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The Spectacle Blog
Despite his appearance before CPAC today, I don’t know if Donald Trump will throw his hat into the GOP Presidential race. No one will until June.
Of course, if he does it will make things very interesting. A Trump candidacy offers both advantages and disadvantages.
Advantage #1: Trump is already a household name and has been for at least a quarter century. He isn’t someone like Tim Pawlenty who is still trying to build name recognition outside of Minnesota.
Advantage #2: When people think of Trump they think of a successful businessman. If the economy is still in the doldrums in 2012 his candidacy could prove to be an attractive one. Should Trump seek the GOP nomination he could potentially cancel out Mitt Romney. Unlike Romney, Trump didn’t initiate mini-Obamacare and never said “mandates are good.”
Advantage #3: Trump isn’t a shrinking violet. He’ll go toe to toe with Obama. The presidential debates could be a lot of fun. Trump plays for keeps. I’m not sure if someone like Mike Huckabee is willing to get down and dirty with Obama.
Advantage #4: Money!!! Even if Trump doesn’t win the GOP nomination he has the resources to launch an independent run for President.
Disadvantage #1: One thing Trump has in common with Obama is they are both very thin skinned. When Trump gets challenged he can be quite unpleasant as he was with Bill O’Reilly during his feud with Rosie O’Donnell. That might not work so well in an interview with someone like Diane Sawyer or Katie Couric.
Disadvantage #2: The Donald isn’t exactly likable. While President Obama’s policies aren’t popular the President still is. If in 18 months time, people are more at ease with Obama then Trump then Obama calls the White House home for another four years.
However, this isn’t necessarily insurmountable. If Trump can convince people there is difference between being liked and being respected and that he wants the respect of the American people (and by extension greater respect for America from abroad) then he could overcome Obama’s appeal.
Disadvantage #3: Can you see Trump trudging through the snows of Iowa and New Hampshire, eating in diners and sleeping in the homes of his supporters? I can’t.
Disadvantage #4: Trump is more left-wing than Obama on foreign policy and defense. Let’s not forget he was more pessimistic about the War in Iraq than Harry Reid and accused President Bush about lying about WMDs and “everything.” This is also the same man who said, “Saddam Hussein will be a nice person compared to the person who takes over.” Anyone who uses Saddam Hussein and nice person in the same sentence should give one pause.
If it’s Trump vs. Obama (and that’s a very big if) it will be a case of me casting a ballot against Obama rather than for Trump. I hope it’s not a choice we have to face in November 2012.
View all comments (16) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Aaron Goldstein
http://spectator.org/blog/2011/02/10/trump-card
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Occam's Tool| 2.10.11 @ 11:44PM
The other problem is that the Donald has a germ fetish similar to the Howard (hughes).
C'mon. The best candidate is John Bolton.
Aaron Goldstein| 2.11.11 @ 12:18AM
That means he can't shake hands.
Grzmlyk| 2.11.11 @ 10:53AM
Bolton certainly has the bona fides on foreign policy - one of the few adults in the room - but has has absolutely zero domestic policy chits stored up. While I could probably take a flyer on his ability to manage the domestic apparatus and get behind a Bolton candidacy, I do not believe he'll successfully run the gauntlet to the nomination.
As for Trump, he has no ideological core whatsoever and is a reflexive liberal when it's fashionable to be so. I think Trump is like one of his buildings - ostentatiously glitzy on the outside, rather rickety, prosaic and unreliable undergirding holding up the outer layer. The man used government money and his father's holdings to strong-arm his way out of bankruptcy in the 90s. I also think the intelligence-to- arrogance ratio is unfavorable.
As it is with Obama, which brings me to my final point - who the hell finds this puerile, arrogant, vengeful, pompous, condescending, patently insincere, ignorant, entitlement-minded mediocrity "likeable?"
I think he is, at best, obnoxious and boorish. Not a guy I'd like to have a beer with, have in my fox hole with me or even share a bus seat with.
In short, Obama's an a-hole, and the fact that so many people, like the execrable Bill O'Reilly, find him "likeable" shows either their own detestable natures or else how desperately they want to be seen as liking the black guy so as to inoculate themselves against charges of racism or, heaven forfend, partisanship.
Red Phillips | 2.11.11 @ 12:31AM
"Trump is more left-wing than Obama on foreign policy and defense."
Aaron, that is a dishonest characterization and you know it. Donald Trump's healthy skepticism of intervention is not "more left-wing." Are you paying any attention to what is going on at CPAC? A huge contingent of RIGHT-WING non-interventionists are much in evidence and reportedly some of them gave Rumsfeld a pretty hard time of it.
You may not agree with non-interventionism, but you should at least be honest with your labeling. The current non-interventionist uprising is a right-wing phenomenon.
Red Phillips | 2.11.11 @ 12:37AM
I wouldn't vote for Trump because he isn't reliably conservative, but he deserves credit for being against the sovereignty trashing managed trade KORUS FTA boondoggle. Too many movement con types are ready to sell out our national sovereignty for a mess of "free trade" pottage.
http://stopuskoreanafta.org/20.....rade-pact/
Bob K.| 2.11.11 @ 12:46AM
Good thing this isn't something you had to do as a contestant on his TV show because he would fire you for wasting time writing this nonsense.
tatosian| 2.11.11 @ 3:46AM
"Trump steals CPAC show–just as GOP gay rights group had hoped"
"..."With all of the boycotters… undermining CPAC, we wanted to bring value-added, we wanted to bring some excitement and energy to CPAC," GOProud co-founder Chris Barron told The Ticket. "And who's a better person with a bigger megaphone and a bigger personality than Donald Trump?...I think that the gay community can learn something from Donald Trump and GOProud and all of the different avenues that we're going in," former Lt. Dan Choi, who'd been discharged under the military's "don't ask, don't tell policy," told The Ticket. "I think that's what Donald Trump represents for a lot of people-- he's not going to convince everybody to agree with him… and the gay movement cannot expect every gay or transgendered person to fall in line..."
Guess goproud saved the day for cpac.
Hilarious.
tatosian| 2.11.11 @ 3:50AM
Trump steals CPAC show–just as GOP gay rights group had hoped
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_.....-had-hoped
beebop| 2.11.11 @ 6:20AM
Trump? Seriously? Only if the country is for sale. He has been to bankruptcy court and has a very condescending attitude to anything untrumplike. I haven't made up my mind, but if it were Trump versus 0bama, I would be praying that the Mayans are right ....
Kitty| 2.11.11 @ 6:28AM
The President is still likable? Is that white guilt?
stu| 2.11.11 @ 6:59AM
Must be in my opinion, what's likable about arrogance, petulance, and condescension? No to mention scraping and bowing...
Kitty| 2.11.11 @ 7:04AM
Dittos! And bringing down our country.
Don Pardo| 2.11.11 @ 6:46AM
Trump? Successful businessman? Sure, yes, if that means having your companies go bankrupt twice and screwing others.
What does that translate to on the national scale?
Kenny| 2.11.11 @ 7:13AM
Trump?
you're joking right. The man's a huckster. He's just millking the limelight.
Patzer| 2.11.11 @ 8:24AM
Trump is a fecal King Midas.
Ken (Old Texican)| 2.11.11 @ 11:32AM
If Donald Trump is the best we can offer, it makes me sick at my stomach....literally sick at my stomach.