Someone was trying to ruin my stay in Manhattan!

I was in New York City (Manhattan) recently and riding in a cab up the West Side Highway, making my way to lunch at one of my favorite little spots (Arco Café at 103^rd and Amsterdam). I looked east, out of the cab window, (to my right) and saw a long row of tall buildings (apartment houses or condos) and one-after-another of them had the same word scrawled on the front of them in large letters – Trump!
by Charlie Leck

Of course, it’s nearly maddening to think of Donald Trump as President of the United States. I’m having a hard time believing his candidacy is really a serious effort. In other words, did even he think he really deserved to be president of the nation – that he could be a president of the nation – that he would have time in-between his golfing, rapscallioning and primping to be president of the nation?

Donald Trump is not even the kind of guy I would be comfortable having as a next door neighbor, let alone having him as the occupant of the White House. Imagine Donald Trump romping with all the cute little boys and girls at the Easter Egg Affair.

My lunch! My lunch! I thought about my lunch as the cab rolled by the big buildings! Has Donald Ross reached in and ruined my joyfully anticipated lunch at this wonderful Sardinian restaurant?

I’m a bit more relaxed now – a few days removed from the sight of that vile word scrawled across those buildings. It’s apparent that the Grand Old Party is not going to allow Donald Trump to be its candidate. Nor does it seem they’ll even allow the goofy U.S. Senator from Texas (silly Ted Cruse) to run for the office under its banner.

That’s what was behind a major speech by Paul Ryan, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the other day, in which he tried to clear the air about some of the ill-thought-out comments he earlier made about “the poor” and the poor as “takers.” He’s trying to clear the way for a run at the top office in the land. Make no mistake about it!

“There was a time when I would talk about a difference between ‘makers’ and ‘takers’ in our country, referring to people who accepted government benefits… But as I spent more time listening, and really learning the root causes of poverty, I realized I was wrong. ‘Takers’ wasn’t how to refer to a single mom stuck in a poverty trap, just trying to take care of her family. Most people don’t want to be dependent.”

“…I was callous and I oversimplified and castigated people with a broad brush. There is a lot of that happening in America today.”

Yes, Mr. Speaker, there is a lot of “broad brush” talking coming out of the far-right wing of the Republican Party. Welcome, Mr. Speaker, to a place a little more to the center of political thinking. I won’t vote for you in a presidential race, but I won’t threaten to move to Canada if you happen to win. Deep down, I think you’re a reasonable person and that you really do have unselfish concerns for the nation at the heart of your thinking.

Now, sir, how about rethinking the whole business of not looking at the nomination of Mr. Merrick B. Garland to the Supreme Court of the United States? President Obama has very thoughtfully nominated an extraordinary man to take the position. Mr. Garland is brilliant and uncompromising in his defense of the U.S. Constitution. There is no better mind on the current court and he may be the most deserving nomination in the last 50 years.

At its convention in Cleveland this summer, the Grand Old Party will likely end up crowning Congressman Paul Ryan to run for president.

The campaign will be a civil one! Debates will be well worth watching. Democrats will reach deep into Congressman Ryan’s past speeches and he’ll need to admit stupidity and apologize – or, if he doesn’t, he’ll be soundly beaten. The debates won’t be dog and pony shows as the GOP’s current debates are.

And, I won’t develop an ulcer or blow a blood vessel.

And, Donald Trump can go back to managing his apartment houses and I won’t need to constantly be looking at that incredibly stupid hair-do of his.

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