The Waaaanold

The Trump sideshow is very quickly going to turn irritating.  Although I don’t find him a viable candidate, I like his uncensored approach to speaking, which I find quite refreshing in an era in which political correctness and staged polish are the order of the day.  But the response from other Republican entrants is what’s galling.  Urging him to drop out of the race?  Urging the putative front-runner to drop out of the race?  Desperate much?

This could be a William Buckley moment for them, a chance to deftly put Trump in his place and come out on top.  But he’s not only getting in the last laugh, but the first laugh and all the laughs in between.

What Trump hasn’t brought up is the (largely discredited) possibility that McCain’s “wet starting” of the jet on his A-4 caused the Forrestal disaster.  The world will never know to what degree he was involved, but it is known that he made false statements about the incident, and took the first opportunity to get off the ship and into liberty in Saigon, while the fires were still burning.  At the very least, he thought he had some reason to distance himself from the proceedings.

I value Trump's role because he's saying the things no one else is willing to say, and that has more potential to open up honest dialogue than any other issue on the stage right now.  But I also sincerely hope he gets his ass kicked in the primary, and I'd very much love to see Rand Paul do the kicking.  If the other candidates are just gonna piss and moan about The Donald's statements, and do their damndest to "distance themselves" from him without actually making substantive statements, then maybe that's exactly what will happen.