The late Harold Wilson, former Labor Prime Minister, once said that a week was a long time in politics meaning that the fortunes of a politician can be transformed in a blink of an eye by a turn of events. Take for example Barak Obama; his recent approval rating among the American electorate had dropped to 42%. He couldn’t even make the guest list to the Royal Wedding; joining other notable absentees in the shape of Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and Sarah Ferguson.
The omissions of Blair and Ferguson merely highlighted the vindictiveness of the Queen. She has never forgiven Blair for coercing her into agreeing to a State funeral for Diana. Neither was she amused when Blair’s Government banned fox hunting which was a favorite past time of the nobility. Sarah Ferguson has behaved foolishly on several occasions; none more so than when caught on camera sucking the toe of some nondescript American banker. Nevertheless, she is the mother of two of the Queen’s grandchildren who were guests at the wedding and consequently Fergie should have been included in the wedding party.
Sorry, I digress. No sooner were we recovering from hangovers celebrating the Royal Wedding, news broke on the 1st May that American Navy Seals had broken into Osama Bin Laden’s heavily fortified compound and killed him; nearly ten years after 911. Bin Laden’s body was quickly removed and dumped into the Arabian Sea arousing questions in my mind of why it was necessary to dispose of the body so hastily. Twenty fours later, Obama’s approval rating rose by 11 points thus confirming Harold Wilson’s hypothesis.
The whole concept of the raid raises many concerns. The hunt for America’s most wanted man was conducted over many years. Bin Laden was found through one of his personal couriers. Following investigations by the CIA and other US intelligence agencies, the courier was identified in 2007. In mid-2010 he was tracked down to the large compound in Abbott Abad, home to Pakistan’s leading military academy, north-east of the capital Islamabad. In February 2011 it was determined that there was “sound intelligence” that bin Laden was holed up in the compound and the rest is history.
With his approval ratings continuing to fall, is it a coincidence that Obama authorized the strike with less than 19 months to go to the presidential elections? He has failed to generate economic recovery or lower gas prices. Unemployment rates are increasing once more not to mention his unpopular health reforms which have yet to take effect.
Only twenty four hours after attempting to projects himself as a strong commander-in-chief he shot himself in the foot with ill considered contradictions of how the raid unfolded. Initially the White House claimed that bin Laden had participated in a firefight using his wife as a human shield when he was shot dead. Then they corrected this by admitting bin Laden was unarmed and was not protected by his wife. They still maintain he resisted capture but it is unclear how he did so. The White House then decided to place its own spin on events by explaining that the initial confusion was the result of trying to provide a great deal of information in haste and they were a victim of the “fogs of war.”
The fact that the Navy Seals disposed of bin Laden’s body so quickly into the sea coupled with the double speak emanating from the White House leads many understandably to claim conspiracy theories. Requests to produce pictures of bin Laden’s demise have also been denied on the premise that the body was badly disfigured and another old chestnut, in the interests of national security.
Now you naturally assume that the Republican Party would be rubbing their hands in anticipation of pitching their candidate against the hapless, fork-tongued chump in the White House in next year’s Presidential election. Romney, Huckabee, Paul, Pawlenty and Palin, Gingrich have been mentioned as potential early runners.
The first two are admirable men but lost the Republican nomination to lame duck John McCain in 2008 and they have done nothing since to convince me they could win an election 4 years later. Paul is a loose cannon, Pawlenty lacks charisma, Palin sounds like a broken B side record, and twice divorced Newt Gingrich will not appeal to the Bible belt voters even though he has the best credentials.
So we have a dyed ginger double comb over, alternatively known as Donald Trump, arrogantly striding along the parapets, and leading in the polls to win the republican nomination. Donald Trump is a very successful real estate mogul with an ego the size of the Big Apple. He is currently the host of a reality show “Celebrity Apprentice” where he engages in considerable nepotism by using his two sons and daughter as his assistants on the show.
He has been involved in the political scene these past few weeks by demanding that Mr. Obama discloses a legal birth certificate to prove he is qualified to hold office. Obama eventually produced a birth certificate to satisfy all concerned but Trump remains in the headlines and more significantly maintains his lead in the polls.
One wonders if his posturing is to be taken seriously. Let’s take a look at his track record as it relates to politics. He has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to Democrats, showered praise on Bill and Hillary Clinton and suggested that Ronald Reagan was a con man with little “beneath that smile”. He once favored Canadian-style single payer healthcare and abortion rights.
His policy stances – “With respect to Libya, I’m interested in Libya if we take the oil. If we don’t take the oil, no interest”, applying a 25 per cent tax on Chinese products – are calculated to grab headlines and little else. Next month he will announce his decision on whether to run for the republican nomination on the season finale of his show which ultimately reeks of a publicity stunt. Significantly he favors the brash, loud mouthed contestants on his show and appears diametrically opposed to the softly-spoken variety.
Who is the loser in all this egomaniacal posturing? The American people as usual. I cannot understand why the Republican Party cannot produce a serious candidate with appropriate credentials to offer a serious alternative to solving the real issues affecting the country.
Some would suggest that Donald Trump is a serious candidate if you consider Ronald Reagan was originally a second rate actor in Hollywood. But let’s not forget that Reagan served 8 years as Governor of California, the most populated state in American, and thereby had served his apprenticeship for office not merely hosting a show called “Celebrity Apprentice.”
