Posted on 04/11/2011 6:12:44 AM PDT by Kaslin
President Donald Trump.
Do those words, strung together in that order, seem strange?
After the release of last week’s Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll showing Trump tied for 2nd among the prospective Republican presidential nominees, a lot of people are undoubtedly trying to wrap their minds around the idea.
If it seems out of reach for you, consider this: it was only three and a half years ago that the words “Barack” and “Obama” were so foreign to the American lexicon that they drew red flags from your spellchecker (and if you haven’t enabled a Microsoft update on your computer lately, you may still be plagued with red flags).
So here we are today, into the third year of the Obama presidency. And when Trump says things like “ America has become the laughing stock” of the world, and the world’s “punching bag,” and we’re all getting “ripped off” by our government – well, it’s difficult to argue otherwise. His words resonate deeply with a good many of us.
Of course there is a gulf of difference between being a public figure that successfully connects with people’s fear and anger, and being a statesman who successfully executes the duties of elective office. But one does not generally get to be the latter, without first accomplishing the former.
So before you dismiss Trump altogether – and before you get overly excited about the prospect of a Trump presidency – consider a few of these ideas.
First, consider the thoughts of “Harold” – a regular reader of my columns who frequently (yet thoughtfully) emails me to criticize what I write. Harold seems to assume that I speak for the Republican Party – which of course, I don’t – and he’s been visceral in his complaints to me about how the Republican Party has been, so far as he’s concerned, “ignoring” Trump.
Harold gave me permission to quote from a personal message he sent to me back in October of 2010 – so here it goes: “…Some people may write-off Trump as nothing more than a nutty by-product of reality TV. But Austin , at least he’s a productive nut. At least Trump has taken the opportunities that being an American has afforded him, and made something of himself and produced something of value with those opportunities. Our current President is a nut of the destructive kind who spouts the gospel of economic re-distribution and paves the way for his mindless followers to live off the largesse of the productive. I’ll take a productive nut, over a destructive nut, any day…”
I doubt that Trump would wear the label “productive nut” with any great sense of pride. But that aside, it’s difficult to deny the legitimacy of Harold’s premise.
In some ways, Donald Trump has perhaps come to represent opulence and excess. Yet beyond the “brash” and the “flash,” Trump also represents productivity, success, and wealth creation. And Americans are intuitively recognizing that those are three things our country desperately needs more of right now.
President Obama, on the other hand, has spent far too much of his presidency trying to make us all more dependent on government for everything, while also making sure that no individual or group is allowed to amass too much wealth for themselves. When you juxtapose the two, Obama clearly looks more and more like the “thing that is ailing us,” while Trump looks more and more like the “cure.”
This is not the first time that Americans have had that horrible sinking feeling about our federal government’s leadership, and have looked for a presidential candidate that was somewhat “unconventional.” When I was a kid, for example, there was quite an aggressive push to “draft” a certain other businessman for the presidency.
Amid the country’s chronic unemployment, double-digit inflation and international humiliations of the late 1970’s, Americans began to lose confidence in not only President Jimmy Carter, but the two major political parties generally (sound familiar?). This brought about an attempt to draft then-Chrysler Corporation CEO Lee Iacocca to run as a Republican challenger to Democrat Carter, the belief at that time being that America needed a “real executive” to run the country (Iacocca later admitted that he never gave serious consideration to the opportunity, although in the late 1980’s the Democratic Party tried again to draft him for a run against Republican presidential nominee George H.W. Bush).
In 1992, with a mile recession underway and conservative Americans woefully underwhelmed with incumbent Republican President George H.W. Bush, the “Independent” candidacy of Ross Perot sprung up. Politically speaking Perot proved to be nothing more than a spoiler candidate that paved the way for President Bill Clinton. He did nonetheless provide quite a “wake up call” for the Republican Party.
So can Donald Trump become our next President? There’s a campaign waiting for him if he wants it. And if Americans are sufficiently fed-up with the status quo then, yes, he most certainly could be.
I would have a hard time voting for him; However if the only other choices were ZERO or the Hildabeast, then it would be The Donald. . . . .
Well, politicians haven’t exactly covered themselves in glory have they? I don’t see why he couldn’t do the job.
I don't know. "President Ronald Reagan" sounded strange, before he was elected.
I'll tell you this: they don't sound nearly as strange as "President Barack Hussein Obama" sounds to me right now, two and a half years after he was elected.
It’s a sad state of affairs in the GOP when Trump seems to be the only potential candidate who can give 0bama a fight in 2012.
I can see it now. Trump fails by a small margin in the primary, runs as an independent and splits the Republican vote because no conservative in his right mind will vote for Romney. Obama gets another four.
We didn't do that with Reagan, who had to work to get the nomination, why should we do it with Trump? For me this flood of Trump stories I am seeing posted on FR is suspect. I think far too many Freepers are smitten with the guy just because he's a birther.
Trump isn’t going to lose the GOP nomination if he runs.
He’s the brightest candle in the room right now and will outshine the others. As someone noted yesterday, a large segment of the population has lost faith in traditional politicians. The timing is right for a Trump.
He’s 100x more media savvy than Ross Perot ever was.
Trump won’t run as Third-Party, because he knows if he did, and somehow won, he would get zero support from Republicans in Congress.
I going to campaign for Sarah Palin and Herman Cain for the GOP nomination.
If Trump gets the GOP nod and opposes Obama in the 2012 presidential election, I will VOTE for him.
I’d also take Trump over Romney, Huckabee or Newt.
Is a President required by law to live in the White House? I gotta think living there would be a major downgrade for Trump.
While I appreciate the way Trump is kicking over the rock to expose 0bama’s eligibility crawlies...
Donald Trump is not presidential material.
And I say that with some admiration for his performance in his own field. Furthermore though I hail from his home turf, he will not play in Peoria.
I would have a hard time voting for him; However if the only other choices were ZERO or the Hildabeast, then it would be The Donald. . . . .
“And that his future candidacy for president may soon be taken seriously owes to no one so much as it does Barack Obama, whose own candidacy seriously eroded the standards for presidential qualification.”
http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/04/donald_trump_scores_an_importa.html
I think We The People’s interest in Donald Trump stems from the American people desperately looking for a leader with spine, guts, and the willingness to put what’s good for this country first. I believe the American people are thirsting for a leader who will tell us the truth without dodging the hard questions in order to be liked or to garner votes. Donald Trump has done this country a huge service by exposing the MSM’s bias and total lack of investigating politicians to ascertain and expose the truth behind and about them.
In other words, spineless, gutless candidates need not apply. We all know their names.
Especially after 0bozo and family have stunk up the place
When he converted to Islam?
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Does “President Trump” sound strange? What could sound stranger than “President Obama?”
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