MEGYN KELLY DUELING DONALD TRUMP -- ASSESSING THE DAMAGE - AUGUST 9, 2015

I guess it’s not a moment too soon to respond to the 24 million readers who complained how wrong I was on Donald Trump.

I wrote that he lost Thursday night’s Fox News GOP Debate. I said he showed himself un-presidential and that the three moderators, principally Megyn Kelly, got to him. Made him look small. Charles Krauthammer agreed – but nobody else. Or so it seemed when emails started coming in saying we were both crazy. Trump was the winner by far.

Hundreds of messages came in but so passionate, so angry, that it sure felt like 24 million, exactly the number of viewers who tuned in for Fox’s 9 pm extravaganza – the largest viewership for any cable TV event aside sports. That’s a huge number and Trump has a huge following.

I used to be part of that following. Trump had me when he said that he was evicting illegal immigrants. Right On!

Tell me which Trump am I supposed to be rooting for -- the one who says something on Monday or something else on Tuesday?
But he lost me when he said he is also willing to bring them back, back into the United States, after they fill out certain papers.

Hello? That sounds like amnesty and Jeb Bush’s “act of love” routine. So is Trump against illegal immigration until he is for illegal immigration?

Tell me which Trump am I supposed to be rooting for -- the one who says something on Monday or something else on Tuesday?

Soon as he started getting big numbers he went wobbly. He became the worst of all things – a sniveling politician. His post-debate “blood” comment on CNN, suggesting that Megyn Kelly was suffering from a woman’s issue during the debate – classy. Real classy. What a guy!

I repeat; Trump is my kind of guy when he says to hell with political correctness. I love that kind of talk. 

I love it when he says he’s going to get Mexico and China. They are not our friends, he says, and then …then he says that some of his best friends are China and Mexico.

Okay, forget the contradictions. Never mind the particulars, say his followers. Don’t worry. Leave it to Trump. He’ll take care of everything. Don’t ask questions.

Why? Because you won’t get any answers.

Megyn Kelly tried and maybe she tried too hard. Yes, she went after him in what amounted to a duel.

She went after him all right – and now people are saying SHE lost the debate.

She was the big loser, they say, for drilling him -- and drill him she did. Yes, she did single him out. But she is famous for that, for “the Kelly Moment.” That’s when she turns merciless even when she faces a fellow Conservative and she is a Conservative.

But she is only doing her job. It’s called Journalism.

Megyn Kelly won big as a journalist Thursday night…as did the entire Fox News team.

But thousands in Tweet-world want her fired from any future debates and plenty more want her fired from Fox, period. Some want the network fired.

Agreed – something is wrong when the Liberal Media, meaning all the rest of them, salute Fox News for a job well done. This can’t be good. When The New York Times congratulates Megyn Kelly it means she did them a favor. Liberal Media needs no help when it comes to blasting Conservatives and bashing Israel.

Speaking of Israel, did anyone pay attention to Carly Fiorina? She won the earlier debate hands down, and she offered particulars.

Particularly, she said that her first phone call as President would be to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to assure him of America’s full support.

That’s called straight talk. Some may have forgotten what that sounds like.

New York-based novelist Jack Engelhard writes a regular column for ArutzSheva. Website: www.jackengelhard.com

LAST NIGHT'S FOX GOP DEBATE FINISHED DONALD TRUMP - AUGUST 7, 2015

Watching the 10 of them all lined up like that – why did I feel like reaching for a bowling ball?

How many pins need to be knocked down before only one is left standing?

Last night’s spectacular on Fox News was like Baseball Opening Day (to quickly switch metaphors) when everybody’s a winner since the season hasn’t started yet – and even the game has yet to begin. 

But this debate, mark the day, Thursday August 6, 2015, more or less officially started the 2016 Presidential campaign season at least for the GOP…and the end of frontrunner Donald Trump.

Carly Fiorina surged in the undercard. That says something because, like Trump, her background is business not politics. Fiorina would make a powerful counterpoint to Hillary Clinton. But she’d have to overtake 16 contestants from her own party to get the job and that’s what troubles this set-up that is open for too many applicants.

Hillary has no such problems.

Is there anything wrong with her as a candidate? Yes. Everything. With Hillary as President, America has no hope, Israel has no chance.

But she’s got the Democrat field entirely to herself and that’s a huge plus.

The Republicans are running 17 people and we simply do not have that much room in the White House. We elect one President at a time.

So of that number 17, only one will emerge. The weaker seven (in the polls) debated separately, 5 pm. The Big 10 debated Prime Time, beginning at 9 pm.

Here’s the crux of it all: Democrats are faced with one bad choice. Republicans, we are faced with 17 good choices. That’s 16 too many.

Something or someone’s got to give and the sooner the better.

Bush was the favorite until Trump looped the GOP field. Trump knows television. Trump is the Elvis in the room. Last night he was put on the spot from the word go when he was the only one who refused to rule out a candidacy outside the GOP. He got booed.

It got worse. He got cornered about his past as a Democrat, his alleged misogynistic remarks, his business bankruptcies.

His best moment came when heatedly he remarked that immigration would not even be a topic had he not brought it up. He was in top form, so far as it goes for Trump, but so were moderators Megyn Kelly, Chris Wallace and Bret Baier. Their withering questions had him reacting defensively. No one else got the same treatment. They were good. Too good for The Donald.

They were the professionals. He was the amateur.

But two people – that’s a debate. Ten or 17 people all at once, that’s a traffic pile-up.
In short, Donald Trump was forced to swing wildly and in so doing he was made to appear less Presidential.

The result is that in one night we have witnessed the rise of one star, Carly Fiorina, and the fall of another star, Donald Trump.

They went after him and they got him.

As top dog Trump begins to fade (overnight, I’d say), the race is back to being wide open. The opportunity is there for anyone to step up.

I thought Chris Christie and Mike Huckabee did especially well, particularly on terrorism, foreign affairs, and especially on the disastrous Iran Nuke deal. They proved themselves tough on radical Islam, unapologetic and even emotional on protecting the homeland.

But who will replace Trump for the top spot now vacant? The embarrassment of riches can prove fatal if the process drags on too long.

Yes it was good drama and everyone, except for Trump, did well. But twopeople – that’s a debate. Ten or 17 people all at once, that’s a traffic pile-up.

Those masterminds of the GOP, they never learn.

Last time we also had a crowded GOP field and what’s-his-name won – and lost. Before that, same thing. So-and-so won the Nomination. Lost the Election.

Obama won strictly on stamina.

Of these 10 (plus 7) candidates, any one could be great, much greater than any Democrat. But only one!   

Victory goes to the Republican candidate who demolishes his Democratic opponent, not to the Republican who wipes out his fellow Republicans.

Why is that so hard to figure out?

Jack Engelhard writes a regular column for Arutz Sheva. Website:www.jackengelhard.com

MEGYN KELLY - AND WHO ELSE FOR FREE SPEECH - MAY 11, 2015

t’s getting lonely out there for Megyn Kelly. At the moment she’s about the only American journalist defending Pamela Geller and, by the way, free speech.

The rest of American Journalism agrees that the First Amendment is okay, so long as it comes with a dash of restrictive Sharia Law. Speak your mind but do not take your opinions to Texas or any place that might offend peoplewho go crazy at the sight of a cartoon.

In other words, as we’ve been listening to the clobber-fest against Pamela Geller, freedom of expression, we’re being advised, must be exercised with caution. So they tell us, these opinion makers, who without a sense of shame insist that they love the First Amendment – but conditionally, fitfully, reluctantly, sporadically.

Who says this? People who by the luck of the draw have the Bill of Rights to sustain their livelihoods. 

But apparently Judeo/Christian values are not worth savoring and fighting for, particularly if you are a journalist.

From Moses’ declaration in Leviticus, to “proclaim liberty throughout the land,” how quickly we’ve gone to proclaiming the suppression of liberty.

Who saw this day coming? I did. Not because I’m smart, but because I’m a pessimist. Pessimists are correct 98.7 percent of the time. Novelists are pessimists and that’s what gets us in trouble so much of the time, when we use fiction or part fiction to get digging into the truth – like this book that spills the beans about news media dishonesty and what really goes on in our newsrooms.

From “Half The News That’s Fit To Print” we can hardly be expected to make up our minds intelligently.
We are a misinformed public and nothing is more dangerous than a people being misled by liars and fakes…in this case ideologues of the Left.

The shift may have begun when Edward R. Murrow brought down a Senator, Joseph McCarthy, but it certainly began when Woodward and Bernstein, back in the 1970s, brought down a President, Richard Nixon. A generation wanted to “do good” and found journalism as the perfect means to “repair the world,” quicker than dentistry and root canal.

Now we are still in the clutches of news being presented by social activistswho, starting with The New York Times, hardly pretend to be neutral.

From “Half The News That’s Fit To Print” we can hardly be expected to make up our minds intelligently.

Take George Stephanopoulos, please. This is a journalist? Yes, this is a journalist. ABC-TV hired him straight from the Clinton White House (the old one, not the new one quite yet) where he served as a political advisor. They offered him big money, and presto; he is a journalist, indeed the leading voice at ABC.

You expect both sides of the story?

Or take Geraldo Rivera, who specialized in trash sensationalism, like the search for Al Capone’s Vault, and now reports for Fox News. 

But Fox News must be forgiven because despite the presence of Juan Williams and Shepard Smith, it’s all we’ve got for news and opinion fair and square.

This is where we find Megyn Kelly. This is where steady customers to the network were astonished to find Miss Kelly all alone doing battle for Pamela Geller. One by one, the rest fell like dominoes for limits to free speech, while for Kelly it is all or nothing.

We sense her frustration as even the most tough-minded conservative speakers clobber away at Pamela Geller and the First Amendment.

Kelly must have thought she stumbled into the wrong studio when colleagues Greta Van Susteren and Bill O’Reilly sounded like Chris Matthews.

It’s good that we have her, but sad that we have her practically all alone.

Jack Engelhard writes a regular column for Arutz Sheva. The new thriller from the New York-based novelist, The Bathsheba Deadline, a heroic editor’s singlehanded war on terror and against media bias. Engelhard wrote the int’l bestseller Indecent Proposal that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. Website: www.jackengelhard.com

Ogling The News (Blondes Invade TV)

By Jack Engelhard

[News Flash! A few days after I wrote this commentary and was still polishing it, the UK Telegraph, coincidentally, reported that "Blondes Dull Men's Brains." (I'm not making this up.) The article goes on to say, "Researchers concluded that men performed worse after they were shown pictures of fair-haired women." So, it's scientifically proven that blondes are coming to take over the world and turn the rest of us into mutants. Terrifying! We, men, may have to hide in caves to hide from the glare. I've already begun wearing sunglasses.]

--

How did the news get to be so blonde? This is not a complaint. In fact, this is a tribute, I think.

Back in the old days, when we thought only men can handle the truth, TV news was delivered by Serious White Males, like Walter Cronkite, which is not to say that the blondes who've taken over are not serious. I'm sure they've got the requisite gravitas, but they make the going so much sweeter. Wars, earthquakes, forest fires come and go. The blondes endure.

If you're thinking Katie Couric, fine, but I'm not. I'm thinking mostly cable, CNN, MSNBC and Fox - mostly Fox. That's where blondes have more fun. By this I mean nearly everyone, from the anchors to the guests, are blonde! The political commentators, the psychologists, the historians who arrive for sound bites- they're all babes, but babes with brains.

If you're thinking Megyn Kelly over at Fox, I agree. The news from around the world, and closer to home, is usually so awful that, yes, I'd rather have leggy (and brainy) Megyn break it to me gently rather than, say, Rather, who exemplifies the disappearance of the White Male Anchor - truly an endangered species.

That's a favorable development. Over there at PBS, there's Jim Lehrer, and he scares me. He's so somber. Every day it's Armageddon all over again.. Public Broadcasting still hasn't figured it out, that we don't want to worry about the bomb in Iran. You'll notice that President Bush spoke about an oncoming World War Three (yikes!) and, coming as it did with a smile from E.D. Hill on Fox, nobody jumped off a cliff.

That used to be called "a woman's touch" and with all that's going on out there in this awful world we can use all the nurturing we can get. If there's a hurricane coming my way, I prefer that it come from Fox's Janice Dean. ABC's Charlie Gibson is all right, but I'm happier fighting our War On Terror with Laurie Dhue.

Even the stiff upper lip BBC has a blonde, Katty Kay. Some observers tell us that the BBC is anti American, anti Israel and even anti-Semitic. That may be so, but if I have to take that medicine, I'll take it like that, with the honey, or rather, from the honey. (Am I being sexist here?) The same BBC's Barbara Plett is openly hateful toward Israel (she wept at the loss of Arafat) so that's a different story. Now it becomes a slur. She is not blonde.

The Invasion Of The Blonde Anchors possibly began with Lesley Stahl and Diane Sawyer. They were America's first blondes, I think, anchorwise. They proved that blonde need not be a synonym for bimbo and that, in fact, it would be unwise for male chauvinists, like myself, to challenge these babes intellectually. We'd lose. (Megyn Kelly has a law degree and the others have similar credentials.)

Okay, Couric. Word has it that she's not making it on CBS because she's a woman and women are never taken seriously unless they're our wives, daughters, mothers, supervisors, editors, doctors, lawyers, judges and governors. That's baloney. The women are doing just fine over at Fox. Roger Ailes, who heads Fox's news operation, knows exactly what he's doing. He knew it from the moment he packed the house with blondes and said to America - news can be sexy.

In a world so bizarre, so chaotic, so bloodthirsty, we need it nursed to us and spooned with sweets.

We have it from Thomas Hobbes that life is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short." That's journalism in a nutshell. (That's everything, really.)

So who's complaining if all that is delivered to us with sugar and spice.

About the author: Jack Engelhard wrote the international bestselling novel "Indecent Proposal" that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. Engelhard's latest thriller, "The Bathsheba Deadline," which centers on news media deceit with a Biblical twist, has been termed "a towering literary achievement" by reviewer Letha Hadady and "a courageous, rousing thriller" by author Robert Spencer. "The Bathsheba Deadline" is available in paperback at Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Bathsheba-Deadline-Original-Novel/dp/0595470793/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247971597&sr=8-1