The country was literally inches away from having a historic "where were you when JFK was shot?" moment, by Hal Brown, MSW

 BLOODIED TRUMP STANDS TALL, PUMPS FIST: Fox News

Above is from the Fox News website

I took this the evening of the assassination attempt on Donald Trump at Five Spice, the best restaurant in Lake Oswego, Oregon where my partner and I went for dinner with friends. It is a liberal city, but the bartenders apparently like to watch Fox News. Last night the chyron on Fox News tells us how the story will be played on Trump friendly media: BLOODIED TRUMP STANDS TALL, PUMPS FIST.

Those old enough to remember when John F. Kennedy was shot occasionally when talking about the event ask each other to describe where they were when it happened. I was an undergraduate in the grill of the student union when someone came in and announced that Kennedy had been shot. Kennedy, like Trump, was beloved by half the country.

Had the bullet which whizzed by Trump's head, possibly one across his check and another clipping his ear been inches, or centimeters, to the right the results obviously could have been lethal. 

Trump for his part walked the walk of the fearless warrior he believes he is and portrays himself as being to his fans. Within seconds of being shot he raised his fist and shouted "fight, fight, fight."

I begrudgingly give him credit for realizing within moments that he was living a made for TV historic moment and that what he did could assure he could now effortlessly coast into the White House. Immediately he realzed that the eyes of the nation were on him and instead of making sure that he wasn't exposing himself to more bullets - no doubt to the horror of the Secret Service - he stood tall and gave the world what was (no pun intended) the money shot. 

I can see one of the photos of him doing this ending up on posters and t-shirts with the word "fight" under it.

I doubt that Trump ever believed in God and that surviving this will change that though as the brilliant self-promoter he is wrote the following on Truth Social this morning:

"Thank you to everyone for your thoughts and prayers yesterday, as it was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening," Trump wrote on Truth Social. 

"We will FEAR NOT, but instead remain resilient in our Faith and Defiant in the face of Wickedness. Our love goes out to the other victims and their families. We pray for the recovery of those who were wounded, and hold in our hearts the memory of the citizen who was so horribly killed.

"In this moment, it is more important than ever that we stand United, and show our True Character as Americans, remaining Strong and Determined, and not allowing Evil to Win. I truly love our Country, and love you all, and look forward to speaking to our Great Nation this week from Wisconsin." 

Bad news for Democrats is that early reporting indicated that the shooter, while a registered, Republican made a $15 donation to Progressive Turnout Project, a Chicago-based political action committee that supports Democrat candidates for public office and claims to advocate for "key Democratic constituencies: young people, minorities and low-income people."

There are many photos of Trump from the shooting while show his to be more human:

I doubt any photos like these will be used by the Trump campaign. I expect they will use one like the three on the top of this page.

This is what pollster Frank Luntz posted on X:

In the end, voters will settle down and return to their candidate of choice. The people who move towards Trump out of sympathy will probably move back.

But what happened in PA will definitely impact the final vote, guaranteeing that every Trump voter will actually vote. Biden, or any other candidate the Democrats put up, will not have the same participation certainty.

That participation gap is worth at least 1% and as much as 2%. And because it happened in Pennsylvania, the impact will be highest in Pennsylvania.

This doesn’t guarantee that Trump flips Pennsylvania. But the long and winding road for Joe Biden just became even longer and windier.

Just as what happened to George Floyd had a lasting impact on tens of millions of Americans, the shooting of Donald Trump will be significantly consequential in a way the shooter never intended.

 

What Luntz doesn't address is how much money this will probably bring in to his campaign.

Grifters are already using one of the images to make money. This one is for sale for $29.99. 

Here's more:

Now it is almost too obvious for me to write what I think many Democrats are thinking. This is that we might as well just stop campaigning and let Trump declare himself the winner.

You can read this and previous blogs on two websites and on Substack. One may look better than the other because of how the platforms present the page.

Read on the WordPress Stressline.org (you can subscrbe to this on the upper left)

or….

Read on the Google Blogger platform HalBrown.org This version has a Disquis comment section which makes it easy to post links and images.

or… Hal’s Substack where you can sing up to get an email when I post a new blog.