Posted on 04/21/2011 7:37:27 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
It’s easy to see why people think Donald Trump has become the Charlie Sheen of the Republican Party. Gluttons for attention, the two share a rare talent at self-promotion, self-delusion and self-immolation. And Sheen now proclaims himself a birther, in league with Trump’s crusade to promote a lie about President Obama that is also believed by nearly half of G.O.P voters.
But the more you watch Trump crash around the land, leaving shards of fabrication for the rest of us to sweep up, the more you realize who he’s really like: Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister who has served longer than any leader of his country since Mussolini goose-stepped over bell’Italia.
The surface matches are compelling. Hair plugs for Berlusconi, a pricey thatch of some sort for Trump. Berlusconi regularly insults women in public. Trump has also publically called at least one woman a “fat pig.” Berlusconi brought sexed-up game shows to Italian television. Trump has a silly “reality” show in which he plays a business mogul. Berlusconi, at 74, socializes with teenage girls. Just shy of his 60th birthday, the thrice-married Trump said that if then-24-year-old Ivanka Trump were not his daughter, “perhaps I’d be dating her.”
When I lived in New York, and later in Italy, I heard many people dismiss these men as a joke. They’re vulgarians — it’s all a sideshow of limos and pouty women with bee-sting lips. But an equally large segment of the population is strangely entranced by Trump and Berlusconi. If Trump is leading in some Republican polls, and Berlusconi still commands a large following despite being on trial for his latest sex scandal, what does it say about an enabling public?
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com ...
Adonis DNA. Warlock.
Let’s see, which one is succeeding and which one is not?
Okay now, that’s not fair to The Bunga Bunga Man.
Duh! Winning! Tiger’s Blood!
Timothy Egan smearing in the New York Slimes. Thanks 2ndDivisionVet.
He sounded pretty darned coherent tonite on Hannity. Not my first choice but he does have cojones.
Ryan O'Neal actually hit on his daughter Tatum at Farrah Fawcett's Funeral ...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.