Barack Obama and Donald Trump have more in common than once favoring single-payer national health plans. They are both thin-skinned. Neither ever says he’s sorry or expresses regret. Instead they blame and deride others.
Now for Obama this behavior has been VASTLY (caps deliberate) more consequential. His refusal to acknowledge having called ISIS the jayvee team, the lies surrounding Benghazi, the further prevarications surrounding Obamacare and the absolute failure to admit anything wrong after he abrogated his chemical-weapons red line with Assad (resulting in hundreds of thousands of Syrians now swarming into Europe) are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.
Maybe it’s time to amend one of Hollywood’s more famous lines: Self-love means never having to say you’re sorry.
Unfortunately, Donald Trump is prey to to the same self-love, or is it insecurity, as is Obama, although on a far lesser scale. At first we could excuse his crass comments about fellow Republicans, because at least he wasn’t a politically correct wimp and everybody — myself included — has had it up to wherever “here” is with political correctness. But his recent assaults are wearing thin.
His comments about Carly Fiorina’s looks were repellent and creepy and that they were made to Rolling Stone, of all publications, is mind-boggling. Isn’t Trump aware of the politics and, more importantly, the utter dishonesty of that wretched rag that recently was caught lying through its newsprint about a non-existent rape scandal at a University of Virginia fraternity? If Trump gets to be president, he better get a sense of who his real enemies are — one of them is Jann Wenner, the publisher of Rolling Stone, not Carly Fiorina.
Then, he got in a dust-up with Dr. Ben Carson, his nearest competitor, over the issue of faith. To be fair to Trump, Carson started it and then apologized, what we call in tennis an unforced error. But Trump’s response was bizarre and dimwitted, attacking Carson as a doctor. Say what? Anyone paying attention knows Carson has been a stupendous physician, saving multiple lives and pioneering operations, one separating conjoint twins. A child of extreme poverty, he ended up the youngest ever pediatric brain surgery chief at Johns Hopkins, one the finest hospitals literally in the world, treating brain tumors in children, while Trump was building golf courses for rich people. When Donald started his out-of-control screed against Carson on CNN, this time — sorry, Trump fans — I wanted to puke. This time he had gone too far. He seemed infantile.
It makes me sad to say that because I thought being so far ahead in the polls would mature Donald, make him more self-confident, able to laugh off a thing or two. You could say he is what he is and all this publicity will only make his numbers go up yet again. And maybe it will. But I am not so sure. Time will tell, of course, as it always does. But for now, count me among those who is not comfortable with this guy being in charge of the nuclear football.
Not that I’m happy with Obama being anywhere near it, of course. As we learn more about the extraordinary mendacity of the Iran nuclear deal, no one should be. Trump spoke out strongly against the deal, calling it the worst ever made. It is — and I applaud him for saying so. So despite my growing disappointment with Donald, unlike George Will and others, I would still vote for him in the general election. I am nowhere near saying I wouldn’t vote for him against any of the Democrats and it’s unlikely I ever will be. But maybe this time he’ll learn a lesson that doesn’t seem so complicated.
Related: Jindal: Trump an ‘Egomaniacal Madman’ Poised to ‘Destroy’ GOP’s Chances.
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