It’s get­ting in­creas­ingly an­noy­ing to watch people who os­tens­ibly know a lot about polit­ics go­ing on tele­vi­sion and say­ing things that I am reas­on­ably sure they don’t really be­lieve. Lately, it has been ana­lysts talk­ing up Don­ald Trump’s chances of win­ning the GOP nom­in­a­tion. What view­ers are hear­ing from pros on tele­vi­sion is very dif­fer­ent from what is be­ing said off cam­era. For those host­ing tele­vi­sion shows, my guess is that it is the simple equa­tion that Trump’s ap­pear­ances and his pro­nounce­ments, even if only on the phone, equal high­er rat­ings, hap­pi­er “Suits” (the net­work bosses), and more luc­rat­ive deals next time the “tal­ent” ne­go­ti­ate con­tracts. For journ­al­ists who are in­vited to go on tele­vi­sion to be in­ter­viewed or par­ti­cip­ate in pan­els, talk­ing about Trump equals more in­vit­a­tions to ap­pear on shows. Yes, it’s true that Trump has been un­der­es­tim­ated since his ini­tial rise back in June. He rose high­er and faster than nearly any­one be­lieved, and he has las­ted longer than even starry-eyed sup­port­ers thought pos­sible. Trump has con­sol­id­ated the pop­u­lists and less ideo­lo­gic­ally driv­en voters on the right

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