Celebrity Apprentice host Donald Trump might help get U.S. President Barack Obama re-elected accidentally. The man responsible for the mass promotion of the ‘birther issue’ — the political scandal that he got everyone fired up about last year (then fizzled out in a blaze of long-form birth certificate glory) — has not been able to step away from the political arena. After challenging the Obama’s to produce the president’s birth certificate, he went on to say he’d be hosting one of the GOP Primary Debates. When some of the candidates balked and he was let go from the job, he claimed he left the Republican party. Now, he says if the GOP candidate he backs (Mitt Romney) does not get the nomination, he’ll consider a third-party run to split the ticket. If he does that, the incumbent president is almost sure to win. So why would he consider doing it?
Elections 2012 is almost here and the race for the GOP nomination has been both brutal and bitter. Entering the first week of February with a near victory in Iowa, a win in New Hampshire, a sore loss to Newt Gingrich in evangelical Christian South Carolina, but recovering by handing his rival’s butt to him on a plate with a 14% victory in Florida Mormon Mitt Romney is the Republican front-runner.
He has been valiantly defending himself against Democrats, the liberal media sources like CNN (not FOX), and attacks from both Sarah Palin and Rick Perry. Every time the Republican party starts to gain cohesion and looks like they might be able to rally around the millionaire (who happens to be the most likely candidate to beat incumbent president Barack Obama, the angry former speaker of the House of Representatives stirs up some sort of publicity mess that is ugly.
Who needs to watch reality television or Donald Trump‘s new season of Celebrity Apprentice with all this real life drama going on?
For instance, this week, Mitt Romney’s sound bite was massively distorted and released to the media. While he was busy making a pledge to help the 95% of Americans who have been hurt the most by the economic crisis, someone in a media room decided that creative editing of his clip would make him look like an ass and the news networks more money. Rather that sounding presidential (which he did in the original video clip), the manipulated and redacted sound bite made it appear as if the GOP front-runner did not care about the poor. Newt Gingrich, knowing full well what the media did, was on the quote in a matter of minutes proclaiming himself to be the only candidate who cared about all Americans. He flat-out knew that the quotes were taken entirely out of context, but that did not make him stand up to the press to say he was outraged (the way he did to help him gain victory in South Carolina. Nope, old buddy Newt went for the jugular like the Washingtonian insider he is — and has now lost the potential confidence of many independent voters who did not realize he’d done it.
[Hearing him say he’s essentially the bi-partisan crusader against class warfare and the only real people’s candidate in his bash against Romney sounded impressive until people started looking into how his media cronies who want him elected positioned him for the free publicity by throwing Mitt under the bus with the phony sound clip.]
Since losing Florida on Tuesday, Newt Gingrich has been doing whatever it takes to get his name in the press. He started by telling a radio talk show host that he wants green celebrity actor Brad Pitt to play him in a biopic movie of his life. He’s bragging what a great Reaganite he is — seeming to forget that President Reagan really did not like him and went out of his way to avoid social interaction with him. He’s swept all his extra-marital affairs under the rug by blaming his ex-wives and the media for his past indiscretions. And, of course, those pesky ethics violations — how dare anyone talk about those… even though they go to show character.
Something that falls right in line with the pattern of fundamental human moral decency is Newt Gingrich knowing Romney was misquoted and using it as an opportunity to attack rather than defend a fellow Republican against the media onslaught. By doing so, he shows Americans (especially young people) that the truth only matters when it is convenient and you should only do the right thing if it benefits you is some great way.
Perhaps that is why when Newt Gingrich’s press camp started making comments to the press that former Republican and reality television star Donald Trump would surely endorse his campaign. Twenty-four hours later after Gingrich himself indicated that the millionaire was essentially in his pocket, the news feed started to change.
In the short run, Trump giving his nod of approval to either candidate might boost their chances of winning in Nevada — but that’s not the most important aspect of the political dilemma.
Donald Trump was expected to rally behind Mitt Romney — and confirmed his decision to do so on February 2nd.
This writer (for one) was glad he did. Not because Romney is the one Republican candidate with the best chance of beating Barack Obama but because anyone who endorses Newt Gingrich at this stage of the game has to have questionable morals of their own.
Why?
Because to know an individual is corrupt and to stand behind or beside them so you can benefit (while sacrificing moral dedication to upholding what is right and good) is the wrong thing to do. It’s the wrong example to set for ourselves and for our children, can leave nothing but a legacy of corruption for our grandchildren to clean up emotionally and politically, and shows the world that Americans have forsaken our values. Plain and simple…
Huff Post shares, “Trump last year flirted with a presidential run as a Republican. He was derided for pushing a discredited charge that Obama might not have been born in the United States.”
Trump thought Obama skirted the system and he called him on it.
They reminded us that Trump, “left the Republican Party in December after a presidential debate he had planned to host fell through…”
Trump recognized that by insisting he be able to ask any candidate any question that he wanted, he’s be in control of the debate; realizing some of them were not comfortable being open and honest, he most likely noticed that all these debates are skewed to avoid real issues and oftentimes the truth.
News outlets say the reality television star has recently hinted that he would mount a third-party White House run if his choice among the Republicans does not win the nomination. Endorsing Mitt Romney seems to be his strategy of supporting ethical politics. In fact, when he confirmed his celebrity endorsement of the front-runner, saying, “the former Massachusetts governor is “not going to allow bad things to continue to happen to this country we all love.” [Chicago Sun Times]
He might be a showman who thrives on getting attention, but when his party started to sour, he walked. Now, he seems to have changed his mind about endorsing Gingrich since he showed his butt.
Not that the question of whether or not he would do the right thing and endorse Mitt Romney as the best man for the job of trying to beat the Democrats has been answered, the ball has been lobbed into the GOP’s court more like a rock with a note tied on it thrown to break a glass window.
The most important question to ask is whether or not Donald Trump entering the presidential race as an independent third-party candidate would take enough votes away from Newt Gingrich. Should the Grand Old Party be foolish enough to nominate the former speaker to run on the Republican ticket in the 2012 Election, a Romney/Trump independent party ticket might steal the election away from both parties.
That’s Hollywood culture for you. If he really decides to go to the mattresses with the Republicans for pushing Gingrich on the general populace, then he’s likely to accomplish one thing: chaos. He’ll either pair up with Mitt (which might be kind of awesome) or he’ll help do the unthinkable for most conservatives. His interference in the political process might help get Barack Obama re-elected.
Even though Donald Trump would love to be the man to tell him, “Mr. President, you’re fired…”, Mitt Romney is most likely the only man qualified to oust him from the White House position.