You believe that someone who had been with him for nearly 30 years had no idea he was under the influence? Please. People knew. Christ, he nearly died not long before he actually did. Not that they could have fixed him or forced him to do anything, but I think it’s absolutely disingenuous that anyone around him -…

The doctor in question was also with a clinic that doesn’t “allow for shady shit.”

Actually, he was a reasonably well-respected doctor in a well-respected practice associated with a well-respected hospital system, living and working in a very nice area and probably just like any other upper-middle-class dad living in a comfortable area with great public schools and doing Dad-daughter dances and…

You’re 100% correct. Honestly, even getting Adderall is an unbelievable pain in the ass. Having to go in person every couple of months (and pay) to basically shake hands with the psychiatrist & tell him, yep, everything is the same, then him having to handwrite out a separate scrip for each of the next 3-4 months,…

Why would she necessarily care about her reputation after her father leaves office? She didn’t really have one beforehand, and she is completely insulated if she wants to be. She may, in fact, care, but unlike most people, she’ll live a perfectly comfortable life either way.

Of course there’s a choice. Millions of divorced or single people with kids survive on one income all the time. It fucking sucks, but it’s possible. At least with a two-parent home, you know there’s a backup in case.

Unlike all the other 18-year-olds out there, who have mostly solved matters of international security, pandemics and poverty?

Oh, ffs, she’s 24 years old, from freaking South Dakota. She’s a ding but it’s simply not fair to compare her accomplishments and savvy with a 46-year-old woman who’s been on national television and lived in NYC for ages.

In other words, a college student with the means to make her voice public?

Same reason the taller guy usually wins the presidency, the good-looking guy gets a couple free rungs on the corporate ladder...it makes other people feel good to identify with “winners” - and especially to feel that “winners” identify witih them.

Amen, fellow former cool girl.

Who cares? I get that your point is probably the same one leveled at Megyn Kelly: oh, she didn’t get it until it hit her personally...but that’s true for most of most people’s views. Some people are just born into situations that shape views, so you can’t point to a single moment or instance that brought about a…

That is not, to be sure, a trait unique to conservatives.

It changes you because you are now presented with challenges you could have never dreamed or prepared for because you never thought they wouldn’t have already been acknowledged, understood and had solutions for built in to the societal fabric.

She looks like she wants to eat him alive. She is so imagining sneaking away and fucking him in a closet during some pol soiree.

He uses her like a trusted lower-in-command is used in a business; when the higher-up doesn’t feel a meeting is worth his time, he sends a stand-in. That works many times because the higher-up isn’t really needed at that point in time and has more pressing matters - fair enough. ...Doing that to a head of state…

Have we seen any hard evidence of her actually preventing anything outrageous? I know it’s been rumored she’s been a mitigating presence, but given how much outrageous he does every.damn.day, I’m not so sure she is.

I’d say your comment is insulting (to a professional woman), but I fear it correctly reflects his view.

But you’ve fallen into the trap already: the point isn’t optics; the point is the reality. Yes, this doesn’t look good, but the more salient thing is that is absolutely, actually is not, in fact, good. As others have said already, this family doesn’t give one whit about what their actions look like. Clearly.

Fair on all counts except the reference to the infant. Mothers are allowed time, too. I theorize...I never did, and rarely do still (mine are 15 and 13), but that’s my fault.