Take a look at Drudge.
I’ll wait. The day doesn’t really matter. It’s always full of stuff that makes you think rivets are flying out of the planet like a jalopy in a cartoon.
** Two girls beat another girl into convulsions over the course of eight minutes while cowardly young men quiver in fear. (But an old lady steps in and protects the victim.) ** Syrian security opens fire on demonstrators killing 90. (But it’s Good Friday.) ** U.S. Dollar collapses as fear of government debt makes everything American worth less. (But Greece and other European countries even worse.) ** Japan warns that earthquake aftermath could cause them a double dip. ** U.S. spending could hit the debt ceiling in a week.
These are everyday headlines from an abnormal time. A time as odd as a football bat.
Abnormal Times Breed Abnormal Leaders
The next president or two cannot be ordinary. As much as we like the underdog and the plain, common sense, everyman, there are times when history demands a GIANT of a president.
The Depression and World War II would have crushed Truman. Not that Roosevelt’s policies were right, but his stature was. FDR was a giant.
Winston Churchill was a giant.
We’re in another era that calls for giants. At least one—one in every country that hopes to survive.
France had no giants in the 1930s. Nor did Poland or Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, on and on. The countries without giants fell to monsters.
The World Thirsts for Leaders
You know the difference between the Depression-WWII era and now?
All the giants of that era are dead. So are most of the people who were young then, the ones who fed their families during the Depression, then conquered the monsters in the war. They’re mostly gone. And those that remain are too old to fight.
The Baby Boomers are the age that Roosevelt was during the last crisis era. Gen X is Truman’s age, Eisenhower’s, Patton’s, and Bradley’s. Gen Y will become the heroes of this era when the history’s written 40 years from now.
But if we don’t get some national GIANTS, who knows what language that history will be written in.
Is Trump the Giant?
I’m not saying Trump’s my first choice. Nor will I pretend I believe he’s an ideological Tea Partier. I bet he can’t tell you how many Constitutional Amendments there are. I bet he’s not conversant about Article I Section 8, nor about the 9th and 10th Amendments. I’d be surprised to learn that he knows the issue in Wickard v. Filburn. Has he read The Federalist?
As dear and important as those things are to us in the Tea Party movement, I’m not sure how important they’ll be in the next four years. I’m not sure how important anything we’re talking about today will be four years from now.
The United States is on the verge of defaulting on its loans. U.S. Treasuries are on the verge of being dumped. The U.S. dollar’s value is plummeting. The Fed holds $trillions and doesn’t know what to do with it. George Soros is pushing to issue his own international currency.
The U.S. economic system is about to collapse under 70 years of illegal government activity funded with irresponsible, Ponzi scheme borrowing.
The next president should resemble Churchill and Reagan, Lincoln and Washington rolled into one.
Stardom and Chutzpah
In modern America, two qualities are indispensable for national leaders: stardom and chutzpah. Those qualities are table stakes now. But star-power and chutzpah alone do not guarantee success.
In addition to stardom and chutzpah, success as president requires strength, decisiveness, and a bit of national pride. These are the qualities Obama lacks.
I see only two potential candidates with all of these qualities: Sarah Palin and Donald Trump.
That disturbs a lot of people. Left, right, and center.
Can you name another giant personality with the will and resources to challenge for the world’s highest office?
P.S. If you haven’t read this post, please do.