From an ad posted on Romney’s campaign website, kick in $3 and you get a chance to dine with Donald Trump (“and Mitt” as the cursive afterthought explains).
The liberal website Salon notes that this is the latest move by Trump to insinuate himself into the Romney campaign–he made a very public endorsement of Mitt, raised money, recorded robocalls, carried water on Fox news and Twitter–up to and including a public plea for a speaking slot at the RNC national convention.
The political “fairness” of this aside (e.g. why doesn’t Mitt have to repudiate Trump’s birther nonsense the way Obama and Dems had to with Hilary “Ann Romney never worked a day in her life” Rosen?), I really wonder if having a celebrity pariah like Donald Trump attached to your campaign is a winning strategy. Clearly he appeals to some group of voters, but for the life of me I can’t figure out who actually likes this pompous ass. Morevover, is it really worth the inevitably late night pile-on? “Trump fires people for a living on ‘The Apprentice’, I guess that’s why Romney likes having him around”…“Good for Romney; always better for a politician to have someone around with more unbelieveable hair than yours.” Thanks folks, I’ll be here all week
George Clooney doesn’t have hordes of people who hate him, though, like Donald Trump does. Is it smart to highlight Donald Trump’s endorsement, or would it be better to keep his support low key?
I think a generally nice guy but known conservative like, say, Tom Selleck, would be a better answer, if Tom supports Mitt.
Is Tom Selleck going to stick his neck out for Mitt Romney’s campaign, though? He’s still a working actor, he may not want to be too strongly associated with Iliketofirepeople Rmoney and whatever hairbrained policies the man supports in the future.
Selleck is more of a libertarian than a conservative, and he’s not exactly in Clooney’s league in terms of star power. I mean, other than people who have been in comas since 1986, I seriously doubt anyone thinks Selleck is still on the A-list.
Romney’s eager to get Trump’s supporters and approvals, but he’s running away from George Bush’s as fast and as quietly as he can. Yes, we all wish the disastrous Republican administration prior to Obama’s had never happened, but *really *now, people …
The real mystery in this is why the candidate himself isn’t headlining his own event. He’s the Republican nominee for the presidency; shouldn’t meeting him be more of a plum than meeting a real-estate developer/author/reality-TV-host?
I’m not quite sure what it signifies, though. Is this Romney’s acceptance that he has less charisma than Trump? Do you not get face-to-face time with Romney for anything less than seven figures? Is it a deliberate strategy to have Romney appear with a variety of wingnuts so that he can be seen among them as sensible and centrist? Is it all just a sideshow to distract us from talking about any real issues until December?
Of course the real real mystery is why we still think Trump is smart and worthy of anybody’s attention. I know he is, but that is the mystery. He is a jackass and not a particularly good businessman, to be honest. But he is a fantastic self-promoter and an excellent con-man.
