MARCH 3, 2016
“Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud. His promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University. He’s playing the American public for suckers: He gets a free ride to the White House, and all we get is a lousy hat.”
The ravings of some renegade Democratic operative? No, they’re the words of the Republican Party’s 2012 nominee for President, Mitt Romney. Wha?
This thing is getting screwier by the minute.
In what I believe is an unprecedented move, Romney warned the Republican Party to seriously consider the consequences of allowing Trump to sail to the nomination. With a fervor that was completely missing from his own 2012 campaign, Romney delivered a scorched-earth speech Thursday morning at the University of Utah, excoriating the GOP front-runner and warning that Trump’s nomination could endanger the United States and even our democratic political system.
Romney’s warnings were further backed up today by Sen John McCain, the Republican Party’s 2008 standard-bearer, who said,
“I want Republican voters to pay close attention to what our party’s most-respected and knowledgeable leaders and national security experts are saying about Mr. Trump, and to think long and hard about who they want to be our next commander in chief and leader of the free world.”
Of all the years of watching Presidential campaigns, I’ve never seen anything like this one-two punch of a party’s most recent Presidential nominees against a primary front-runner. Romney went after Trump’s character, his refusal to release his tax returns, his wild proposals for national security and his demeaning comments against minorities, the disabled and particularly against women. But Romney saved his most damning firepower for questioning Trump’s acumen as a businessman.
“He inherited his business. He didn’t create it,” Romney said. “And what ever happened to Trump Airlines? How about Trump University? And then there’s Trump Magazine and Trump Vodka and Trump Steaks and Trump Mortgage? A business genius he is not.”
Ouch. Romney’s passionate attack on Trump was detailed and effectively devastating. My only question is “Where was Romney 6 weeks ago?” It didn’t have to be Romney — these facts were there for Cruz or Rubio to mine, but they walked on eggshells around Trump, worried that any attack on the frontrunner would keep Trump loyalists from coming to their side when Trump inevitably imploded, which of course he didn’t.
Granted, Romney is not the best messenger to deliver this kind of broadside attack. One of the most cringeworthy moments of the 2012 campaign was Romney’s pilgrimage to Las Vegas to kiss the ring of Donald Trump in exchange his endorsement. (You Tube it, and I dare you not to look away in embarrassment.) In a way, Romney is the one to blame for legitimizing Trump, making him appear to be a major power broker in the party. Trump certainly took it that way, and the party has paid the price ever since.
Did Trump take this criticism to heart? Of course not, he’s Donald Trump! There were the usual put-downs — “he’s a loser,” he “failed badly” and his new put-down of choice, “he’s a choke artist.” But then Trump made this strange fellatio reference:
“I could have said ‘Mitt, drop to your knees.’ And he’d drop to his knees.”
Now that’s a porno I’d like to see (but only for a few seconds, though).
Is it too late to stop Trump? Unless other leaders or groups follow through, it might be. There are a few super-PACs that are on board to flood the airwaves with anti-Trump ad spots. But the other candidates have to step up to build on Romney’s attacks at tonight’s Fox News debate from Detroit — it’s in their hands now.
Complete details on tonight’s Detroit donnybrook tomorrow in Exact Change Today. Tonight’s gonna be gooood!
