Trump 2008: Bush Is Evil, Talk to Iran, Obama Cannot Do Worse Than Bush
You may have gathered that I remain a skeptic about Donald Trump. Trump fans look at us skeptics with incredulity that we could possibly object to their man, and his ability to "change the debate" and force the media to discuss topics like sanctuary cities. Those of us not so enamored with Trump pause at how that quality suddenly outranks all other qualities in a potential Republican presidential candidate — including consistent conservatism. Permit me to remind you about Donald Trump's assessment of President Bush back in 2008: Bush has been so bad, maybe the worst president in the history of this country. He has been so incompetent, so bad, so evil, that I don't think any Republican could have won. Evil? Evil? Of course, in the same interview, Trump endorsed. . . diplomatic outreach with Iran. You know, you can be enemies with people, whether it's Iran, Iraq, anyplace else and you can still have dialogue. These people won't even talk to him. It's terrible. Wait, there's more! Check out his assessment of Obama! VAN SUSTEREN: The new president-elect, what are your thoughts? Pretty exciting, it's always exciting when we have a change of power, a transition, but what are your thoughts. TRUMP: It's very exciting we have a new president. It would have been nice if he ended with a 500 point up instead of down. It's certainly very exciting. His speech was great last night. I thought it was inspiring in every way. And, hopefully he's going to do a great job. But the way I look at it, he cannot do worse than Bush. [Emphasis added.] VAN SUSTEREN: We know how you feel about this. TRUMP: It's not me, it's everybody. It's been a total catastrophe. That's what happened to Republicans. They got run are [sic] out of office because we have a president that's been so bad. And he's been a catastrophe, there's no question about it. He got us into a war we didn't need. You look at the money, we're spending hundreds of billions of dollars on a war, and then people wonder why the economy isn't doing well. OPEC is ripping us off left and right, the oil countries are just ripping us off left and right. So you have wars, you have OPEC, all of this stuff. He didn't do anything about it. He sends Condoleezza Rice. She gets off a plane and waves to everybody and then leaves. It's ridiculous. VAN SUSTEREN: Governor Palin — do you think we'll see her back in 2012? What are your thoughts on that? TRUMP: I don't know. There's a real question — she certainly made things interesting, but the question is, did she help? I met her a couple of times. She's really nice. I just don't know. I just have no answer for it. And then here's his thoughts on health care back in 1999. . . TRUMP: I think you have to have it, and, again, I said I'm conservative, generally speaking, I'm conservative, and even very conservative. But I'm quite liberal and getting much more liberal on health care and other things. I really say: What's the purpose of a country if you're not going to have defensive [sic] and health care? If you can't take care of your sick in the country, forget it, it's all over. I mean, it's no good. So I'm very liberal when it comes to health care. I believe in universal health care. I believe in whatever it takes to make people well and better. KING: So you believe, then, it's an entitlement of birth? TRUMP: I think it is. It's an entitlement to this country, and too bad the world can't be, you know, in this country. But the fact is, it's an entitlement to this country if we're going to have a great country. And then, as you probably saw, Trump's post-2012 comments on illegal immigration: "Republicans didn't have anything going for them with respect to Latinos and with respect to Asians," the billionaire developer says. "The Democrats didn't have a policy for dealing with illegal immigrants, but what they did have going for them is they weren't mean-spirited about it," Trump says. "They didn't know what the policy was, but what they were is they were kind." Romney's solution of "self deportation" for illegal aliens made no sense and suggested that Republicans do not care about Hispanics in general, Trump says. "He had a crazy policy of self deportation which was maniacal," Trump says. "It sounded as bad as it was, and he lost all of the Latino vote," Trump notes. "He lost the Asian vote. He lost everybody who is inspired to come into this country." The GOP has to develop a comprehensive policy "to take care of this incredible problem that we have with respect to immigration, with respect to people wanting to be wonderful productive citizens of this country," Trump says. Yet I see people comparing Trump to Reagan. Donald Trump has been a conservative for about ten minutes. John Fund wonders if Trump will commit to supporting the 2016 nominee. So If the Bestseller List Isn't Based On Book Sales. . . So, New York Times, just what are the criteria to appear on your bestseller list, if not book sales? The New York Times informed HarperCollins this week that it will not include Ted Cruz's new biography on its forthcoming bestsellers list, despite the fact that the book has sold more copies in its first week than all but two of the Times' bestselling titles, the On Media blog has learned. Cruz's 'A Time For Truth,' published on June 30, sold 11,854 copies in its first week, according to Nielsen Bookscan's hardcover sale numbers. That's more than 18 of the 20 titles that will appear on the bestseller list for the week ending July 4. Aziz Ansari's 'Modern Romance,' which is #2 on the list, sold fewer than 10,000 copies. Ann Coulter's 'Adios America,' at #11, sold just over half as many copies. 'A Time For Truth' is currently #4 on the Wall Street Journal hardcover list, #4 on the Publisher's Weekly hardcover list, #4 on the Bookscan hardcover list, and #1 on the Conservative Book Club list. This week, HarperCollins, the book's publisher, sent a letter to The New York Times inquiring about Cruz's omission from the list, sources with knowledge of the situation said. The Times responded by telling HarperCollins that the book did not meet their criteria for inclusion. 'We have uniform standards that we apply to our best seller list, which includes an analysis of book sales that goes beyond simply the number of books sold,' Times spokesperson Eileen Murphy explained when asked about the omission. 'This book didn't meet that standard this week.' Asked to specify those standards, Murphy replied: 'Our goal is that the list reflect authentic best sellers, so we look at and analyze not just numbers, but patterns of sales for every book.' Both HarperCollins and the Cruz campaign declined to comment on the matter. A lot of suspicious minds will see this and howl "LIBERAL BIAS!" Except that in recent weeks, the New York Times nonfiction bestseller list has featured Bill O'Reilly, Chris Kyle's American Sniper, Tara Kyle's American Wife, Dana Perino's And the Good News Is (for eight weeks) and Peter Schweizer's Clinton Cash, which debuted at number two. Ann Coulter's Adios, America! debuted at number three on the list. So it's not as simple as the book section editors just deleting conservative book titles. Is it sheer animus against Cruz? ADDENDA: I'm not sure I agree with this assessment from RedSteeze over at The Wilderness, but I figure it's worth putting out there: This is what establishment conservative media either doesn't understand (or does understand and is just rolling with the joke). The promises Trump is making about walls, China, Iran and Mexico are at their core no different than the type of free-[stuff] promises Barack Obama makes to his base. But the entertainment wing of the Right is going to allow it, for now, because it offers at least a pale simulacrum of what Obama offered to his loving throngs of admirers. That's how desperate for cultural relevance we are. Coming up on the pop culture podcast later today: The Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest and other odd summer traditions; faux-small business brands and microbreweries that aren't so micro; the FDA's desire to crack down on vaping; the new season of True Detective and California's sordid history, and other midsummer fun. | 
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