New money, particularly inherited new money, is brash, arrogant, uncouth, kind of like a Las Vegas showgirl -- lots of flash, little substance.Donald Trump is the essence of new money.
His old man, the son of a German immigrant named Frederick Drumpf, made a killing in real estate development in New York. A self-made tycoon, he became the role model for his son Donald who liked the smell of sleazy money -- the kind that comes from tearing down places with character and replacing them with shiny buildings with mirrored windows and faux opulence.
A short time after leaving college, the young Trump joined his father's company, then finally took the helm.
It led him to unfathomable riches and a public persona that is three parts carnie geek, two parts poker player and one part smarts.
It's mostly the carnie geek and poker player that got him to a point where, today, he is poised, in a couple of months, to officially toss his double-comb-over into the ring for a run at the presidency in 2012.
The first salvo he fired in the campaign was a salvo that turned out to be a dud. Trump, you see, aligned himself with the so-called "birthers," those right-wing extremists who insisted that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States and, thus, had no right to be elected president of the United States. It was a hollow accusation from the beginning, of course, because when he filed to run, he had to provide evidence of citizenship. Even though that was done years ago, the "birthers" argued that it was not an official birth certificate.
Trump, instead of stepping into the Presidential debate in an area he has experience in -- like finances and economics -- chose instead to plop into the fight with a fistful of mud, challenging Obama's citizenship and saying he had hired detectives to scour Hawaii, where Obama was born, for a legal birth certificate.
Obama wisely set the trap, holding on until Trump inelegantly had place both feet into his mouth before springing it by releasing a copy of his full, official birth certificate, saying, "We do not have time for this sort of silliness."
Instead of shutting up, Trump imediately dispatched another mudball in Obama's direction, saying first that it should have been released long ago, then taking another cheap shot at the President by saying Obama was a "terrible" student. "How does a bad student go to Columbia then Harvard?" he asked.
Well, time to do your homework again, Trump. Obama graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1991 and was president of the Harvard Law Review. If you want to criticize presidential smarts, back up the truck and let's discuss George W. Bush, OK?
This whole disclosure thing could really turn around and bite The Donald in The Butt, you know.
Over the years, he has been involved in a few scrapes himself, from bankruptcies to Securities and Exchange Commission allegations in 2002 that Trump Hotels and Casinos and Resorts Inc. committed several "misleading statements in the company's third quarter 1999 earnings release." Trump settled the beef without admitting to nor denying the charge.
There were suspicious circumstances surrounding several of his financial dealings as a casino/hotel owner that resulted in bankruptcy proceedings. He had so mismanaged his casino holdings that their stock tumbled from $35 per share to less than $10 because he was so overextended and had bungled the operation so badly there was no money left in the kitty to make improvements to compete with other casinos.
He emerged, however, with his title of CEO and control over the company after a little sleight of hand with creditors that reduced interest payments in exchange for forfeiting ownership points.
Will the public get full disclosure on this and his many other business negotiations? Isn't the way he conducts himself ethically just as important as where his place of birth may be?
Trump has said he will wait until June to announce his intentions for 2012. The timing, of course, is perfect. That's when his television show, "The Apprentice," runs out of contract. His half-hidden agenda about politics will only spur interest in his show, which built a television upon the catty interaction among C-List celebrities.
The thing is, with so much to challenge Obama on, why stoop to the mudslinging?
The President has had a rough time with the economy. He's muddled through a war in Afghanistan that shows no signs of abating and we got involved in some aimless military mission in Libya. He lacks the business savvy of Bill Clinton, who had to work day and night to stabilize a crumbling economy he inherited, but Obama has not been clever enough to instill his own economic principles to salvage what was lost, relying on weak advisors and falling back on a Bush-era plan to rebound that has taken too long.
But, voters don't want that. They've been dumbed-down to the point where things like the economy and possible drop in the nation's credit rating, which would impact every living American and the generation to follow are not significant. They want the quick bite, the juice without the pulp.
They don't follow that line well. It's too cerebral. You have to look things up, make judgments on policies and theory and that takes time.
That's why it is easier for guys like Trump to forge a platform based on lies and innuendo -- stuff like "Obama wasn't born here" or "Obama's stupid," neither of which is true.
But, like the carnie geek he is, he's drawing a crowd. The poker player in him? Well, he just lost two hard-bet bluffs. And the smarts? Well, maybe he's not as smart after all as we thought.
Donald, you're fired.
