UTTERLY UNFIT

Donald Trump is utterly unfit to be president, the New York Times and the Washington Post said in editorials on the eve of the first presidential debate.

Trump “dwells in bigotry, bluster and false promises,” said the Times. He’s “amply demonstrated his unworthiness,” said the Post.

Though of course neither the Times nor the Post mentioned it, Hillary Clinton also has amply demonstrated her unfitness to be president – and far more so than Mr. Trump..

In 24 years as a national public figure, Hillary’s most significant accomplishment was to orchestrate smears of women Bill molested. As First Lady, she botched the only big job Bill gave her (a health care “reform” that presaged Obamacare). The only bill she got enacted into law during eight years in the Senate was to rename a courthouse. She was the worst secretary of state ever.

A novice can get better with experience. Incompetence is incurable.  So is a complete lack of morality.

Trump has the temperament of a petulant six year old.  Hillary’s temperament is far worse, says former Secret Service agent Gary Byrne, who was assigned to the White House when she was First Lady.

“Her behavior is appalling,” Byrne said. “She blows up at people. At one time, I saw her staff so afraid to tell her about a mistake that was made.  They weren’t upset about the waste of the mistake, ordering the wrong invitations, they were terrified that someone was going to have to tell Hillary there was a mistake made.”

Trump lies constantly. Hillary lies compulsively. Trump lies mostly to deny something stupid he said earlier. Most of Hillary’s lies are coldly calculated to cover up crimes.

Trump refuses to disclose his income tax returns, which every other presidential candidate has for the last 40 years. What’s he hiding?

Hillary won’t release her medical records. What’s she hiding?

The Donald used $248,000 of Trump Foundation money to settle lawsuits involving his for profit businesses, reported David Farenthold of the Washington Post. Trump also dipped into his foundation’s funds to buy gifts for himself, took credit for charitable contributions made with funds donated by others.

Trump’s abuses of his foundation are chump change compared to the megabucks the Clinton Foundation raked in for various “play for pay” schemes while Hillary was secretary of state.

Trump University sure seems fraudulent. Bill and Hillary’s involvement with Laureate University is fraudulent on stilts.

The Donald was lying when he said he would self fund his campaign. Once he got donations from others, he tripled the rent he charges his campaign for office space in Trump Tower. He spends so much campaign money on Trump enterprises, he may make a profit from running for president.

The Clinton campaign has been ripping off small contributors by charging their credit cards month after month for what they intended to be a one time donation.

Ordinarily, if a candidate were likely to be a stooge for a hostile foreign power, that would be reason enough to vote for the other one. But we must weigh what might happen because of The Donald’s man crush on Russian dictator Vladimir Putin against what Hillary already has done for the Russians.

After contributions were made to the Clinton Foundation, Secretary of State Hillary approved deals to permit the Russians to gain control of 20 percent of U.S. uranium supplies, facilitated transfer of dual use (military and civilian) technologies to the Kremlin.

And never forget that she’s been paid off by Putin to shut down fracking in the US in order to skyrocket oil prices enabling Putin to make hundreds of billions.

Hillary’s use of private, insecure email servers exposed America’s most important secrets to our enemies. Regardless of intent, mishandling classified information is a felony for which offenders not named Clinton go to prison. To destroy thousands of emails after a subpoena has been issued for them is obstruction of justice.

The Arizona Republic, the Cincinnati Enquirer and the Dallas Morning News customarily support Republicans, but all have endorsed Hillary.

I understand why they can’t support Donald Trump. I don’t either. But Hillary Clinton belongs in the Big House, not the White House.

The only way to get her where she belongs is for Trump to win, so his Attorney General Rudy Giuliani can put her there.

Jack Kelly is a former Marine and Green Beret, and was the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force during the Reagan Administration.  He is the national security writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.