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Lance Scranton: Trump’s rocky road

Lance Scranton
Lance Scranton

Yes, I’ll admit it… I’m on the Trump Train and coming clean about the fact that I’m voting for the most unlikely of candidates is a little like betting on the Italian Stallion when he went up against Apollo Creed in “Rocky II.” Yeah, I know, that was a long time ago but this presidential race is gearing up to be a pugilistic panorama of epic proportions as we head into the final two months.

Sure, Trump has made more than his share of mistakes and the “ruling class” is still betting that Hillary will pull out the win after all the ballots are cast in November. But the “people’s” candidate has come out swinging lately in a series of speeches and trips that look downright presidential. He has chipped away at Clinton’s integrity and her ability to execute the office of president. Mistakes and missteps when she was Secretary of State do not make her a criminal — not yet — but the sheer volume of issues she has had to deal with the past four months have eroded her ability to be taken seriously on issues of integrity and honesty.

Perhaps her lengthy time away from the campaign trail is part of her strategy — hoping that Donald Trump will say something or do something that will drive another nail into his electoral coffin. But, it hasn’t happened and he is actually getting better and is rising in the polls. Two months is a long time and the first presidential debate will tell us a whole bunch about the two candidates.



Rocky never looked very intimidating sitting next to Apollo, but when it came time to fight, Rocky was battling to win and Apollo was fighting not to lose. Apollo thought that he deserved to win and the punchy Italian Stallion was just a lightweight who just didn’t understand how the boxing world worked. Trump has taken his share of well-deserved shots — not a great defense — but is still standing. Hillary and her well-oiled machine of strategists and supporters still come off as a bit snarky in my estimation and the Trump campaign is taking them to task.

Sure, both candidates leave something to be desired, but when Rocky is standing toe to toe in the center of the ring trading blows with Apollo I can’t help but think that the battle had already been won. Against his manager’s advice, Apollo refuses to “stick and move” to win the fight and insists on trying to land the knockout punch. Behind on points, Rocky wins on pure heart, desire and his own private strategy.



This election is way more important than an overdramatic movie fight series, but as is so often the case fiction mirrors reality, and it will be fascinating to watch and see who can pull themselves up from the ropes and become our next president.


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