So... still liking Donald Trump as Republican Nominee?

[stebo0728]

[orangeNblue]

I like Trump for President. We are in the midst of an economic crisis. He's business savvy, intelligent (at least from a business/financial point of view), and he will do what needs to be done to bring America back to a wealthy, dominant, and powerful national. The American dollar is losing it's value, and we need more of the outsourced jobs to come back home for the our citizens who are unemployed and searching. Unemployment and welfare need to have stricter regulations. For me personally, I'm tired of seeing the only growth in our homeland being the waistlines of people shoveling fast food in their mouth.

[bigbadberry3]

I like Trump for President. We are in the midst of an economic crisis. He's business savvy, intelligent (at least from a business/financial point of view), and he will do what needs to be done to bring America back to a wealthy, dominant, and powerful national. The American dollar is losing it's value, and we need more of the outsourced jobs to come back home for the our citizens who are unemployed and searching. Unemployment and welfare need to have stricter regulations. For me personally, I'm tired of seeing the only growth in our homeland being the waistlines of people shoveling fast food in their mouth.

Wiki-

"Financial problems (1989–1997)
By 1989, the effects of the recession left Trump unable to meet loan payments. Trump financed the construction of his third casino, the $1 billion Taj Mahal, primarily with high-interest junk bonds. Although he shored up his businesses with additional loans and postponed interest payments, by 1991 increasing debt brought Trump to business bankruptcy[36] and the brink of personal bankruptcy. Banks and bond holders had lost hundreds of millions of dollars, but opted to restructure his debt to avoid the risk of losing more money in court. The Taj Mahal re-emerged from bankruptcy on October 5, 1991, with Trump ceding 50% ownership in the casino to the original bondholders in exchange for lowered interest rates on the debt and more time to pay it off.[47]
On November 2, 1992, the Trump Plaza Hotel was forced to file a prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection plan after being unable to make its debt payments. Under the plan, Trump agreed to give up a 49% stake in the luxury hotel to Citibank and five other lenders. In return Trump would receive more favorable terms on the remaining $550+ million owed to the lenders and retain his position as chief executive, though he would not be paid and would not have a role in day-to-day operations.[48]
By 1994, Trump had eliminated a large portion of his $900 million personal debt[49] and reduced significantly his nearly $3.5 billion in business debt. While he was forced to relinquish the Trump Shuttle (which he had bought in 1989), he managed to retain Trump Tower in New York City and control of his three casinos in Atlantic City. Chase Manhattan Bank, which lent Trump the money to buy the West Side yards, his biggest Manhattan parcel, forced the sale of a parcel to Asian developers. According to former members of the Trump Organization, Trump did not retain any ownership of the site's real estate - the owners merely promised to give him about 30 percent of the profits once the site was completely developed or sold. Until that time, the owners wanted to keep Trump on to do what he did best: build things. They gave him a modest construction fee and a management fee to oversee the development. The new owners also allowed him to put his name on the buildings that eventually rose on the yards because his well-known moniker allowed them to charge a premium for their condos.[50]
Trump was elected to the Gaming Hall of Fame in 1995.[51]
In 1995, he combined his casino holdings into the publicly held Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts. Wall Street drove its stock above $35 in 1996, but by 1998 it had fallen into single digits as the company remained profitless and struggled to pay just the interest on its nearly $3 billion in debt. Under such financial pressure, the properties were unable to make the improvements necessary for keeping up with their flashier competitors."

[IBCoupe]

In 2008, he said in court that the recession was an act of God, and that, pursuant to his force majeure clause, he shouldn't have to pay his creditors. In fact, he demanded that Deutsche Bank pay him $3 million for hurting his reputation by demanding its $40 million back. Oh, and the tenants he's collecting from? When asked if they should pay, Trump replied, "They dont have a force majeure clause."

That's the kind of business-savvy, debt-dodging President we need!

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/05/busin ... orris.html

[Eikon]

I think "the Don" is far too arrogant to win a presidential election. His arrogance may work when he can intimidate a bunch of idiot celebrities on TV, or when he can dominate some other business people in commercial real estate. But, when put up against some really smart politicians in the politician's world.. he'll be in big trouble.. he'll get called out for being full of BS and he will not be able to dig himself out of the ditch.

Still.. I'm looking forward to his run because I think it will make for some incredible entertainment. It'll really make the race interesting and add some personality to all the drudgery.

[orangeNblue]

I agree that he is a bit arrogant, and that his entering in the race is probably just a advertising stunt...but the fact does remain...he is a smart business man. Even if there are some hang-ups along the way, he has created an empire that is worth $2.7 billion. I mean yeah maybe he'll gold plate the white house if he was to win, but maybe there is also the chance that he can actually start pulling this country out of debt.

It sucks losing your job! And its even worse when you have gone to school for 5 years to get an engineering degree (5 years because I worked along side for 3 of them) You have 4 years of engineering experience, and you still can't find a job because the only people being hired are veteran engineers taking a huge pay cut to just have a job because he/she was let go as well. Obama has been a terrible President from the stand point military defense and engineering. So many people where I live have lost their jobs and it looks like a lot of NASA employees may get the boot as well.

I think we need a President who is going to come in put stronger restrictions on welfare and unemployment, bring more of the foreign outsourced jobs back to America, bring us out of debt without sky rocketing taxes, find new sources of oil on our own land or off-shore (even with the tragic oil spill that happened last year)

I also like qualities like Pro-choice, strong support of the 2nd Ammendment, pro-gay marriage (what does it matter as long as they pay the same fees as heterosexual customers do), and pro marijuana legalization (let tax that shiz and put the same restrictions on it similar to those you see with alcohol)....tho prolly won't see much of that in a candidate.

[AppleBonker]

I also like qualities like Pro-choice [...] pro-gay marriage

Fairly certain Trump is pro-life and opposed to same-sex marriage. I think in one interview with O'Reilly (maybe?) he talked about friends who didn't want kids but had them anyway and how much they love them now. And he also mentioned something about being anti-gay because it "just doesn't feel right". lol

[stebo0728]

He's whatever his platform needs to be, which is dangerous. He's even taken on the mantle of religion lately. Anyone who sells out for political power starts losing favor in my book.

[IBCoupe]

He's whatever his platform needs to be, which is dangerous. He's even taken on the mantle of religion lately. Anyone who sells out for political power starts losing favor in my book.

This.

But I'm not worried. He'll drop out.

[orangeNblue]

Yeah he is pro-life and against gay marriage...but there will never be a Republican candidate that is pro-choice and pro gay marriage

Trump will most likely get all the advertising he needs then drop out of the race, but like I've said before our country doesn't need just another politician, we need someone who can be more

[HashiriyaS14]

I'm gonna go with wanting to raise taxes?

Like it or not, when push comes to shove, a *majority* of the nation still wants most of the government services we have right now, especially the entitlements.

There is NO way to pay for these programs over the long run without a tax hike. No amount of stimulative tax cut voodoo will ever plug that gap. I'd love to do away with most of that stuff, albeit gradually, but I'm in the minority and I probably will be forever.

We will either have a massive fiscal crisis or we will have a dramatic tax hike, sometime in the next two decades. What we will almost certainly not have, regrettably, is a serious slashing of entitlements.



Back on Topic: Trump, Palin, Gingrich, Huckabee, and Bachmann would all pull out of the race today if they had any concern whatsoever for the general electoral success of the GOP. They don't though, they only care about their own eventual book sales and television ratings, and so they're going to savage all the legitimate candidates in the primaries.

[AZhitman]

But, when put up against some really smart politicians in the politician's world.. he'll be in big trouble.. he'll get called out for being full of BS and he will not be able to dig himself out of the ditch.

Hell, he couldn't even handle Anderson Cooper.

[Cold_Zero]

Though I am not a fan of the man, you have to admit 'The Trump gets Results.'
The White House released the long form birth certificate under pressure from Trump.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default ... g-form.pdf

[IBCoupe]

under pressure from Trump.

[citation needed]

[Cold_Zero]

I actually said it in a joking manner. But it appears he is taking credit for it..

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42779923/ns ... ite_house/

White House officials have said the issue was settled long ago. But so-called "birthers" opposed to Obama have kept the issue alive. Potential Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump recently began questioning why Obama hadn't ensured the long form was released.
Trump, for his part, claimed credit for the release of the document during a media event in New Hampshire. The developer said he was "honored" of his role in the controversy.

"I've accomplished something nobody else has accomplished," in getting the birth certificate made public. Trump said he would want to see it before proclaiming it authentic. "I want to look at it but I hope it’s true."

Trump also questioned why it has taken so long for the White House to release the document.

[IBCoupe]

Ah, okay. Sorry.

But it doesn't surprise me. I hope he draws attention to himself on this one.

[Cold_Zero]

Negative attention? That is all the guy is good for.

[JTR]

This ugly bastard is so full of himself, he will not even shake hands with a common person.

[heliochrome85]

Not long after the White House released the President’s birth certificate this morning, Donald Trump stepped off a helicopter, ambled up to a bank of microphones, and declared, “Today, I’m very proud of myself.” (One assumes this is a daily ritual for Trump, but today there were more cameras than usual.) Trump also declared himself relieved that “the press can stop asking me questions” about the birther issue and we can now move on to more important ones, such as “China ripping off this country.” What is there to say anymore about Donald Trump? That he is an irrepressible jackass who thinks of himself as a sly fox? That he is a buffoon with bathroom fixtures of gold? Why bother, after so many decades? There is no insulting someone who lives in a self-reinforcing fantasy world.

No matter. What is truly disturbing is the game Trump has been participating in, the conspiracy thinking he was playing with. And here the polls—to the extent that they can be taken as hard fact—tell a disturbing story, in which no small part of the country has believed in a variety of tales about Barack Obama. There is the birther fantasy; the fantasy that Bill Ayers wrote “Dreams from My Father”; the fantasy that the President has some other father, and not Barack Obama, Sr.; the fantasy that Obama got into Harvard Law School with the help of a Saudi prince and the Nation of Islam. There is a veritable fantasy industry at work online and in the book-publishing industry; there are dollars to be made.

The cynicism of the purveyors of these fantasies is that they know very well what they are playing at, the prejudices they are fanning: that Obama is foreign, a fake, incapable of writing a book, incapable of intellectual achievement. Let’s say what is plainly true (and what the President himself is reluctant to say): these rumors, this industry of fantasy, are designed to arouse a fear of the Other, of an African-American man with a white American mother and a black Kenyan father. Obama, as a politician, is clearly not a radical; he is a center-left pragmatist. If anything, he believes deeply in his capacity to lead with subtle diplomacy and political maneuvering, with a highly realistic sense of the possible; in fact, to many he is maddeningly pragmatic.

The one radical thing about Barack Obama is his race, his name. Of course, there is nothing innately radical about being black or having Hussein as middle name; what is radical is that he has those attributes and is sitting in the Oval Office. And even now, more than two years after the fact, this is deeply disturbing to many people, and, at the same time, the easiest way to arouse visceral opposition to him. Let’s be even plainer: to do what Trump has done (and he is only the latest and loudest and most spectacularly hirsute) is a conscious form of race-baiting, of fear-mongering. And if that makes Donald Trump proud, then what does that say for him? Perhaps now he will go away, satisfied that this passage has sufficiently restored his fame quotient and television ratings. The shame is that there are still many more around who, in the name of truth-telling, are prepared to pump the atmosphere full of poison.

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/n ... z1L3eVdZ1j

[AZhitman]

Leave it to those mouthbreathing pansies at the NY'er to play the race card, just like Jesse, Al and Louis.

Race-baiting?

God forbid anyone should question ANYTHING about "The Chosen One".

F*** them, F*** the NY'er, and F*** the birthers. They're ALL idiots.

[Bubba1]

Yeah he is pro-life and against gay marriage...but there will never be a Republican candidate that is pro-choice and pro gay marriage

Trump will most likely get all the advertising he needs then drop out of the race, but like I've said before our country doesn't need just another politician, we need someone who can be more

For the record, the last time Trump considered running for President as an independant, he said he was pro-choice. This time, since he's seeking the Republican nomination, unsurprisingly, he's now pro-life.

There are other issues where he gives conflicting messages as well, which will likely get exploited by Democrats if he ends up the Republican nominee. I just don't see him with enough patience to do a presidential campaign. He's seems more geared for a sprint, and a presidential campaign is more like a series of marathons. One thing for sure that most of can agree, his daughter is hot.

[heliochrome85]

Leave it to those mouthbreathing pansies at the NY'er to play the race card, just like Jesse, Al and Louis.

Race-baiting?

God forbid anyone should question ANYTHING about "The Chosen One".

F*** them, F*** the NY'er, and F*** the birthers. They're ALL idiots.

im sure you are right. the new yorker and its writers have no clue what goes on in REAL AMERICA.

[IBCoupe]

Leave it to those mouthbreathing pansies at the NY'er to play the race card, just like Jesse, Al and Louis.

Race-baiting?

God forbid anyone should question ANYTHING about "The Chosen One".

F*** them, F*** the NY'er, and F*** the birthers. They're ALL idiots.

Greg, who was the last person who saw this much crap over his birth certificate? Which president was the last one to be questioned on it at all? Not to mention the fact that he presented the document that had legal force back in June of 2008. Why would that linger?

The mouthbreathers are the ones who can't accept a black president, so much so that they convince themselves that he's not a citizen. Why, nobody with a name like that could be an American citizen! Right, Tariq? The desire to see his records at Columbia to prove what? That he only got into Harvard and made top 10% of his class because of affirmative action?

I have to say when it comes to racism in the birther movement: if it walks like a duck...

The fact that Donald Trump and much of the rest of the Republican field are using dog whistles to stir up that particularly fish-like group of mouth-breathers in their base is not a surprise, but it speaks mountains. How many Republicans have been saying for the past two years, "Well, I take the President at his word, but I can't tell other people what to believe" about the birth certificate? As if it's a matter of trust rather than fact?

"Hey, Isaac, what do you think of those people who dispute Greg's claim that tires are made of rubber?"
"Well, I take him at his word, but I can't tell other people what to think."

Yes, you f*** can. You look into the camera, and say, "Hey, ***holes, listen up: he's a U.S. citizen. He says it. His birth certificate says it. And Hawaii says it. That's it. Go back to piddlin' your pud."

[HashiriyaS14]

LOL at Trump trolling America.

[AZhitman]

...or, you could just present the document up-front like every other POTUS has done...

Just sayin'.

BTW, every, and I mean EVERY candidate faces scrutiny and you know it, whether it be for their marital history, their service to the country, their draft avoidance, their ancestry, their behavior during college, etc...

But if it makes you feel better labeling it "racism", then I suppose all those other instances were race-based as well.

[IBCoupe]

...or, you could just present the document up-front like every other POTUS has done...

Just sayin'.

BTW, every, and I mean EVERY candidate faces scrutiny and you know it, whether it be for their marital history, their service to the country, their draft avoidance, their ancestry, their behavior during college, etc...

But if it makes you feel better labeling it "racism", then I suppose all those other instances were race-based as well.

Greg, he did. He presented his birth certificate in June of 2008. He presented the version that you present to show that you were born here. It's what you show to get a driver's license. It'swhat you showto get married. It's what you show to go to college. He DID present that almost three years ago.

He was facing scrutiny for something he resolved years ago, and you're telling me that neither his name nor his skin tone explain the derp?

[HashiriyaS14]

Yeah, he's required to present what any normal person would present, which is the one he showed in 2008.

He's NOT required to go "above and beyond" to get an unusual document just to satisfy a bunch of raving lunatics, which is what he finally did in 2011 to squash the debate.

The requirement was completely fulfilled by the short-form certificate.

[AZhitman]

He's NOT required to go "above and beyond" to get an unusual document just to satisfy a bunch of raving lunatics, which is what he finally did in 2011 to squash the debate.

In that case, he should have stood his ground.

Besides, the birthers weren't gonna vote for him anyway, so why the hell does he care what they think?

Stand up for something or GTFO.

[C-Kwik]

In that case, he should have stood his ground.

Besides, the birthers weren't gonna vote for him anyway, so why the hell does he care what they think?

Stand up for something or GTFO.

I wouldn't be surprised if there was some pressure to put this to rest by the Republican party. Trump was becoming a big distraction from real politics and needed to be shut up. While it would be unlikely he would win, he could be a distraction in the primaries. Cutting his only "real" leg out from under him at the right time would reduce his chances of running and any effect he might have. This is purely speculation on my part of course. Another speculation I have is that during the White House Correspondent Dinner, his honoring of the media was a way of trying to hide a message in hopes of influencing the media into reporting real news on the real issues. That Trump had so much media attention at all was a shame among many other headline topics that shouldn't have been. The topic seemed out of place for me otherwise. But again, its my own opinion.

[AZhitman]

As usual, you're pretty much spot-on, Chano.

Y'know, I shouldn't be too harsh on him. The reality is, even if someone with a fully-functional moral compass and a boatload of integrity and credibility came on the scene, he / she would be ripped to shreds by the various factions. Ugh. I'm a cynic. Great.

Realistically, dignity and respect has gone the way of music on MTV - it's been replaced by more loud, more dumb, more offensive, more outrageous.