A very good case could be made that Obama is temperamentally unable to execute properly the office of President. Over 7 1/2 years he has shown a level of laziness in office rarely seen before as well as a complete inability for forge a working relationship with anyone but those in lockstep with his agenda.
Bill Clinton, it could be argued, had a fatal flaw in his focus on dalliances with whatever woman crossed his path, as well as a remarkable fluidity with truth, even for a politician. His ill-advised policies regarding banking and mortgages led directly to the world wide financial melt down of 2007/2008.
All Presidents are unknown quantities until they step into the Oval Office. There is no previous job experience that tells us for sure how they will behave, how well they do. It is hard to imagine electing a President with a thinner job resume, and less public knowledge about who he was and how he would behave than Obama. Yet America did it. And I'm hard pressed to imagine how Trump could be worse.
So it comes to this? Trump is good enough because he's no less qualified than Obama?? Could the bar be any lower? I can no more vote for Trump than I could have voted Obama.
As for the temperaments of other presidents, Trump's issues are in a whole other category. IMO, a man of such deep narcissism and hair-trigger judgment, whose incapacitated brain helplessly obsesses over trivial personal offense, is a dangerous risk as Commander-in-Chief in ways that make other presidents' temperament issues seem inconsequential.
I can't agree that all presidents are unknown quantities until they take office -- there's plenty known of them. Of course we can't know for sure what they'll do beforehand, but that's hardly an argument for ignoring red flags in what we do know of a candidate.
Jay
Obviously this is just opinion and speculation but here goes. I think Trump is purposefully being thin skinned and outrageous. I don't think you get to run the businesses he has, employ the quality people he has over the long run if you don't have some skills.
He's not a buffoon. He just plays one on tv. Why? Because it allows him, in the primaries (or back as a tv personality) to say things that separate him from the pack. To stand out. He's just finished a bar room brawl with a dozen other candidates. You don't play fair and you fight to win. And his tactics, playing to the crowd he needed to play to, took him from a fringe candidate given zero chance, to winning the prize.
With each passing electoral cycle, the game changes. The US that elected Truman, Kennedy, Reagan or Clinton no longer exists. Media behave differently. Voters get exposed to different things.....different aspects of each candidate. Trump is IMHO playing the game almost perfectly for the US that exists in 2016.
As for comments like King's, suggesting Trump is a facist, well that is simply the bitter handwringing of people worried they will be on the losing side. Trump is a populist, not a facist and not a true Republican. No matter. He is who is getting elected next November.
Remember, without the Superdelegates, who owe allegiance to Bill, where would Hill be against Bernie. Maybe losing, certainly neck and neck. Hillary is so bad that she can barely beat an independent unrepentant socialist.
Last fall, no one paid attention to Trump's candidacy.
In January he was a joke whose run would end soon.
In February, no candidate could say what Trump says and win the primaries.
In March, the forces to stop Trump started to gather.
In April, his opponenents fell by the wayside.
In May, his polling numbers are starting to be competitive with Hillary's, good and bad.
Trump has been ridiculed, rebuked and dismissed. And he keeps coming. He keeps getting better results.
If you want a continuation of the status quo, unbelievably disfunctional government regardless of which party is in the Oval Office or who control Congress, vote for Hill or stay home. If you would like a chance for a difference, I'd say take off the media shaped blinders and have a really close look at Trump.
Some measure of the man can be seen in his children. Dig up some details on who these scions of unbelievable wealth are. It's hard not to be impressed when they are compared to their peers.
