Charlie Cook in National Journal:
Some bright, talented, and highly qualified Republicans are thinking about running for president. Haley Barbour of Mississippi, Mitch Daniels of Indiana, Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, and Mitt Romney of Massachusetts—all current or former governors—are eminently capable. Regardless of whether you like or agree with them, they are worthy of consideration for the Republican nomination.
How demoralizing it must be, then, for them to look at national polling that shows Donald Trump tied for first place for the GOP nomination…
To Cook, as to most serious political observers, Trump is a joke – and a bad joke, at that. And in a very real sense, they are correct. It is absurd for Donald Trump to consider running for President (doubly so as he’s already indicated that if he doesn’t get the GOP nomination he’ll run as an Independent…if he doesn’t back away from that, he won’t score 1% in New Hampshire). But there he is, front and center in the MSM, certainly looking like he plans to run. The joke is becoming reality – and a lot of people don’t know how to deal with it.
The appeal of Donald Trump is that he’s not “one of the boys”; he’s not part of our political class, held in utter contempt by the American people. Make no mistake about it – while people are dismayed by Obama, there is not much faith placed in the Republican party, either. Our politics is rotten – our politicians have taken the greatest nation in human history and turned us in to a weak, blundering giant. This is not the way America is supposed to be. Trump might not be the answer, but neither is politics as usual. Trump is unusual – in the extreme.
I don’t think Donald Trump will win the GOP nomination. And I don’t think he’ll run as an Independent – because he seems to passionately want Obama out of office and an Independent run by Trump might be the only way Obama can possibly secure a second term (of course, Trump’s ego might get in the way, here, but in Trump I sense a strong worry about America as his motivation). If, however, Trump does win the GOP nomination then it will be because he manages to put forth a series of goals which speak to American aspirations. In other words, if Trump presents a plan the American people can get behind, and no one else does, then he might rise to the stars.
I said some time ago that no one can say for sure what will happen in 2012. We are in a revolutionary political period here. Someone might come out of nowhere and win the whole ball of wax. I was thinking along the lines of someone like Cain, but Trump could do it, too. Don’t hold to old, tired notions of what can and cannot happen. Keep an open mind. Be flexible. A Ruling Class is dying and no one can say what will replace it – only that it is sure to be replaced. Trump has his place in our debates – and an honorable place, too. Don’t consider him a joke – consider him as he is; oppose him or support him because you think or don’t think he’ll make a good President…but don’t write him off, or allow the Ruling Class to tell you what you should think about him – or anyone else in the race.
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