A number of years ago, a gaming and hospitality analyst whom I'd interviewed a number of times was fired after he told The Wall Street Journal that a certain casino in Atlantic City was basically a house of cards and would not survive.
The casino's high profile and bullying owner, his face red and pompadour-wannabe tousled, apparently had threatened to sue the brokerage firm if said analyst was not summarily dismissed.
Fittingly, the analyst who sued his former firm was awarded $750K and the Trump Taj Mahal went through a series of restructurings to prevent the customary soaping of the windows.
And years later, after slapping his annoying surname on every piece of property imaginable both in the U.S. and abroad, he's floated the idea of running for President.
And one of the first things Donald J. Trump did to test the Oval Office waters was to demand that the current President produce his birth certificate, which, last week, he did.
The current occupant of the Oval Office said he had far more important things to deal with than producing a birth certificate, which he proved by jetting to Chicago with his spouse to tape the Oprah Winfrey show.
"I'm really honored and I'm really proud that I was able to do something that nobody else was able to do," Trump crowed to no one but himself in particular.
He told the WSJ: "I don't need to do this for ratings on The Apprentice."
Actually he doesn't since over the last three weeks, viewership of the reality soap opera has declined dramatically according to Nielsen.
"This is too important, our country is in trouble, our country is not being properly led."
For the record, he also uttered similar comments about the past two Presidents.
Gee, now that that we've settled that, what about tax reform or entitlements like Medicare?
Well let's take a look-see.
Here's his view of the IRC as described in his tome "The America We Deserve."
"Its complexity bleeds off billions of productive hours. Tax rates are too high. Hidden taxes take even more. High property taxes punish people for improving their property."
Stop me if you've heard that one before.
His solution to help pay down the national debt as well as boost the Social Security Trust Fund?
How about a 14.25 percent one-time tax on those with a net worth over $10 million? That, contends The Donald, will result in $5.7 trillion of new revenue, a Pollyannaish proposal that's already had more holes punched through it than a piñata on Cinco de Mayo.
Okay how about the bleeding entitlement of Medicare?
"I would let them [the Democrats] make the first move," he told an interviewer.
Now as the current President has often said, "There's change we can believe in."
As of last week, 19 percent of Republicans and right-leaning independents said they would back Trump for President according to a CNN poll. That apparently places him in a tie with former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee and ahead of such shopworn and recycled candidates as Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul.
That's sort of like saying I could beat John Candy in a two-mile run.
Little has changed in 20 years and I'm sure the GOP can do better in 2012 than a billionaire germophobe transfixed with the role of America's savior.
Before this absurd drama goes farther, someone should tell The Donald to bow out in language he especially would understand.
"You're fired!" comes readily to mind.
