BY MARK FALLATI
Does anyone remember Pat Paulsen? He ran for president six times. One year he placed second in the Democratic primary in New Hampshire. He even received 10,000 votes for the Republican presidential nomination a different year. These figures are only significant because Paulsen is a comedian. His campaigns were primarily jokes with secondary political objectives. The 2012 presidential campaign also featured a joke candidate: Donald Trump.
He was not a fake candidate in the same sense as Paulsen, but his attempt to go from real estate and TV icon to leader of one of the most powerful nations in the world was laughable. An economic conservative, he was hoping to take advantage of a weak and undecided Republican field. The next year and a half will be an interesting time in the world of politics as the GOP tries to unseat a controversial president while its own party is divided over pretty much everything. An economic conservative, Trump hoped to take advantage of the weak and undecided Republican Party.
With the meteoric rise of the Tea Party in recent years, Trump planned to harness the energetic support of ultra-conservatives. When he first announced his candidacy, he did so very effectively. He understood there was harsh political sentiment against President Obama, thus he helped initiate a “birther” movement that was meant to transfer Obama contempt into Trump support. Indeed, as more calls came for Obama to release his full birth certificate, Trump rose higher and higher in early GOP nomination polls--claiming the top spot for a time.
However, once Obama proved his American birthright, Democrats and Republicans alike started to attack Trump. They criticized his inattention to real issues during a time of great American need. Karl Rove, a respected Republican insider, called him a “joke,” and other GOP candidates chastised him for caring too much about irrelevant minutiae.
Trump still faced flack after the birther issue was resolved--especially from Obama himself. At the annual White House Correspondents Dinner, Obama made several quips about his potential 2012 opponent. He joked, “We can finally get back to focusing on the issues that matter. Like, did we fake the moon landing? What really happened in Roswell? And where are Biggie and Tupac?” Fits of laughter erupted throughout the room that night, and over eight million viewers witnessed the event on YouTube. Obama’s playful comments turned the candidacy of “the Donald” from the most legitimate one in the Republican Party to a farce.
America is a free country with an open democracy. There is nothing to stop a businessman from entering politics (e.g. Ross Perot running for president in 1992 or Michael Bloomberg becoming mayor of New York City). But Trump is not just a businessman: he is a media icon with no political experience or skill. To wit, one of Obama’s funny jabs was a remark on Trump’s “credentials and breadth of experience.” How can you take seriously someone whose most pressing concern is the already-proven birthplace of the president of the United States? What about the 8.7% of Americans (that comes out to nearly 27 million people) who are without jobs? Or the two wars we’re still involved in? The people of America should believe that their president is a strong, capable leader--not the butt of political jokes. As long as Donald Trump remains the latter, like Paulsen, he will continue to make America laugh as we move closer to Decision 2012.
