There is a place for a CEO presidential candidate in 2012. So far, Donald Trump isn’t filling it.
Instead of focusing on his executive abilities and job-creating experience, The Donald has been busy going the full Birther.
It’s hard to tell whether he’s free-lancing or just very badly advised, but one thing is clear—Donald Trump is trying to apply New York City tabloid rules to a prospective national presidential campaign. This ain’t going to end well.
Relentless self-promotion and shock-jock sound-bites might get you headlines, but it won’t get you taken seriously. That helps when you want to be trusted with your finger on the button.
And pandering to the lowest common denominator of the electorate isn’t doing to get this self-styled symbol of America’s super-rich confused with a conservative populist.
They’re still going to know that you live in New York City in a gleaming gold office tower and fly in a private plane with your name on the side. Parading common conspiracy theories isn’t the same as sharing values. And even a cursory glance at the Trump biography would show that he doesn’t have any business going after the values vote. This is pandering for no purpose.
The irony is that there is a tradition of CEO political candidates which Trump could semi-credibly try to fill. It is a path that Wendell Wilkie walked to win the GOP presidential nomination in 1940. It is the appeal that led to “Draft Lee Iacocca” efforts in 1988 and the independent candidacy of Ross Perot in 1992. Its most successful modern practitioner is New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
The CEO candidate promises to run government like a business: balance the budget, cut through red tape and unleash the entrepreneurial spirit. It’s a no-nonsense pitch, offering decisive leadership that is independent from special interests and promises to focus on job creation and American competitiveness. The CEO candidate is at least agnostic on the subject of social issue litmus tests because they are largely irrelevant to on-the-job performance. A candidate like Trump can fairly say that he wants the government out of the bedroom and out of the boardroom.
