Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Little Shop of Horrors.


Words.

"Having Donald Trump in the presidential race gave it the feel of a carnival.

ABC News described his “roller-coaster flirtation” with a run for the White House. The Post’s Chris Cillizza wrote of the “circus-like speculation” about his presidential aspirations. The New York Daily News put Trump in clown makeup and called him “Sideshow Don,” while the Post’s Jennifer Rubin dubbed him “Trump the Clown.” President Obama himself used the term “carnival barker” in an apparent reference to Trump.

But I think a different theme-park metaphor might be more relevant to the last 90 days of the Trump pseudo campaign: the House of Horrors. He showed us how truly scary our political system has become.

...Trump pulled this off because he understood how to exploit our failing political system. Our celebrity culture equates name recognition with good leadership, and our Supreme Court, by forbidding any reasonable restraint on campaign finance, has turned money into political power. Trump had plenty of both.

Yes, he looked silly when Obama released his full birth certificate, and he looked small when Osama bin Laden was killed and when the speakers mocked him at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. But, as his suitors at NBC can attest, he did only good things for the Trump brand. “Ultimately,” he wrote in his bombastic announcement Monday, “business is my greatest passion and I am not ready to leave the private sector.”

He never was, of course. For making so many people believe otherwise, Trump should be very proud of himself, to coin a phrase. The rest of us should feel like taking a shower."

  • THE WASHINGTON POST: Donald Trump and the House of Horrors
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