The Farce That is Donald Trump

[tekisui]

Source: Salon

Well, if we're forced to endure a potential presidential run by Donald Trump, at least journalists can try to pay attention to his crazy, contradictory political statements over the last decade or so. That process has belatedly begun. Trump is being challenged over his flip-flops: from pro-choice to antiabortion; from a supporter of higher taxes for the rich to an opponent; from a guy who called for a Canadian-style healthcare system (single payer) to one who trashes "Obamacare" and says we can't afford it. Oh, and most notably, from someone who praised President Obama in his last book, to someone who now, appallingly, foments the lie at the heart of "birtherism," that the president hasn't produced his birth certificate and thus may not be eligible for the presidency.

The birther nonsense alone should keep Trump out of the ranks of people taken seriously, but it hasn't. I just want to examine one flip-flop in particular to show how ridiculous a Donald Trump candidacy would really be.

In 1999 on "Meet the Press," he told host Tim Russert that he was pro-choice:

TRUMP: Well, look, I'm very pro-choice. I hate the concept of abortion. I hate it. I hate everything it stands for. I cringe when I listen to people debating the subject. But you still -- I just believe in choice.

RUSSERT: But you would not ban it?

TRUMP: No.

But today, with NBC's Savannah Guthrie, he said he's "pro-life," and demonstrated a laughable ignorance about the "right to privacy" that was at the heart of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision:

(snip)

TRUMP: Well, I don't -- it's a pretty strange way of getting to pro-life. I mean, it's a very unique way of asking about pro-life. Why are you -- what does that have to do with privacy? How are you -- how are you equating pro-life with privacy?

GUTHRIE: Well, you know, about the Roe v. Wade decision.

TRUMP: Yes, right, sure. Look, I'm for pro-life -- I am pro-life. I've said it.

more: http://www.salon.com/news/donald_trump/index.html?story=/opinion/walsh/politics/2011/04/19/the_farce_that_is_donald_trump

[opihimoimoi]

1. Trump has revealed a nasty side...he is a pathological liar....besides being a serial bully with an

egotistical bent....

He has lost respect and credibility....essential for Oval applicants...

The loss is so great...he will never recover....

He blew it big time....

[bindelh]

2. Trump is a joke...

But other 'jokes' have ended up being the other party's candidate and some have actually won i.e. GW Bush for example.

Trump is a comb over faker stroking his ego at the moment and of course the media is fawning all over themselves to cover this waste of oxygen.

Why even talk about this looser?

[no_hypocrisy]

3. Joke or not, Trump wins if he can convince the right amount of voters to support him.

Schwartenegger won in California because voters thought it would be "fun" to elect a candidate who represented an action figure on film. How can you trust the electorate to support viable candidates after that fiasco?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4820594

[ChairmanAgnostic]

4. Pure theatre, intended to distract the masses

from the complete and utter collapse of the GOP as a working political organization.

[slackmaster]

5. He's a farce to be reckoned with

A legend in his own mind.