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Jewish World Review
April 14, 2011/ 10 Nissan, 5771
Trumping the Debate
By
Arnold Ahlert
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Many Americans are apparently fascinated with the phenomenon known as Donald Trump. So much so, that many polls have him trailing only Mitt Romney in the race for the Republican presidential nomination. And that's currently. On Tuesday, most likely in an effort to seem reasonable, Mr. Romney tried to undercut Mr. Trump, saying that Barack Obama's birthplace is irrelevant because his mother was an American. Ironically, such reasonableness is likely to backfire. Why? A lot of Americans are sick to death of "reasonable" Republicans.
First, let me state that I think Donald Trump would make a lousy president. A great king perhaps, but not a great president. This is a critical distinction in that the former is constitutionally constrained, while the latter can do whatever he pleases. Mr. Trump is a shameless self-promoter with a giant ego, and it is hard to imagine the man for whom "you're fired!" is an integral part of his mindset coping with the inevitable compromises that accompany the job of president. Yet there is something uniquely refreshing abut a man who speaks his mind without worrying about the consequences. Such is what separates him from the typical politician, especially Republican politicians. It is also what makes him enormously attractive to so many Americans.
Even more so when one considers who Mr. Trump would be running against.
Barack Obama is many things, but first and foremost he is a hypocrite. Perhaps the most hypocritical president of the modern era. No other individual occupying the White House has had a verifiable track record of more diametrically opposed positions than Mr. Obama. He was against war in Iraq and took us into Libya without Congressional approval. He wants to cut America's appetite for imported oil by one third, yet goes to Brazil and promises them that America will be one of their best customers when that country ramps up its own oil production. He is submitting a "deficit reduction" plan less than three months after he submitted the most reckless federal budget ($3.7 trillion with over $1.6 trillion in deficit spending) in the history of the nation. He has completely repudiated his 2006 vote against raising the debt ceiling to $8.9 trillion, which he characterized as a "lack of leadership, even as he proposes to raise it to more than $14 trillion in 2011.
In other words, anyone with the slightest bit of gumption could hammer this president, along with his re-distributionist, America is "just another country" agenda. A real man or woman could take him to task for fiddling with an odious health care bill for over two years while the American economy burned. Someone with a backbone could remind the electorate that free market enterprise isn't about nationalizing banks, insurance and car companies, and the student loan program. A strong Republican candidate would tell America that the essence of gangster government is a combination of czars, cabinet departments and agency heads attempting to impose their will on Americans without the input of Congress. A person with genuine convictions could explain that three trillion dollars of stimulus, whether in the form of creating "shovel ready" jobs that didn't exist (as this president has admitted), Quantitative Easing which is debasing our currency and driving up the price of oil and food, or propping up public sector employment at the expense of taxpayers, is a complete debacle.
Which Republican is that? So far, no one.
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Which is why The Donald resonates. And he has done America a great service in one respect: he has demonstrated that the current president is thin-skinned. When Obama campaign advisor David Plouffe referred to Donald Trump's gyrations regarding the president's birth certificate as a "sideshow," such was an indication that the sideshow was front and center in the White House. If it wasn't, Mr. Plouffe wouldn't have mentioned it at all. By making Trump visible--instead of irrelevant--Mr. Plouffe has reinforced the notion held by many that Mr. Obama is both insecure and narcissistic, in that he feels it necessary to respond to "baseless" accusations.
Yet the "birther" issue itself reveals one of two things about Mr. Trump as well. If he is not running for president, keeping the issue alive is his way of revealing the hypocrisy of a mainstream media whose incuriosity about Mr. Obama's entire past borders on scandalous. Even if one subtracts the question of Mr. Obama's birthplace from the equation completely, the fact that most of his earlier life remains off-limits to the American public is a testament to media bias. It is worth remembering the same media managed to dig up a 24-year-old DUI arrest on George W. Bush five days before the 2004 election, and attempted to pin a bogus extra-marital affair on John McCain during the 2008 campaign--even as a cabal of JournoListers attempted to smear anyone who linked Barack Obama with racial arsonist Rev. Jeremiah Wright, despite the fact that the president attended his church for twenty years. Yet if Mr. Trump is running for president he demonstrates a certain level of naivete. Assuming Mr. Obama has a legitimate birth certificate, he will release it when it is likely to: a) do the most damage to his opponent, b) accrue to his greatest interest, or c) both.
Memo to Mr. Trump: they don't call them "October surprises" for nothing.
So who is Donald Trump? For a smart Republican presidential candidate, Mr. Trump is a template. He is the antithesis of the Republicans' last presidential candidate, for whom taking on Barack Obama in no uncertain terms was viewed as undignified or unseemly. The bet here is Americans have had it up to their eyeballs with polite Republicans like John McCain, who refused to engage in anything resembling vigorous debate, perhaps fearful of being labeled racist for daring to do so.
President Obama, who has told his followers "if they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun" on one occasion, and "we're going to punish our enemies" on another, is hardly deserving of such deferential treatment. This is what Mr. Trump intuitively understands. It is about time other Republicans learned that lesson as well. 2012 is one of the most critical elections in memory, and allowing Democrats and/or their media cheerleaders to frame the parameters of "acceptable" rhetoric is a fool's errand. The best defense is a good offense. Any Republican presidential candidate incapable of making the president defend his policies is no candidate at all.
Warts and all, Donald Trump calls it like he sees it. Will any other Republican do the same?
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Comment on JWR Contributor Arnold Ahlert's column, by clicking here.
Previously:
04/06/11: It Takes a Bigot to Expose a Death Cult
04/04/11: Charlie and Snookie --- and Barack
03/30/11: ‘Disabling’ America, One Lawsuit at a Time
03/28/11: The MSM Kills the ‘Kill Team’ Story
03/23/11: Another Military Scandal
03/21/11: Barry, Joe, Helen and Wisconsin Teachers
03/16/11: The Inevitable Viability of Conservatism
03/14/11: Progressives in Their Own Words
03/09/11: $61 Billion in Cuts --- Vs. $223 Billion in One Month of Spending
03/07/11: Bean Bag B.S.
03/02/11: A ‘Green’ Catastrophe in the Making
02/28/11: Ain't Noting Like the Real Thing
02/23/11: Progressive Rot vs. the ROTC
02/21/11: Wisconsin: Progressivism in All its Ugly Glory
02/18/11: News reporters --- or Narrative Shapers?
02/16/11: The Presidents Budget Proposal: An Obamination of Progressive Profligacy
02/14/11: Only Another 9/11 Will Alter the Illegal Immigration Status Quo
02/10/11: Is O'Reilly losing his touch or is he just irresponsible?
02/07/11: Tossing Britain Under the Bus
02/03/11: Starving the World In Order to Save It
01/31/11: Walking the Middle East Tightrope
01/27/11: Small-scale Terrorist Attacks: Big Strategy?
01/24/11: Jeffery Immelt: A Crony Capitalist In Charge of Job Creation
01/20/11: An ‘Intimate’ Prime-time Interview
01/17/11: Progressives: Always Angry, Newly Desperate
01/12/11: Twain vs. the Totalitarians
01/10/11: Politically Correct Passports?
01/05/11: Showdown at the Fiscal Corral
01/03/11: Reading the Constitution Aloud is a Good Start
12/30/10: Getting Our Moral Mojo Back
12/27/10: PC Airport Safety is an Oxymoron
12/23/10: Getting America Back On Track
12/20/10: A Collectivist Coalition of Convenience
12/15/10: The President Who Wasn't There
12/13/10: Tech-No!
12/08/10: A Lethal Military, Inclusive or Not
12/06/10: The ‘Unexpected’ Consequences of Progressivism
12/01/10: Leakers and Losers
11/29/10: ‘We Won’, Part One
11/22/10: Keep Your Hands Off My Constitution
11/17/10: Grope and Change
11/14/10: Taking Back Our Country, One School At a Time
11/11/10: Checks (and Balances), Please
11/08/10: Curtain Up, Progressives Down
11/04/10: Last Chance, Republicans
11/01/10: By Their Own Words Shall Ye Know Them
10/28/10: Progressive Determination to Undermine American Elections
10/25/10: Shock, but more importantly, action: De-Unionize Public Schools now
10/20/10: Multiculturalism? Check, Please
10/18/10: Healthcare: ‘Alice in Wonderland’ vs. The Constitution
10/11/10: Vote for Restoring the Rule of Law in November
10/11/10: Dems: Running From Clarity
10/07/10: Hypersensitive Hogwash
10/04/10: ‘Comprehensive’ Con Artists
09/29/10: Why Dems Are Going Down in November
09/27/10: The Unholiest of Unholy Alliances
09/22/10: Two Words for Republicans to Remember: ‘I Won’
09/20/10: Purging ‘Me First’ Politicians
09/17/10: No More ‘Lesser of Two Evils’
09/15/10: ‘Recovery’ Arms Race
09/13/10: ‘Bigots’ in the Majority --- Again?
09/09/10: Giving Voters Something to Vote For
09/07/10: Irresponsible Dems, Incomprehensible Bills
09/02/10: War Weary Americans vs. Implacable Islamists
08/31/10: A ‘Dream’ Debased
08/25/10: American ‘Bigots’ Versus Media Propagandists
08/23/10: Recovery Bummer
08/19/10: An Unholy Alliance of Radicals
08/16/10: You've Lost America, Mr. President
08/13/10: The Twin Towers of Progressive Disconnect
08/11/10: A Far Better ‘National Discussion’
08/09/10: It's ‘Only’ One Dead Nun
08/06/10: Incremental Tyranny
08/04/10: Ground Zero Mosque: Context Counts
08/02/10: The Arizona Ruling: a Gift for November
07/29/10: The United Cities of America
07/26/10: JournoList: ‘Coordinated’ Ideological Bankruptcy
07/20/10: Go For Broke Or Get Out of the Way
07/14/10: You're a Liberal/Progressive if You Believe…
07/12/10: $33-an-hour--For Sleeping On the Job
07/08/10: Extortionist Government
07/06/10: ‘Commerce Clause’ Totalitarians
07/01/10: Another Public School Travesty in MA
06/30/10: Calling YOUR Bluff, Mr. President
06/28/10: A Trifecta of Progressive Corruption
06/23/10: Plug the Darn Hole --- In Our Border
06/21/10: Our Empty-Suit-in-Chief
06/16/10: Betraying Our Children
06/14/10: Who Gets the Benefit of the Doubt?
06/07/10: Politically Correct Warfare
06/01/10: Bill Maher's ‘Black’ President
05/25/10: A Mosque At Ground Zero
05/23/10: Libs Stand Tall --- For Mexico
05/19/10: The 'Unintended Consequences' of Liberalism
05/17/10: 'Los' Suns: Stuck on Stupido
05/12/10: Union Audacity: Yes We Will!
05/10/10: Greeks, Leaks and and Double-Speak
05/05/10: Twelve Million Illegals --- or Thirty?
05/02/10: Republicans: Playing Not to Lose Doesn't Cut It
04/28/10: Arizona: Progressivism's Waterloo?
04/26/10: Son of Amnesty
04/22/10: Mortgages and Moral Meltdowns
04/20/10: Bashing Christians — Or Gays?
04/15/10: Personal Integri-‘tea’
04/12/10: Fools, Tools and Ghouls
04/08/10: (Tea) Party On
04/05/10: The Triumph of Mediocrity
04/02/10: Two For the Road
03/29/10: The Innate Immorality of Liberalism
03/24/10: The Art of War
03/22/10: I Want My Country Back
03/18/10: A Perpetual Process
03/17/10: American Exhibitionists
03/15/10: A Light Bulb Moment of Clarity
03/10/10: Little Things Mean A Lot
02/03/10: Budgetary Fork in the Road
02/01/10: Liberal Economic Illiteracy
01/27/10: ‘Roe-ing and Wade-ing’ Back to Reason
01/25/10: Arrogance When Up, Denial When Down
01/20/10: Connecting the Educational Dots
01/19/10: The Next Tea Party?
01/15/10: The Myth That Keeps on Giving
01/13/10: Airport Security Begins Away From the Airport
01/11/10: Secrets and Lies
01/08/10: Embracing Bigotry — or Rejecting Bullying?
01/06/10: Hanging by an Ideological Thread
01/04/10: Our ‘Wonderama’ Bureaucracy
12/30/09: A Day Off
12/28/09: Dangerous Myths
12/25/09: I, Me, Mine
12/23/09: A Very Harry Christmas
12/21/09: My Opinon
12/18/09: The Party of Repeal
12/15/09: Privileged Exemption
11/30/09: ‘Settled’ Science and Unsettled Children
11/30/09: American Sharia Law
11/23/09:The Trial (Travesty) of the Century
11/04/09: American Vampires and Their Political Enablers
11/01/09: ‘Opting Out’ of Insanity?
10/28/09: Cell Phones Cause Brain Cancer. Brain Required
10/26/09: Communism: Nazism With Better PR
10/21/09: Just Asking
10/16/09: Cost Projections vs. Actual Costs, or Hope and Change vs. Reality
10/14/09: News you can use …
10/07/09: Incremental Insidiousness
10/05/09: MIA: Common Sense and Common Decency
09/30/09: Iran: Bad Options and Unpreparedness
09/21/09: Crying Racism: the Last Refuge of Scoundrels
09/11/09: 9/11 Cannot Be Sanitized
09/08/09: ‘Truthers’ and Consequences
09/01/09: A ‘Paper Trail’ Challenge for the Mainstream Media
08/31/09: Drowning in Amorality
08/26/09: The Republican Recovery Program
© 2010, Arnold Ahlert
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