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No time for Trump this year
The Albany Times-Union ^ | April 17, 2011 | Rex Smith, Editor

Posted on 04/16/2011 9:46:27 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

You mean this whole Trump for President thing isn't a joke? Whoa.

One day last week a New York City tabloid published a cover illustration of The Donald in clownface. The joke turned out to be on those editors, though, because the next day CNN reported that Trump was tied for first place when Republicans nationwide were polled about whom they support for the 2012 presidential nomination, right up there alongside Mike Huckabee. In a separate NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, Mitt Romney was only two points ahead of Trump and Huckabee, with other contenders trailing.

Surely those pollsters failed to reach out to New Yorkers. We know this guy Trump better. Most of us find it hard to imagine that this is anything other than another Trump ego trip, like plastering his name on some four dozen buildings, or maybe an effort to promote his next "Apprentice" TV show.

The man was born rich, but his arrogance is an acquired trait. The very name "Trump" now equates with excess and narcissism. Do people genuinely believe he deserves space in an important political debate that ought to be about our economic security, environmental legacy and hope for world peace?

Mind you, there's nothing wrong with a business leader getting into politics. Mitt Romney is the contemporary model of that. And we long ago got over our aversion to entertainers skipping over to the political stage, if that's the career niche you see Trump now occupying. Ronald Reagan turned out to be a much better politician than he was an actor.

But you would have to say that both of those fellows, Romney and Reagan, whether or not you share their politics, demonstrated deep understanding of public affairs long before they launched presidential campaigns. Trump's claim to fame is fame. It's his only qualification.

Certainly he hasn't been a successful businessman. If he tries to sell that line, he'll have to explain the bankruptcies of many of his companies, the forced sales of his prime Manhattan properties so he could stay afloat in the 1990s and the airline that survived only briefly after he had painted his name on all the jets.

Nor does he have credentials as a fiscal conservative, which is a key element of the Republican agenda. How can a guy claim to be concerned about deficit financing of federal operations when his own businesses are so heavily leveraged? We might need to review his stewardship of the millions of dollars he inherited and turned into a $4 billion debt.

And he has shown no grasp of the issues that ought to be the focus of presidential politics. On Thursday, when he was asked on Talk 1300, a local radio station, why he might run, he said: "I look at the country. It's never been worse. It's run at a level that -- I've never seen anything like it."

You think he might run the country as well as he ran Trump Air? Or the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City? Great. Following his usual pattern, we would expect President Trump to mortgage the Trump House (formerly White House) within months of his inauguration, then make deals to annex Central America into the United States in exchange for yielding operational control of the Mid-Atlantic states to United Fruit Co.

Trump's major impact on the presidential race so far has been to reignite some interest in the fundamentally dishonest question about Barack Obama's citizenship. Most Republican leaders want nothing to do with this issue. Every serious investigation has concluded that Obama is as American as, well, Donald Trump. Focusing on the question, though, is a cheap way to question the President's patriotism.

Why should we care that Trump seems to be running for president? Because his intrusion into the race draws attention away from the serious issues that must occupy the political debate.

We are engaged in two wars -- or two and a half, if you count Libya -- with uncertain goals and cloudy exit strategies. Our recovery from the Great Recession is proceeding slowly, a partisan split over economic strategy yielding no clear path to speed the delivery of jobs to more Americans. The debate over our health care system seems far from over, with the future of both Medicare and Medicaid now thrown into question. The very nature of American government seems to be a question that voters will weigh in the 2012 election.

Into these serious waters now wades this clown Trump. Really, folks: Get him off the set. Make room for the real contenders. There's no time for this.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Local News; Politics
KEYWORDS: 2012; birthcertificate; certifigate; clown; libya; obama; trump; unitedfruit
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To: AmericanVictory
The bait and switch was that I've heard of no one who claims that Obama isn't a US citizen. Doesn't mean anything in the context of naturally born citizen which is a qualifier for the presidency.
21 posted on 04/16/2011 10:45:08 PM PDT by kingu (Legislators should read what they write!)
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To: Prokopton
Woohoo, struck a nerve. Get use to it.

You trumpsters sure are thin skinned varmints.

22 posted on 04/16/2011 10:52:26 PM PDT by Reagan Man ("In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.")
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
- and this is the story of the fallout... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/14/daily-news-trump-zuckerman_n_849234.html?ir=New%20York
23 posted on 04/16/2011 10:56:19 PM PDT by bronxville (Sarah will be the first American female president.)
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To: One Name
Votes can't be taken for granted. If ‘read my lips’ hadn't backstabbed the base and actually campaigned for your vote rather than taking it for granted, he might have won reelection.

Trump, if he ran as a third party candidate, would only gain as many votes as the two major ones discarded as not being worth the trouble.

Myself, I've gone to a much more pragmatic viewpoint. That no big tent GOP Republican is going to arrange the primaries so that a real conservative has a shot. I want as conservative as I can get with massive coattails. I want to backstab the big tenters with as many solid conservatives in congress as possible.

If Trump can deliver that by making New York a battleground state, it will suck tens of millions that might have been used to prop up liberals in toss up districts, and make it possible for conservatives to win.

That and most of the big tent suckups would never survive with Trump as the head of the party.

24 posted on 04/16/2011 11:01:09 PM PDT by kingu (Legislators should read what they write!)
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To: tsowellfan

It’s been the “elephant in the room” since before the election within certain circles.

He could be an NBC, but with parentage other than previously portrayed.

He could be an NBC, but committed fraud with regard to student loans,passports,SSN’s,legal name,etc.

He could be a non-NBC which makes everything else secondary or moot.

Or, he could be totally legit.

It deserves airing out.


25 posted on 04/16/2011 11:20:03 PM PDT by One Name
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To: kingu

I don’t pretend to know the politics of every battleground state, but I do think you make a good point with respect to NY and others. I hadn’t really thought about that much- that Trump could siphon democrat votes away enough to make a difference in previously solid blue states. I’m used to third party candidates like Perot and John Anderson (and earlier on George Wallace)splitting repub votes.

Let the chips fall where they may.


26 posted on 04/16/2011 11:35:42 PM PDT by One Name
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To: Tea Party Reveler

“Trump is closer to Reagan than that RINO Romney is.”

Trump is closer to former Governor Arnold than anyone I know.

Arnold S. had a conservative image, but was really a liberal, and now we have Trump fooling folks with a conservative image, imo, and is really a liberal.

“The man behind Donald Trump’s possible 2012 presidential campaign is a registered Democrat who voted for Barack Obama in 2008.

Not only that, but Michael Cohen, an executive at the Trump Organization who doubles as Trump’s chief political adviser, once volunteered for 1988 presidential candidate Michael Dukakis and worked for a Democratic member of Congress.

More http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/donald-trumps-political-pit-bull-meet-michael-cohen/story?id=13386747&page=1

Just like Trump Michael Cohen claims to be disappointed in Obama, or is he just saying that?

In any event, the fact that a strong liberal is the man behind Trump, should tell us that Trump is no conservative.


27 posted on 04/16/2011 11:42:38 PM PDT by Sun (Pray that God sends us good leaders. Please say a prayer now.)
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To: Reagan Man

I believe Trump is a liberal mole inside our party. I think he’s a plant to bring down the Tea Party.

Watch the movie, “Stalig 17,” and you’ll understand just how the Nazis infilitrated the gulags during the war. I have a sick feeling that Trump is a mole inside our Stalig.


28 posted on 04/17/2011 12:06:55 AM PDT by Catsrus
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Another Democrat for Romney.


29 posted on 04/17/2011 3:51:11 AM PDT by Beckwith (A "natural born citizen" -- two American citizen parents and born in the USA.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
The Left is scare to death of Trump because want to pick our candidate again so Obama will win again. They will go all out to push Mittens and maybe even push a Mittens/ Juan McLame ticket, but the Left and Levin and BORe etc can just keep talking their insulting talk. I say insulting for their presumption that they have actually researched the issues and came away with a pass for Obama.

They DON'T understand the driving force behind the TEA party and never will. I want the people I send to Washington to act like Americans, and I won't settle for less this time. Trump has more courage than the bunch of them and telling me he was once pro abortion means nothing to me. If ONCE being pro abortion means you're out forever why should we pro lifers keep talking to pro abortion people? Why try to change their minds?

All of this reminds me of the line from “White men can't jump” “You'd rather look good and miss... “
I DON'T WANT ANOTHER BOB DOLE OR MC LAME WHO LOOKS GOOD BUT MISSES!

30 posted on 04/17/2011 4:11:29 AM PDT by jmaroneps37 (Conservatism is truth. Liberalism is lies.)
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To: jmaroneps37

If they all become candidates..Trump, Palin etc. Which one has enough clout to NOT be forced into line by the establishment?

There is only one.


31 posted on 04/17/2011 4:20:59 AM PDT by crz
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