By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | If you don’t want Hillary Clinton to be the next president, you better get off the escalating Trump bandwagon pretty darned quickly.
Having a big mouth that spews provocative remarks just to make headlines is not a qualification for being president. Americans deserve better than a reality TV star becoming political reality.
Fortunately, the billionaire isn’t going to be president of the United States, despite topping the polls now in a field of (what is it today?) 16 GOP candidates. Why? His star will flame out. His mouthiness already is getting him in some trouble. And he bagged an August New Hampshire debate opportunity in a fit of petulance.
But Trump could cause serious problems down the road for the GOP if his campaign juggernaut continues. There’s already talk about the possibility that he’d become an independent candidate for 2016. Sound familiar? Remember another gazillionaire whose entry into a presidential contest split the GOP vote and propelled a Clinton into the White House? Like Ross Perot in 1992, a third-party bid by Trump would peel away GOP voters, which would boost the Democratic nominee into the win column.
Observers suggest Trump will burn out because there’s a long time between today’s outrageous statements about immigration or John McCain and the February presidential preference primary in South Carolina. Trump can only use stunts, such as giving out Lindsey Graham’s phone number, for so long.
Voters, says Winthrop University pollster Scott Huffmon, eventually want to see more than a circus — they want to see serious talk about real issues, not bogeymen, from a presidential candidate.
“He’s garnered enough interest now for people to want to see what he says in the debates — to see if he is all bluff and bluster or to see if he has some substance to him,” Huffmon said. “He has clearly shown why he’s a popular reality show star because that’s what he’s doing right now. The question is, can he convert it to real presidential mettle and statesmanship? If it’s just a show, people will tune into something else later on.”
For now, a grenade-tosser like Trump is exciting to voters, particularly among Republican voters who are angry that a Democrat, Barack Obama, is in the White House — and won reelection in 2012. The GOP electorate is looking for someone who will shake things up. And with 16 people running, there’s a lot of unknowns about a lot of unknown candidates.
Upstate Republican strategist Chip Felkel says he understands how Trump is tapping into voter frustration, such as at a heavily-covered recent forum in Bluffton.
“I get it, but he’s not offering any serious solutions,” said Felkel, who says voters really want substance.
“Celebrity only carries you so far,” he observed “A lot of Republican voters think ‘celebrity’ is what gave us Barack Obama.”
So what has some people thinking these days is whether the 69-year-old Trump, who has an estimated $4 billion net worth according to Forbes magazine, will mount a billion dollar independent presidential challenge. According to OpenSecrets.org, the two major party presidential candidates spent $1.12 billion in the 2012 race while outside groups and parties spent hundreds of millions more. All totaled, the 2012 race cost more than $2.6 billion.
“There’s every indication that Trump is not for anything other than Trump,” said Felkel. “He’s not for Republican Party success. He’s about Donald Trump’s success.
“It’s not a big leap to suggest that his Manhattan-sized ego would lead him to take a stab at a third party candidacy, which would make it harder for the GOP nominee to win.”
So we’re back to our original premise — if you don’t want another Clinton in office, you’d better move away from Trump as soon as possible to deflate his presidential balloon.
We Can Do Better, South Carolina!