Posted on 02/27/2019 7:06:24 PM PST by upchuck
The headline was worthy of The Onion, but it was in the Wall Street Journal when it was still a respectable newspaper: "America Needs A President Like Me" by Donald John Trump.
He then laid out what would become his presidency.
On September 30, 1999.
The billionaire playboy began, "Let's cut to the chase. Yes, I am considering a run for president. The reason has nothing to do with vanity, as some have suggested, nor do I merely wish to block other candidates. I will only run if I become convinced I can win, a decision I will make later this year. Two things are certain at this point, however: I believe non-politicians represent the wave of the future, and if elected I would make the kind of president America needs in the new millennium."
The future president also wrote, "The Republicans are captives of their right wing. The Democrats are captives of their left wing. I don't hear anyone speaking for the working men and women in the center."
That was a statement typical of independent candidates.
Unlike the rest of them, he was not trying to impose a new whack-a-doodle utopian idea on the masses. He just wanted to go back to what worked.
His column was eight years after an obscure affirmative action Harvard law student dismissed the American dream, "The depth of this commitment [to personal liberty and opportunity] may be summarily dismissed as the unfounded optimism of the average American — 'I may not be Donald Trump now, but just you wait; if I don’t make it, my children will.'"
We do. That is why we have children.
But that student, Barack Obama, would become the worst two-term president ever as Americans went for the color of his skin instead of the content of his character.
Whatever shortcomings Donald Trump may have when it came to marital fidelity, he made up in a love of America that was on the level of President Reagan, writing, "Our international adversaries would also note a significant change.
"North Korea would suddenly discover that its worthless promises of civilized behavior would cut no ice. I would let Pyongyang know in no uncertain terms that it can either get out of the nuclear arms race or expect a rebuke similar to the one Ronald Reagan delivered to Muammar Gadhafi in 1986."
The time was not right for Donald Trump but 16 years later, America needed him.
The experts said he was not serious about becoming president. After all, they all said he would lose. If by some chance he won, the stock market would crash.
Eric Zitzewitz, economics professor at Dartmouth College, told CNBC a week before the election, "If we were to go in 70/30 [for Clinton], and we think the market is 10 percent higher under Clinton than Trump, if Clinton wins it should be up about 3 percent and if Trump wins, it should go down 7 percent."
We elected President Trump and the stock market took of like a rabbit in a dog race.
The experts now call it the Obama-Trump recovery.
Sure, credit the guy had the worst economic growth as president since Hoover.
President Trump proved them wrong. He won debates. He won primaries. He won the nomination. He won the election. He kicked the stock market into second gear, then third, then fourth. He pushed unemployment below 4%. He appointed conservative justices and judges. He made NATO meet its military obligations. He cut regulations. He negotiated new free trade agreements. He cut corporate taxes almost in half.
Now he is in Vietnam chatting with Kim Jong Un and having a good old time.
And the pundits are still telling readers they were right all along.
Holman Jenkins of the Wall Street Journal wrote, "Donald Trump’s tenure has been a pleasant surprise compared to expectations, which isn’t saying much. His administration has been as chaotic as predicted, driven by his habit of saying unscripted things. But it also has been productive of a few things: corporate tax reform, curbing regulation, injecting a semi-useful ferment into our foreign policy."
Semi-useful?
His policies ended ISIS and are ending the Korean War.
President Trump is doing everything Jenkins and his ilk said he would not do.
Jenkins marches forward, "There is a humongous irony here. Not expecting to win, Mr. Trump allowed his organization’s desultory pursuit of a Trump tower in Moscow to continue during the 2016 campaign. Make no mistake, though a report that he instructed Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about this matter has been debunked by none other than special counsel Robert Mueller, it remains true that Mr. Cohen lied to Congress. The lack of any other crime will not stop this episode from being central in a Democratic House impeachment hearing resting heavily on hints that there is something fishy about Mr. Trump’s attitudes about Russia."
Instructed Cohen to lie?
Even Bob Mueller denied that.
What idiocy. The Wall Street Journal once was well-edited by deep thinking capitalists.
Now it is a Murdoch rag.
The press is a shell of itself as weasels took over management. The media now is powerless but delusional. The title of Jenkins's piece was, "The Media Will Re-Elect Trump."
No. Donald John Trump will.
Without the wall.
BANG!
Visit Don's blog. Worthwhile stuff.
“The Republicans are captives of their right wing...
I dont think he ever believed that.
I’m a NYer, and if you want to do high level business, you say you’re a republican in the Giuliani mold.
When you’ve cemented your position, you let your guns blaze.
bkmk
The ‘Right Wing’ is what was the middle of the road circa 1980. The Dems are the ones who have slid far to the extreme edge.
this is impossible. Cohen told us today he invented Trump’s presidency in 2011. All by himself.
But back then, Trump was a registered Democrat.
He must have made a lot of money then :)
You can register as whatever you want, only you and God know who you voted for.
Agree.
Really?
I was just trying to save face! :)
Belonging to a party is a little different than paying lip service, like I had to do in order to get a position at an investment bank.
No one is going to check up on my affiliation though.
The price of business for being a big shot in NYC.
SMH
Does the end justify the means when you end up running for and winning the presidency and ruling from a hard conservative position?
I’ll leave that to philosophers...
I've been saying this (to anyone who would listen) for decades. The Beast that is Washington does not do our bidding and those creatures who inhabit it are in it for themselves
.
Term limits would get us there fairly quickly.
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