not completely loyal to him. He's literally Zapp Branagin from Futurama.

[INdemo]

47. This Saudi murder could take him down and here's why

Trump is beholding to the Saudis because they bailed his business's out several times.
When they dig deeper they will find more than we could wish for....He will resign or he will not run again for business reasons.