Posted on 01/31/2016 8:06:25 PM PST by nickcarraway
Virgin America CEO David Cush stunned a San Francisco audience Wednesday night when he responded to a short, but controversial, question: "Trump or Hillary?"
Essentially, the question was posed in the spirit of a lightning round asking him which candidate he thought would win a prospective Donald Trump vs. Hillary Clinton presidential race. That followed a prior question on which team he expects will win the Super Bowl.
Like a pitcher hoping to get out of a tight situation with a curve ball, Cush first avoided the question: "What's that? OK. I'm looking for the exit." That sparked laughter from his audience of entrepreneurs and techies at the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center.
"I'm not going to give a one-word answer on this," Cush said, before reaching back for the fastball: "I would say Trump."
That drew a disapproving "ooooooooh" from the audience, with one woman — perhaps from the creative class that the airline caters to — commenting, "Really?" Another simply exclaimed, "In San Francisco?!"
Cush continued, "The reason is that I think — I don't know if the time is there yet — but I think we need a change in the way this whole political process works right now.
"The political establishment in Washington has a very difficult job," Cush said. "But I've become more disenchanted with career politicians."
While mentioning Michael Bloomberg, who might be another presidential candidate, Cush said: "The fact that we've got people who have lived in the real world . . . who have done things and created things and had to compromise — that's the big thing for me. In Washington, there's an inability to compromise right now.
"Donald Trump's all about compromise, because it's negotiation — that's all it is. It's the same for Bloomberg or anyone else.
"It's less about Donald, although I think that would be tremendously entertaining, and more about the fact that we need a little bit of a different mindset," Cush said.
With that, Cush got a round of applause. He then joked with his audience, "Maybe we can edit out those last two minutes."
Prior to weighing in on presidential politics, the Virgin America (NASDAQ: VA) chief was asked another prickly question for an airline debuting service soon to Denver: the Carolina Panthers or the Denver Broncos. He went with the Panthers to win the Super Bowl.
Asked after his presentation about having the courage or the stupidity — depending on one's perspective — of speaking well of Trump, in San Francisco of all places, Cush said, "I don't have any regrets.
"People really don't care what I have to say about Trump vs. Hillary," he said. "I'm a huge Clinton fan, but I find the process that Trump has ignited very interesting." How so? Is Trump recreating the rules for running for president?
"I don't know if it's recreating them," Cush said. "It's just tearing up the old ones."
Very interesting. Thanks for posting.
...responded to a short, but controversial, question: "Trump or Hillary?" ... Cush first avoided the question: "What's that? OK. I'm looking for the exit." ... "I'm not going to give a one-word answer on this" ... "I would say Trump."
Trump has shown businessmen and everyday American that none of us have to spend our lives apologizing to DC elites - press and politicians....
I respect your opinion but I was just in SF this weekend.
The people I talked to HATE Trump.
I even found one who said Bush was the only one with brains.
Not laughing was REALLY hard.
Of course I expected NONE of them to ever vote for a Republican.
Most seemed like Sanders supporters but I didn’t ask.
They all want "something different." Yet they all think the only way to get "something different" is for "the government" to DO something. The one thing they all reject therefore is conservatism, because it promises a government that will do LESS. Yet the only real "something different" would be a conservative government, because there hasn't been one in nearly 100 years.
Exactly. And now we need someone who will UNDO all the ridiculous regulations and laws that were written and are tying America down.
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