Posted on 04/26/2011 9:28:40 AM PDT by jmaroneps37
The boomlet for Donald Trump as a Republican nominee for president of the United States ought to be a wake-up call for Republican candidates and Republican party leaders alike.
Why has Trump surged ahead of other Republican candidates and potential candidates in the polls? It is not likely that his resurrection of the issue of Barack Obama’s birth certificate has aroused all this support.
The birth-certificate issue does more political damage to Obama’s critics than to the president himself, because it enables the media to paint those critics as kooks. Nor are Donald Trump’s political positions such as to create a stampede to his cause.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Radio-talk-show host Mark Levin has rebroadcast Trump’s varied and mutually contradictory statements on political issues and personalities over the years. It was a devastating revelation of Trump’s “versatility of convictions,” to use a phrase coined long ago by Thorstein Veblen.
So then what is Donald Trump’s appeal? And why should it concern Republican leaders in general?
Trump has what so many other Republicans are so painfully lacking: the ability and the willingness to articulate arguments clearly, forcefully, and in plain English. Too many Republicans talk like the actor of whom a critic once said, “he played the king like he was afraid that someone else was going to play the ace.”
What electrified so many Republicans about Sarah Palin in the 2008 election campaign was that her speeches offered such a contrast to the usual mealy-mouthed talk common among other Republican candidates, including Sen. John McCain. Whether you agreed or disagreed with her position on the issues, you didn’t have to wave your hand in front of her eyes to see if she was awake.
Donald Trump is dangerous in at least two senses. If, by some tragic miracle, he should become the Republicans’ candidate for president in 2012, that would be the closest thing to an iron-clad guarantee of a second term in the White House for Barack Obama.
That would be a huge setback for the Republicans — and, far more important — a historic catastrophe for this country.
What seems more likely is that Donald Trump as a candidate for the Republican nomination would use his superior articulation skills — not to mention brash irresponsibility — to trash all the other Republican candidates for that nomination, leaving them damaged goods in the eyes of the public, and therefore less able to gather the votes needed to prevent the reelection of Obama.
Why Republicans seem not to understand the crucial importance of putting the same time and attention into articulating their positions as the Democrats do is one of the enduring mysteries of American politics.
It was obvious that the Democrats coordinated their talking points and catch-phrases — “social justice,” “tax cuts for the rich,” etc. — even before the overheard and recorded statements of Sen. Chuck Schumer about Democrats’ plans to repeatedly use the word “extreme” to characterize Republicans.
But how many Republican catch phrases can you remember? Republican rhetoric tends to range from low key to no key.
Nor is there much evidence that Republicans have asked themselves how the left wing of the Democratic party gained such ascendancy in recent years, in a country where millions more people identify themselves as conservative than as liberals.
In short, there is little or no evidence that most Republicans see any need to fundamentally change their approach to the public. But if they think that they can rely on Obama’s declining popularity to win the 2012 election, they may be in for a rude shock. Worse yet, the whole future of this country and of Western civilization will be in jeopardy — in a world where the likes of Iran and North Korea become nuclear powers while we engage in empty talk at the U.N.
Barack Obama’s declining support in public-opinion polls makes some conservatives feel that his reelection hopes are doomed. But Donald Trump can be Barack Obama’s secret weapon in his fight to remain in the White House. The Donald can be his Trump card.
In fairness to Trump, the majority of positions he has taken going back to 2000 have been conservative. It isn't fair to claim he is a phony or liberal.
That being said, he has taken liberal positions on several issues and that has to be concern to any conservative considering voting for him.
“Spending a couple of million$ to keep my actual record secret is totally normal!
No, it would not be normal if Obama were in fact doing it. The problem is, he’s not. Amazing how you birthers just blindly accept whatever you hear without bothering to check facts.”
Are you saying that the private attorneys, and worse, the US Justice Department attorneys, who have and are continuing to represent Obama’s side in all of the lawsuits against him concerning his legitimacy to be POTUS have not been compensated? Do you think these attorneys work for free? They are either being paid by Obama, or are being paid utilizing US tax dollars! Please explain how Obama has responded to all these legal actions, but no compensation has been paid to the attorneys. I’d like to hear how that works!
Obviously, you didn’t check into it because that’s not what the facts show. The facts show that Obama For America paid its primary law firm, Perkins Coie, some $2 million dollars. That’s all the facts show, nothing more, nothing less.
Anyone with half a brain would realize that the primary law firm for a political organization had legal duties besides defending Obama in a total of two (2) T.W.O. eligibility lawsuits: Berg v. Obama and Hollister v. Soetoro. By December 2009, Perkins Coie made a grand total of 8 filings in those two lawsuits.
All of the other lawsuits were either dismissed sua sponte, defended by the DOJ (7 cases), or did not include Obama as the defendant.
So where was the $2 million listed in the FEC reports spent? You have no idea because Perkins Coie will not disclose it. So that claim is total birther speculation without any supporting evidence.
You tell us, then, why Obama has spent time and money in court challenging eligibility lawsuits rather than simply show his long-form birth certificate.
You tell us why Obama's step grandmother said has she was the hospital when Obama was born. If she didn't mean in Kenya, how she and or Obama's poor, disabled grandfather have afforded a trip to Hawaii. Why would she/they gone to Hawaii to see the birth of third grandchild born of a mistress in a relationship that was about ready to fall apart. Why would she/they do that when Obama's father had abandoned his Kenyan wife and her two small children, Obama's half-brother and sister?
It's the anti-birthers that don't want to do any thinking because they are either gutless or have been brainwashed by the media and Republican establishment types.
The lion's share of Obama’s legal spending went to Perkins Coie, a well-known Democratic legal and accounting firm. Perkins Coie is representing the Obama campaign in all major legal matters, including seven of the FEC’s known investigations involving the White House bid.
And what evidence is there that the Obama administration cares about the birther stuff? I would agree with Thomas Sowell, Hussein and his crowd think it benefits them. To have conservatives waste valuable airtime on something that will never be resolved any more than it is today is not accomplishing anything - especially when that time could instead be used to hammer Obama on real issues that effect peoples lives and will have an actual impact on how folks vote in 2012.
He is far more conservative than Mitt Romney.
I think you're mistaking me for an establishment Republican. I'm not. But I *am* a conservative; Trump is not.
How has that worked out for you? Hell, for us all?
Terrible. McCain was a train wreck. Worse, anyone with a brain knew it before he was nominated. I was in complete disbelief that he wound up winning the nomination; he was dead last on my preference list in the 2008 primaries.
Right. Which is why he gave $50,000 to Rahm Emanuel's mayoral campaign. But to be fair to Trump, that was 5 months ago.
McCain. And, he raised money for McCain.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0908/13558.html
Trump endorses McCain on Larry King
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-07-15-bundlers_N.htm
McCain uses 'bundler' money more than Obama campaign
These elite fundraisers are known as "bundlers" because they collect money from friends, family and business associates. Among those raising money for McCain: developer Donald Trump, San Diego Chargers owner Alex Spanos and former Univision CEO Jerry Perenchio.
That's my thinking too. Trump has the best chance of driving Obama out of the White House. Warts and all, Trump is the man! Nothing can turn out good unless we get rid of Obama in November 2012. Just look how his EPA is wrecking our American oil industry. Every day there is a new assault on our fine patriotic oil producers. F U Obama we can't get you out of the White House soon enough
No one cares if you investigate it. You and all those who think the birther stuff is super important are welcome to spend your money on investigators to try to dig up something that will change the dynamic. But until you have some solid, actual evidence that really shows Obama wasn't born here, the status quo will remain. Hawaii is just not going to release anything further, so you can believe whatever you want but it won't make any difference. If you get something that proves your case, come talk to us - but until then your really just wasting time on an issue that isn't going to go anywhere.
More importantly though, the overwhelmingly vast majority of people are not going to vote in 2012 on the birther issue. It won't be a factor at all. People, by and large, vote the economy. Since the economy will be the single biggest issue in 2012, that is precisely what we should be talking about. Obama is vulnerable and could be defeated on a wide range of economic issues. Obama is NOT vulnerable on birther stuff. Stick to the issues we can actually beat him on.
Exactly - getting obama out of there is first and foremost the important goal to focus on, not getting ones’ pet candidate elected.
How do you reconcile supporting Trump when JR himself also said “Trump is NO conservative?” Just because JR would like to see the lonf-form BC doesn’t imply he supports Trump. I wouldn’t confuse the two if I were you. And I know JR won’t stand for FReepers trashing Levin, Coulter, Malkin, et al. because he’s already zotted one person, that I know of, for doing it.
To eliminate the national debt, though.
Going back a decade, he also support strict border security, school choice, citizens opting out of social security, the death penalty, increasing military spending.
He does have a liberal streak, though, and there is no way I would support him over Sarah Palin or Michele Bachmann or whatever purely conservative candidate is running.
But, I much prefer Trump to dishonest liberals like Mitt Romney. He is far better candidate than John McCain.
Don’t show me evidence. It doesn’t fit my narrative. /s
It's straw man. No one is suggesting running on that issue against Obama.
The whole point of bringing up the issue is demonstrate Obama's dishonesty and that he has covered up things about his past.
If there wasn't something damaging that he was hiding, the media wouldn't be going bonkers trying to discredit those trying to get to the truth about Obama's past.
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.