People I Could Do Without

Mitch McConnell

Flo

The Donald

Linda Dunham

Debbie Wasserman-Shultz

Vladimir Putin

Adam Sandler

Pope Francis

Ayatollah Khamenei

Rush Limbaugh

No Trump

Multi-billionaire Donald Trump again announced for the presidency yesterday and threw some red meat to the assembled crowd ... saying for one thing that he would build a wall on our southern border and make Mexico pay for it!. The Donald certainly doesn't lack for ego ... and this is the major off-putting aspect of his personality ... see: Daily Mail Article and Video. Surely Trump might do, as president, many of the things that need doing ... reasserting America's place on the world stage ... restoring our infrastructure ... bringing the American fiscal budget more in balance ... getting our economy moving (even promising 4% annual GDP growth) ... and making this country great again.

And, after eight years of lackluster rule by his current doppelganger, the American voter might be ready for such an offbeat solution ... even radio host Howie Carr here in Boston is rooting for The Donald. However, I somehow feel that Trump is in this race more for the ride and is unlikely to move the masses of the voting public to his side. I could be wrong. I've been wrong before ... predicting Ronald Reagan had no chance. But, if Donald Trump is the Republican nominee ... despite his already trashing of some of his Republican opponents ... I strongly suspect that enough opposition research will come out on him as to sink the very slim chance that he might have. He has lived a very fast and loose life after all.

But then again so has Hillary

Mr. Cool

The then Senator Obama once told Harry Reid that his "gift" was being able to read from a teleprompter so easily.  That certainly is true, but he has a much larger asset ... and that is his "coolness".  Marshall McLuhan once prophetically observed that television is a cool medium.  And President Obama fits this medium like a chamois glove.  He even strides "cool."  I seldom can watch him perform on television without singing to myself that old 1959 Coasters' song Charlie Brown:

Who walks in the classroom, cool and slow
Who calls the English teacher, Daddy-O      (see: All Lyrics)

So, in the upcoming Presidential election, Obama (I like to call him The Barry to reprise that other cool media character, The Donald), has the natural advantage in the upcoming debates.  Neither Rick Santorum nor Mitt Romney nor Newt Gingrich are particularly cool personalities ... Romney is cooler than the other two, but still boiling hot compared to The Barry.  What does this suggest?  To me, it implies that, if the election is determined on emotion (as it was in 2008), Obama will win in a walk.  However, if the U.S. electorate chooses to view things this fall with a preponderance of logic, then Obama will loose in a landslide.  It should turn out to be a classic battle between the head and the heart.

And what will determine the mood of electorate then?  My guess would be the degree of angst (created by the world situation) that is roiling the voters ... the hotter things are, the less well "coolness" will play.

Priorities

I've recently concocted a natural taxonomy for classifying famous people.  Here are the first five priorities that I believe each of these celebrities uses to govern his/her activities and ambitions:

The Donald -- O, J, L, N, G
Hillary Clinton -- B, H, O, A, N
Dave Letterman -- O, L, H, J, G
Jay Leno -- L. J, G, H, O
The Barry -- O, A, D, H, N
Oprah -- J, B, D, L, G
Bush 43 -- G, C, N, H, A
Mitt Romney -- G, L, C, H, N
Charlie Sheen -- O, O, O, O, L
Al Gore -- O, O, J, L, H
Bill Clinton -- O, H, A, G, N
Sarah Palin -- O, N, H, G, I

And here are what these letters mean:

A - The World
B - One's Gender
C - One's Religion
D - Ones Race
E - One's Ethnicity
F - The Environment
G - One's Nation
H - One's Political Party
I - One's Region
J - One's Company
K - One's Home City/Town
L - One's Profession
M - One's Relatives
N - One's Family
O - One's Self

Have some fun and disagree with my rankings or develop your own priority profiles for other famous people.