There is a view that Donald Trump does not need to be taken seriously, that no one in their right mind will vote for him as president of the United States.
I don’t agree.
Crazy anti-immigrant rhetoric like Trump spouts will find enough of an echo with extreme right wingers within the GOP to boost him in the race to win the party’s nomination.
Ted Cruz, the Texas senator with Irish and Cuban roots, defended The Donald against the “Washington immigration reform lobby” for a very good reason. He is hoping to take those votes himself.
Given that Trump will definitely be in the Top 10 poll numbers of the 16 or so GOP candidates by the first debate on Fox in August, he will have a huge say.
Of course the mainstream media will profess otherwise, but who do people want to hear right now: the outrageous ranting of an egomaniacal billionaire, or the sober words of Jeb Bush on budget priorities?
My money is on the billionaire.
Trump is no fool. He has parlayed his brash and brassy image into a franchise that has kept him to the forefront of American life for decades now.
Laugh all you want, but Trump is listened to. His shows are network toppers, his books are bestsellers, and his bombast and blather makes for good headlines.
So when a perfectly decent candidate like the governor of Ohio John Kasich, who just got re-elected in a landslide, enters the race, he like most of the others will find Trump flush in his path.
The media may scorn Trump, but his anti-immigrant rant apparently helped his numbers in New Hampshire where he is currently running second in the polls.
Can he win? Probably not, but Trump will suck the oxygen out of every debate and become the story.
That's how it has always been with The Donald.
The American media will finally have to confront their own monster that they created.
He’s the political equivalent of the Kardashians, so of the tabloid moment and of the zeitgeist that he will be impossible to ignore.
The longer he stays in, the more the GOP honchos will be tearing their hair out. He will represent the Id of the ever-white GOP tea partier who is so mad he /she can't take it any more.
Meanwhile, the notion that Trump will not dominate the debates is just plain stupid.
If I was Jeb Bush or Scott Walker I would be very worried now. The Trump Mobile will be arriving in towns across Iowa and New Hampshire this summer. The media will be unable to help themselves and will give him huge coverage.
Hillary and Co. on the Democratic side can’t wait, no doubt, to let the GOP games begin.
Comments