Posted on 10/24/2015 10:06:50 AM PDT by Kaslin
ARE YOU crazy about Barack Obama? Do you fervently hope the next president of the United States will be as similar to the current president as possible?
Then Donald Trump may be the candidate for you.
Of all the candidates running for president, the one who most resembles the incumbent is not Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders or Martin O'Malley. To be sure, the Democrats' policy views largely overlap with Obama's. But when it comes to attitude and self-image, it's Obama and Trump who are birds of a feather.
Everyone knows about Donald Trump's bottomless narcissism; this is a man who has affixed the name "Trump" to everything from hotels to golf courses to cologne. Asked the other day which world leaders he would reach out to upon being elected, Trump replied that he wouldn't need to call anyone: "I think I'd probably have them call me."
But Obama's march to the White House also involved startling displays of self-glorification, from Greek-style columns to a triumphal foreign tour to his own official seal (complete with Latin motto). From the earliest days of his presidency, it was clear that Obama was deeply enamored of himself, and had no doubt that the rest of the planet was just as smitten. "I am well aware," he told the UN General Assembly, "of the expectations that accompany my presidency around the world." He gifted the queen of England with an iPod that included his own speeches. Obama's addiction to the first-person singular pronoun — "I," "me," "my" — has been remarked on by many; he has even referred to "my military" and the troops "fighting on my behalf."
Anyone who finds such vanity attractive should relish the prospect of a Trump presidency. Trump, after all, never doubts his own brilliance. He's always the smartest person in the room; just ask him. Sound familiar?
"I'm a better speechwriter than my speechwriters," Obama told campaign aides in 2008. "I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I'll tell you right now that I'm gonna think I'm a better political director than my political director."
When a presidential candidate talks that way, what could possibly go wrong?
blah blah i hate trump blah hes a jerk blah blah blah egomaniac blah blah fading in polls blah blah liberal blah equal to obama blah blah not an adult blah blah
Absolutely. Just like my grandparents were immigrants. My father went to night school and got a 4-year degree from a commuter school at night.
His sons went to universities for their degrees. I’m a mildly successful businessman and investor. My sons go to Harvard. Their vistas, I can’t even imagine.
It’s the American way. Each generation builds on the one before. trump has done that very successfully. And what he will pass down to the next children is very good .
But he is not “self-made.” He is a son of privilege. He has built moderately successful on that privilege. He is not some super genius businessman, some galactic-sized negotiator or anything like that. He’s a good son. An American story. But not “self-made.”
It would be nice if he showed the proper humility that is his due.
He’s not just boasting his wealth, he’s also proposing to America to be part of this picture of great fortune.
Take it or leave it, but his appeal is understandable. If he could deliver to America half as well as he has done with his private estate, a lot of people would be breathing easier.
It’s a chance to get greater America engaged from the heart with politics at more than a skin deep level. It isn’t perfect. It doesn’t need to be perfect.
Warren Buffet, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg. These guys came from middle class or upper middle class .
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And you admire these left wing radicals? I’ll take Trump every day and twice on Sunday. He didn’t inherit tens of millions as you infer. His Daddy’s fortune was no where near his own. Others in his family also inherited, but Trump had already made millions before his father died. He did it by hard work and brilliant talent.
Lots of times it is what you don’t hear about a person that speaks louder than what you do hear. Have you ever wondered why, out of thousands of people he has employed, you never hear or see a damning article or report about him?I’d say he must be a pretty good person and has treated his people well.
Tales told by idiots, full of sound and fury....signifying ...nothing.
Maybe the vice here, to the extent there is vice, is a pan-American flaw.
Face it, a lot of us more or less like the idea of an America that has some bragging rights.
Where are we ourselves with respect to God, before we can talk about wanting others to be humble? Maybe Trump is the only way God can talk to a proud country and get it to start doing something sensible.
Trump leads.
Obama is led.
MAny to most of them MUST go. Bush failed us by not cleaning house. Clearing out the political appointees of the opposition when you take over the government would appear to be an essential requirement for balance of power and not letting the bureaucrats get too entrenched.
You talk as if Trump inherited all of his father’s fortune. That is a lie. Trump inherited a part of his father’s fortune but after he had already made a fortune of his own. Furthermore there are a lot of things that carry Donald Trump p’s name that didn’t even exist in his father’s time.
I was responding initially to the assertion that he is a “self-made billionaire.” He is not. And all the hype that he’s smarter than everyone else, and this super-duper business genius is just false. He’s good. He’s taken a large fortune and preserved it, at a rate seemingly better than the rate of inflation. That is admirable. But he’s not a “self-made billionaire.”
We might see Trump only slowly waking up to the situation that Democrats are tirelessly going to try to undermine him (as defacto standard bearer for the GOP/”Conservatives”). His personal approach to strangers seems to be “Oh, those dear people, I love them.” But he will have to know when to love them out of office, just like he wants to love illegales back into Mexico.
>> he stayed ahead of inflation <<
Maybe.
But anyway, I believe that if you took the 200 to 300 million that his dad’s real estate was worth at the time of the dad’s passing, and then multiplied that number by the average price increase for New York real estate over the last 30 or so years, I believe you might come up with a figure close to the two to three billion that DJT’s real estate is worth today.
Therefore, if Don had simply held onto his dad’s holdings for the past 30 years, without making major changes, and without all the hoopla and bankruptcies, I suspect that nowadays, his net worth would probably be in that same two to three billion neighborhood.
If even one billion of his worth came from his effort that ought to count, if we are arguing numbers?
Seen that asserted from more than one quarter. It would be an interesting political argument if true.
However even being near NYC doesn’t guarantee instant financial nirvana. Not with packs of liberal yapdogs biting at your heels.
One would need to follow particulars, where those particular buildings actually were, what they were like, and myriad factors.
People tend to get confused with the term “ego” as they do with the term “greed”.
Ego is something everyone is born with - of itself it is neutral. The term “ego” seems to be used these days to mean “false bravado” which is based on a false assessment of oneself and surroundings. However, ego also means “confidence” which is based on an accurate assessment of oneself and surroundings. In today’s anti-masculine culture, “ego” is meant to deride genuine male confidence.
Trump and Obama both have self confidence. But notice the Left leaves Obama’s “ego” or confidence alone. They only use “ego” to deride confident people on the Right.
I don’t think either Trump or Obama has false bravado. Both believe in who they are and what they are doing. The difference is Trump’s confidence is productive whereas Obama’s confidence is destructive.
BTW, since we’re talking about confusion of terms, “greed” is another word that is misused in popular culture and the Left to deride what generates profits and wealth in the free market. It is also interesting that the Left leaves alone the greed and avarice of those in government. The Left never talks about “greed” in government, only in business and the free market.
But there’s a difference between “greed” and individual self interest. Everyone is born with individual self interest. If we didn’t have individual self interest, we would die. The world turns on individual self interest. Self interest is what motivates new business risk, investment, and innovation. Individual self interest is a wealth-producing engine and is what drives the voluntary cooperation of the free market. Individual self interest involves the voluntary willingness to cooperate and undergo risk for the prospect of reward in the free market.
“Greed”, on the other hand, implies a monopolistic lust for power. “Greed” is generally a much more accurate description of government motivation than business motivation becasue government interest involves a lust to forcibly take what is yours from you. Government greed involves force and coercion to get what government wants.
>> Barack is a phoney baloney run by committee <<
If it’s a committee, it’s a committee of just two members, Michelle and Valerie.
More likely, however, I think it’s basically a “committee of one”— and that one is not Michelle.
Times are different now and thankfully, Trump knows how to capture the public interest in this new world . He has done so and the proof is in the masses of people who attend his meetings. I don’t care how much he brags because I don’t consider it bragging when what he says if FACT. He IS Rich. He IS smart. In addition, he loves this country, He IS a PATRIOT and he WILL PROVE IT.
You're getting awfully close to the "you didn't build that" meme.
Most people miss that this drama plays out against a background of love and hate — of God and the devil.
One will eventually end up as the devoted servant of one or the other.
The desire to love God does not equate to devils’ lusts, that through trickery and lies appear as if they privately belonged to us even though they do not.
Someone has to actually get around to all the executive things.
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