I've criticized MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell here but last night on his show, he did something that deserves a nod. He ripped into his employer, NBC, for continuing to empower Donald Trump and to not reveal whether Trump is committed to return to Celebrity Apprentice this Fall. And throughout the tirade, O'Donnell repeatedly referred to the program as "Trump's fake reality show," which they must have loved over in the Entertainment Division. Since O'Donnell makes a lot less money for the corporation than Trump, it takes a lot of guts to bash your bosses so thoroughly. And in the unlikely event he does succeed in building this into the kind of controversy that will require NBC to address the issue, he may have caused a lot of problems for them.
But you know, people keep addressing this issue of "Is he running?" (or is Palin running or is Huckabee running, et al), as if that's a firm decision that's been made and is being kept secret. I don't see why any candidate couldn't be thinking, "Look, I'll pursue this course of action for now and see where things are in two months." I tend to think Trump is not planning on running; that he's going to build up a huge audience (he figures) for the season finale of his fake reality show, then announce he's going to return to it instead of join the campaign trail. But it also wouldn't surprise me if his plans include a moment when he's going to take a look at the polls and see where all the other candidates are and then consider if there's a chance he could win, in which case he might take the gamble.
The reason I don't think he's serious about running is that he has too much baggage in his past (including too many political positions that are now in direct opposition to what he's saying) and too many awkward financial disclosures to make. He also doesn't seem all that serious about getting votes from independents and swing Democrats. This is the same reason I don't think Sarah Palin is figuring on being on the final ballot. She might see some personal advantage to staying in the race longer…say, until she secures a starring role at the G.O.P. convention. But she's continuing to drop in popularity — now down to 9% among Republicans in the Rasmussen Poll, which Republicans consider sacred — and doing nothing to course-correct.
Trump has plenty of dirty laundry he's not concealing or washing and he's got to know that the Obama bashing is losing him popularity with voters he would need to woo. (His failing Miss Universe pageant is now trying to get attention by having some of the contestants go topless. If you're really serious about getting elected, you don't want that kind of thing to become a campaign issue.)
Also, Dick Morris of Fox News thinks Trump is running and might not only be the nominee but the next President…and Dick Morris is the Peter Peachfuzz of commentators. If he says it's going to happen, you can bet cash-money it won't.
Getting back to O'Donnell: He's right. Newsmen oughta be asking what Trump's contractual obligation is to his fake reality show. That's not classified information and they'll tell you when Jimmy Fallon's contract is up or that the cast of The Office is committed for X more seasons. NBC News should be embarrassed if they can't find that out from NBC Entertainment and it would be legitimate news. By the way, here's video of O'Donnell's segment. It's way too intense and way too long. He keeps saying the same things over and over. But the man is right and it takes testicular fortitude to say something like that about the company that's paying you.
Lastly, on a related topic: I got sick of jokes about Al Gore's stiffness and George W. Bush's fratboy past and Bill Clinton's horniness and Hillary Clinton's pants suits and John McCain's age and there were any number of alleged Barack Obama shortcomings that were milked to death and which shouldn't have mattered as much as they did regarding the person's qualification to be President. And I've long since passed the point where I feel that way about Donald Trump's hair.