Name:   Talullahhound - Subject:   Casey Date:   7/22/2018 12:10:51 PM

I don't know why he would say his father was born in Germany - perhaps he meant his father's people.  But while it is a "lie" per se, is it an important lie? No, not really.  People say a lot of things that are sorta true, but not factually correct.  

As far as Helsinki, I don't believe that he made a slip of the tongue.  I don't know why he seems to feel like he has to pander to Putin.  It personally hurt my feelings to hear him condemn our Intelligence Community, because I worked with so many intel folks in my job.  The leadership not withstanding, those people really work hard putting together the pieces to understand the whole.  It just reminded me of the Neo-cons under George Bush (43) who didn't like that intelligence reports because it didn't support their beliefs, so formed their own intelligence group to cherry pick the the things that supported their desire to invade Iraq.  I'm at a loss to explain why Trump would want to take Putin's word over that of our own people.  (I can only speculate that there is something in Putin that he admires, and makes him want to be his friend).  

But as I said, I think Trump is an extrovert and what comes out of his mouth is what he is thinking  and may not be his true belief.  He is not a seaoned politician, so he doesn't mince words.  I'm sure that this is the way he operates in his life in his companies and people just accept it; but, he's having a harder time with the public at large.  People don't like his style. All politicians lie, but some do it more smoothly than others.  He's not a statesman.  I'm willing to give him his 4 years and see where we end up.  Trump has a strong need to be accepted and liked and I think if he felt that, he might be a bit different and not so defensive - because the "lies" seem to occur when he is being defensive.  

As I have said before, I am conservative on most issues (but middle of the road conservative) and liberal on other issues.  It's not clear to me who I might vote for in 2020, depending on the field.