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SalonWell, 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