“If people have wearied of Obama’s cerebral serenity and an approach to governance that seems overconsidered, then who better than The Donald to seize the alternative? Trump, live-and-in-living-color, is a Muhammad Ali of Main Street — bombastic and boastful, a provocateur with money to put where his mouth is. He knows what he knows, and we can take it or leave it. The Donald doesn’t care. In a poll-driven punditocracy, the mind spoken so freely offers a tonic to toxicity.

“Except when it doesn’t. About that birther thing…

“If there were even one iota of evidence suggesting that Obama was not born in this country, does anyone really think that Hillary Clinton wouldn’t have raised it during the campaign? Really?

“In saner times, we’d recognize and dismiss the ravings of madmen, self-promoters and false prophets. Today, thanks to the democratization of the megaphone and the political bulimia we euphemistically call ‘dialogue,’ any old canard can enjoy 15 minutes of credibility.”

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“[T]here’s one nagging sign of Trump’s semi-seriousness. He says he had a conversion and has become pro-life. Perhaps this is a genuine change of mind. If not, it shows Trump already understands more about running for the Republican presidential nomination than Rudy Giuliani ever did: You can’t do it and have any hope of winning if you are pro-choice.

“Trump wants to be the anti-Obama. Obama is too soft; Trump is tough. Obama knows nothing about business; Trump is God’s gift to American capitalism. Obama is painfully thoughtful in his affect; Trump is brash. They share much more important qualities in common, though. Like the Obama of 2008, Trump is an arrogant celebrity with a talent for branding who knows much less than he thinks and vastly overestimates his ability to fix the country’s problems.

“We’ve been here before. Give me humble. Give me boring. Give me wonky. Give me anything but another celebrity apprentice.”

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