BORDER/DEMS/NORTH KOREA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump delivered a solid State of the Union address the other night. The riff on border security, the issue du jour, was particularly effective. That was my impression, even though I think Trump overstates the importance of physical barriers to deterring illegal immigration and drug trafficking. (As I believe that Democrats excessively dismiss their value.) Unfortunately, he indelibly marred the speech by a quintessential Trumpism: The assertion that if he weren’t president, the country would be at war with North Korea. That’s the sort of vainglorious indulgence that politicians just don’t make, even if true. And in this instance, there isn’t much of a case that it is true. The odds that any of Trump’s 2016 rivals, Democrat or Republican, would have gone to war with North Korea are vanishingly small. Given how close the North and South Korean populations are located, and the hair-trigger status of armaments, the casualties in any comprehensive conflict would be enormous. Undoubtedly, other presidents would still be trying to contain and redirect North Korea through sanctions and multiparty negotiations. And attempting, undoubtedly unsuccessfully, to play the China card against North Korea.”
–Robert Robb, “Great speech, but Trump can’t help being Trump,” USA Today, February 7, 2019 3:14 pm