The Trump Phenomenon

James Poulos writes at Ricochet about The Donald's sudden surge as a potential presidential candidate:

There are two main theories cooperating to explain the Trump phenomenon:

Donald Trump is today's best self-promoter and professional opportunist.
The Republican field of presumptive candidates for president is lame.

But neither of these, nor even both together, can adequately explain what's going on. We can't even turn for supplemental help to subtheories that emphasize the rise of celebreality culture, the fall of Sarah Palin, or The Continuing Story of Bungling Barry. These variables all appear somewhere in the equation that has produced the Trump phenomenon. But none of them explain it.

Trump is suddenly "winning" as a political figure because the political class has failed. The authority of our political institutions is weak and getting weaker; it's not that Americans 'lack trust' in them, as blue ribbon pundits and sociologists often lament, so much as they lack respect for the people inside them.

There is a lot of crazy surrounding the Trump phenomenon -- some excellent, some embarrassing. But the massive fact dominating it all is that never before has such a famous outsider jumped into national politics with such an aggressive critique of a sitting president and the direction of the country -- and never before has the response been so immediate and positive.

Read the rest of it here.

The White House is clearly worried about Trump because they sent their mouthpiece to the Sunday shows to ridicule and denounce him. If they didn't believe he was a serious threat I doubt they'd waste any effort on him. Do you see the White House talking about Ron Paul?

Does Trump have any sort of chance to win the nomination and the presidency? At this point in 2007 did Obama have any sort of chance to beat Hillary Clinton and win the presidency? It was pretty unlikely. Maybe Trump has his own version of rainbows and unicorns.