Trump's nomination is the first time US politics has left me truly afraid

[pbrower2a]

I don't always agree with Mr. Klein (a very smart and informed liberal), e.g., his odes of joy about Obamacare, but I do as to this piece - each and every word. Pity that it was not complete. Hey Ezra, why did you skip over that Trump has little or no respect for the rule of law, and his bellicosity might get us into wars, in particular a trade war, but even more worrisome, wars where blood is spilled (except with respect to his favorite dictators of course)?

I have my idea of what it takes to be President. Having a long and distinguished career in public office isn't enough. Look at James Buchanan, who was likely far past prime. Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy are two of the youngest Presidents ever, and they are decidedly above average.


I look at experience appropriate for the age, typically success in winning high office.; intellectual preparation (most Presidents are attorneys by training, and not college professors, and not such smart people as research scientists, engineers, physicians, architects, dentists, or accountants; character; integrity; caution; solid judgment; apt temperament; and general decency.  A President who lacks any of those will have trouble as President; luck alone will not make one an effective President.  Just think of Richard Nixon, who had faults of basic decency.

Ignore whether one agrees with him on his agenda, and Barack Obama looks very Presidential. None of those characteristics describes Donald Trump well.   

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Possible.

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That's Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama.

Bill Clinton is going to seem to have had one of the less-eventful two-term Presidencies. George W. Bush will be seen as awful, telescoping the disastrous Presidencies of Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover into two full terms. Barack Obama? He is going to look very good in contrast to Hillary Clinton, let alone Donald Trump.

...If we were going to have a Republican as President between 2001 and 2009, then why could we have not had Richard Lugar, George Voinovich, or John Warner instead of you-know-who?