Friday, April 29, 2011

The Carnival Clown Gets Dunked

Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page gets the award for Best Analogy the Week in describing Donald Trump as being like a loudmouthed carnival clown who sits on a collapsible platform over a barrel of water and shouts insults at the passing crowd. Because that's all that the guy is good for.

Actually, the Republican presidential wannabe has had an issue even near and dearer to his double comb-over heart, and that is to bash China, which he has repeatedly said is "raping this country" because of "all the crap" it imports. And that the problem with the U.S. is that "it just doesn't manufacture stuff anymore."

Well guess what? The bulls eye on that collapsible platform has taken a direct hit: Trump's pricey Signature Collection of menswear is . . . made . . . in . . . China.

* * * * *
Meanwhile, the carnival clown's fake "Celebrity Apprentice" television reality show is tanking in the ratings.

There has been speculation that Trump's president run would last only until the end of the current season of "Celebrity Apprentice," a show that National Media says has among the most liberal viewers in prime time television. But the firm, which books political ads on television, says the show's ratings are southbound because Trump is driving viewers away.

* * * * *
Trump has ridden to the top of the Republican presidential polls by challenging President Obama to prove that he's an American.

But now he's being challenged to prove that he's a Republican, a not unfair question since he has been a Democrat and contributed heavily to Democratic candidates.
Senator Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican, took a swipe at Trump the day after his infamous press conference in New Hampshire

"I’ve come to New Hampshire today because I'm very concerned," said Paul. "I want to see the original long-form certificate of Donald Trump’s Republican registration."

* * * * *
David Frum, a former economic speechwriter for George Bush, was among the more lucid Republican voices until he was cast out of the party temple for questioning its rightward drift.

Highly critical of Trump, he also is not buying the view of Republican-centric pundits who deny that birtherism ever got a grip:

"Sorry, that’s just wrong. Not only did Trump surge ahead in Republican polls by flaming racial fires -- not only did conservative media outlets from Fox to Drudge to the Breitbart sites indulge the birthers -- but so also did every Republican candidate who said, 'I take the president at his word.' Birthers did not doubt the president's "word." They were doubting the official records of the state of Hawaii. It's like answering a 9/11 conspiracist by saying, 'I take the 9/11 families at their word that they lost their loved ones.' "

* * * * *
Then there is the matter of how much dough Trump actually has. He has been notably coy about revealing his net worth, something that he would have to do as a presidential candidate, and dismisses questions about it with a wave of his hand and a pledge to reveals that info "at the appropriate time."

In all likelihood, Trump is worth considerably less than it would appear and it is probable, given how many of his properties are over-leveraged, that he is far from being a billionaire as he has repeatedly intimated.

Cartoon by Michael Ramirez/Investors Business Daily

No comments: