This is interesting. Donald Trump Is Considering Newt Gingrich for Vice Presidential Role. And the following may give some idea why that is. I do note there is dispute about whether Gingrich really did say all that, but the points are well taken irrespective of the source.

Understanding Donald Trump
From The Washington Times, by Newt Gingrich

Donald Trump is a genuine phenomenon. He may or may not become the Republican nominee for president. He may or may not win the presidency even if he becomes the nominee. Yet it is clear that he is a phenomenon and that any history of the 2016 presidential race will have to spend a good bit of time analyzing Trump and his impact.

From the time he announced on June 16, Trump has dominated social and mainstream media. He dominates the conversation despite the lack of paid advertising. Trump says outrageous things and his supporters shrug it off. At every turn, his poll numbers continue to rise.

As a step toward understanding this amazing performance, I spent part of the Christmas break reading his first bestseller, ‘The Art of the Deal’. Written in 1987, this book is a classic among American business books and has influenced a generation of entrepreneurs. Trump wrote ‘The Art of the Deal’ when he was 41 years old and having a successful run. The book’s popularity contributed to Time Magazine’s decision to feature Donald Trump on its cover in January 1989.

The portrait that emerges from this easy-to-read and remarkably interesting book is of an aggressive, ambitious person who is constantly pushing, constantly learning, and always seeking the next challenge. Reporters and analysts who are trying to understand Trump would be well served by slowing down and reading this nearly three-decade-old bestseller.

They would discover that Donald Trump has developed a remarkable set of rules and principles that allow him to make decisions with incredible speed. Trump knows a lot, but what is amazing is how rapidly he figures out what he doesn’t know.

My favorite story is of the Wollman Skating Rink in New York’s Central Park.
The Wollman Rink was a heavily used public skating rink which had fallen into disrepair in 1980. New York City tried for six years to fix it, spent $13 million, and the rink still was not ready to open. In June of 1986 Trump, who could see the rink from his apartment, finally got tired of the embarrassment and offered to fix the rink at his own expense. At first the city turned him down because its bureaucracy did not want to be embarrassed by someone fixing something they couldn’t fix. Trump kept pushing and finally out of embarrassment the city gave in.

The key part of the story is Trump’s reaction to being put in charge. He promptly recognized that he didn’t know anything about fixing a skating rink. He asked himself who built a lot of skating rinks. “Canadians!” he concluded. He found the best Canadian ice skating rink construction company. When the Canadians flew in to assess the situation, they were amazed at how bad the city had been at solving the problem. They assured Trump that this was an easy job. Trump fixed the six year embarrassment two months ahead of schedule and nearly $800,000 under-budget. (The city did end up paying for the work, and Trump donated the profits to charity.)

After reading this chapter you begin to think that maybe Donald Trump really could build a wall along our southern border for a lot less than our current government estimates.

‘The Art of the Deal’ is filled with stories like this — stories of common sense stories of calculated risk taking, and stories of innovation and marketing. Anyone who would like to better understand Donald Trump would be helped by reading this remarkable book.

Another is his pledges and I have no way of knowing if he will make good on all of them but I do agree with all of them. Trump is the only candidate that is serious about building The Wall”! Two other important pledges Trump has made that no other candidate of either party has matched! First,deportation of millions of illegals that are demanding and costing American taxpayers billions of dollars and second, closing 34 Muslim training camps throughout our country! I WOULD LIKE TRUMP OR ANY OTHER CANDIDATES PLEDGE TO REINSTATE ANY AND ALL MILITARY OFFICERS DISCHARGED BECAUSE THEY DISAGREED WITH OBAMA OR HIS POLICIES!!

Here is another that kind of wraps up my feelings about Trump. Raccoon’s in your basement! An interesting analogy.

You’ve been on vacation for two weeks, you come home, and your basement is infested with raccoon’s. Hundreds of rabid, messy, mean raccoon’s have overtaken your basement. You want them gone immediately so you hire a guy. A pro. You don’t care if the guy smells, you need those raccoon’s gone pronto and he’s the guy to do it! You don’t care if the guy swears, you don’t care if he’s an alcoholic, you don’t care how many times he’s been married, you don’t care if he voted for Obama, you don’t care if he has plumber’s crack…you simply want those raccoon’s gone!

You want your problem fixed! He’s the guy. He’s the best. Period. That’s why we need Trump. Yes, he’s a bit of an ass. Yes, he’s an egomaniac, but you don’t care.

The country is a mess because politicians suck, the Republican Party is two-faced & gutless, illegal’s are everywhere. You want it all fixed! You don’t care that Trump is crude, you don’t care that he insults people, you don’t care that he had been friendly with Hillary, you don’t care that he has changed positions, you don’t care that he’s been married 3 times, you don’t care that he fights with Megyn Kelly and Rosie O’Donnell, you don’t care that he doesn’t know the name of some Muslin terrorist,…this country is weak, bankrupt, our enemies are making fun of us, we are being invaded by illegal’s, we are becoming a nation of victims where every Tom, Ricardo and Hamad is a special interest group with special rights to a point where we don’t even recognize the country we were born and raised in.

“AND WE JUST WANT IT FIXED” and Trump is the only guy who seems to understand what the people want.

You’re sick of politicians, sick of the Democratic Party, Republican Party, and sick of illegal’s. You just want this thing fixed. Trump may not be a saint, but doesn’t have any lobbyist money influencing him, he doesn’t have political correctness restraining him, all you know is that he has been very successful, a good negotiator, he has built a lot of things, and he’s also not a politician, so he’s not a cowardly politician. And he says he’ll fix it. You don’t care if the guy has bad hair. You just want those raccoon’s gone. Out of your house!

This one is more about why we don’t want Hillary. I think this sums it up well!

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are in a bar. Donald leans over, and with a smile on his face, says,
“The media are really tearing you apart for That Scandal.”
Hillary: “You mean my lying about Benghazi?”
Trump: “No, the other one.”
Hillary: “You mean the massive voter fraud?”
Trump: “No, the other one.”
Hillary: “You mean the military not getting their votes counted?”
Trump: “No, the other one.”
Hillary: “Using my secret private server with classified material to Hide my Activities?”
Trump: “No, the other one.”
Hillary: “The NSA monitoring our phone calls, emails and everything Else?”
Trump: “No, the other one.”
Hillary: “Using the Clinton Foundation as a cover for tax evasion, hiring cronies, and taking bribes from foreign countries?
Trump: “No, the other one.”
Hillary: “You mean the drones being operated in our own country without The Benefit of the law?”
Trump: “No, the other one.”
Hillary: “Giving 123 Technologies $300 Million, and right afterward it Declared Bankruptcy and was sold to the Chinese?”
Trump: “No, the other one.”
Hillary: “You mean arming the Muslim Brotherhood and hiring them in the White House?”
Trump: “No, the other one.”
Hillary: “Whitewater, Watergate committee, Vince Foster, commodity Deals?”
Trump: “No the other one:”
Hillary: “The IRS targeting conservatives?”
Trump: “No the other one:”
Hillary: “Turning Libya into chaos?”
Trump: “No the other one:”
Hillary: “Trashing Mubarak, one of our few Muslim friends?”
Trump: “No the other one:”
Hillary: “Turning our backs on Israel?”
Trump: “No the other one:”
Hillary: “The joke Iran Nuke deal? ”
Trump: “No the other one:”
Hillary: “Leaving Iraq in chaos? ”
Trump: “No, the other one.”
Hillary: “The DOJ spying on the press?”
Trump: “No, the other one.”
Hillary: “You mean HHS Secretary Sibelius shaking down health insurance Executives?”
Trump: “No, the other one.”
Hillary: “Giving our cronies in SOLYNDRA $500 MILLION DOLLARS and 3 Months Later they declared bankruptcy and then the Chinese bought it?”
Trump: “No, the other one.”
Hillary: “The NSA monitoring citizens’ ?”
Trump: “No, the other one.”
Hillary: “The State Department interfering with an Inspector General Investigation on departmental sexual misconduct?”
Trump: “No, the other one.”
Hillary: “Me, The IRS, Clapper and Holder all lying to Congress?”
Trump: “No, the other one.”
Hillary: “Threats to all of Bill’s former mistresses to keep them quiet”
Trump: “No, the other one.”
Hillary: “You means taking the $145,000,000.00 from Putin for the Uranium Bribe ? “
Trump : “ No the other one .”
Hillary: “I give up! … Oh wait, I think I’ve got it! When I stole the White House furniture, silverware and China when Bill left Office?”
Trump: “THAT’S IT! I almost forgot about that one”.
**********
Everything above is true. Yet she still gets the Democratic votes. Could there be that many stupid people in this country? Does anyone understand this? If not, I think we’re doomed!

The deal with Iran was a sell out. The Iranians got everything they wanted and the United States got nothing in return. If there is a single obstacle to Iran developing nuclear weapons whenever they please, no one has yet identified what that obstacle is. But of more recent interest has been the contemptuous arrogance of Obama’s spirit double on foreign affairs, Ben Rhodes, who provided an interview to The New York Times that has been commented on endlessly across the net. But as the most infamous passage from that interview, reprinted below, would explain, these criticisms have not yet surfaced within the media in general.

Rhodes singled out a key example to me one day, laced with the brutal contempt that is a hallmark of his private utterances. “All these newspapers used to have foreign bureaus,” he said. “Now they don’t. They call us to explain to them what’s happening in Moscow and Cairo. Most of the outlets are reporting on world events from Washington. The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old, and their only reporting experience consists of being around political campaigns. That’s a sea change. They literally know nothing.”

Why would these bumpkins mention that the source of all their stories has called them clueless and ignorant? But now Rhodes has returned fire, and given how little he cares about what anyone else thinks as the Middle East blows up, he dismisses everything that has been said in a tepid statement that is designed to be read in four minutes. This is his evidence that all is well:

Today, Iran verifiably cannot obtain a nuclear weapon. That, more than anything I or anyone else can say, makes the case for the Iran deal.

If it were true, then he’s right but it is very early days yet. If it is a lie, like just about everything else that has been said by Obama, then he has sabotaged American interests in the Middle East, although that is by no means the only measure of failure since there are so many others to go with this one. And there’s that word “verifiably” that seems a qualifier of some significance. But the story about Rhodes himself, to the extent it was ever a scandal, has now fully disappeared. That is the one thing that is verifiable and shows again not only how insignificant the media is as an obstacle to Obama doing whatever he can get away with, but how insignificant the critics of the right to anything whatsoever.

Lee Smith has just touched on this very point: The Ben Rhodes Blow-up.

The echo chamber is mad—but not at Ben Rhodes for what he said. They’re mad at Samuels for getting the story they didn’t—or didn’t even see was there, and they’re mad at him for what he reported. The Washington Post has published three different pieces on Samuels, none favorable, including one by the editor of the book section. The Post is mad of course because the Samuels piece publicly shamed the paper—after all, its main brief is to cover the local industry—the workings of the government of the United States. And yet as the article makes plain, Post reporters and especially columnists got spun and conned about the Iran deal. But much worse than that is that the Post got scooped on the story explaining how gullible they are. Scooped by the New York Times, in their own backyard on the biggest foreign policy story of the past four years! That’s embarrassing.

A world run by the emptiest shirts with the shallowest minds submerged within the sleaziest ideologies. Possibly ever thus, but what remains the most important part of the story is that it remains a non-story for virtually the whole of the world who know nothing about any of this at all. That ignorance does not include the governments of Iran or Russia, but what difference does that make to getting elected in the United States, the country with the least informed electorate across the developed world.

This is Paul Johnson writing at Forbes discussing Donald Trump: When Excess Is A Virtue. It is full on with no suggestion of ironic intent or a claimed superiority to the cretins of the left. He takes them for what they are, dangerous and deluded, who are ruining the world in which we live. Nothing funny about what they say or do. This is what he wrote in full:

THE MENTAL INFECTION known as “political correctness” is one of the most dangerous intellectual afflictions ever to attack mankind. The fact that we began by laughing at it–and to some extent, still do–doesn’t diminish its venom one bit.

PC has an enormous appeal to the semieducated, one reason that it’s struck roots among overseas students at minor colleges. But it also appeals to pseudo-intellectuals everywhere, since it evokes the strong streak of cowardice notable among those wielding academic authority nowadays. Any empty-headed student with a powerful voice can claim someone (never specified) will be “hurt” by a hitherto harmless term, object or activity and be reasonably assured that the dons and professors in charge will show a white feather and do as the student demands. Thus, there isn’t a university campus on either side of the Atlantic that’s not in danger of censorship. The brutal young don’t even need to impose it themselves; their trembling elders will do it for them.

The insidious thing about PC is that it wasn’t–and isn’t–the creation of anyone in particular. It’s usually the anonymous work of such Kafkaesque figures as civil servants, municipal librarians, post office sorters and employees at similar levels. It penetrates the interstices of society, especially those where the hierarchies of privilege and property are growing. To a great extent PC is the revenge of the resentful underdog.

Nowhere has PC been more triumphant than in the U.S. This is remarkable, because America has traditionally been the home of vigorous, outspoken, raw and raucous speech. From the early 17th century, when the clerical discipline the Pilgrim Fathers sought to impose broke down and those who had things to say struck out westward or southward for the freedom to say them, America has been a land of unrestricted comment on anything–until recently. Now the U.S. has been inundated with PC inquisitors, and PC poison is spreading worldwide in the Anglo zone.

For these reasons it’s good news that Donald Trump is doing so well in the American political primaries. He is vulgar, abusive, nasty, rude, boorish and outrageous. He is also saying what he thinks and, more important, teaching Americans how to think for themselves again.

No one could be a bigger contrast to the spineless , pusillanimous and underdeserving Barack Obama, who has never done a thing for himself and is entirely the creation of reverse discrimination. The fact that he was elected President–not once, but twice–shows how deep-set the rot is and how far along the road to national impotence the country has traveled.

Under Obama the U.S.–by far the richest and most productive nation on earth–has been outsmarted, outmaneuvered and made to appear a second-class power by Vladimir Putin’s Russia. America has presented itself as a victim of political and economic Alzheimer’s disease, a case of national debility and geopolitical collapse.

TIME FOR A SCARE

None of the Republican candidates trailing Trump has the character to reverse this deplorable declension. The Democratic nomination seems likely to go to the relic of the Clinton era, herself a patiently assembled model of political correctness, who is carefully instructing America’s most powerful pressure groups in what they want to hear and whose strongest card is the simplistic notion that the U.S. has never had a woman President and ought to have one now, merit being a secondary consideration.

For Johnson, what many see as Trump’s largest failings are his greatest strengths.

AND THEN FROM THE FARTHEST REACHES OF INANITY: This was picked up at Tim Blair. It is the supposed right-wing conservative, P.J. O’Rourke quoted at National Review:

I am endorsing Hillary. The second worst thing that could happen to this country. But she’s way behind in second place, you know? She’s wrong about absolutely everything — but she’s wrong within normal parameters!

Vacuous and empty. We have been watching the normal parameters in action over the last eight years. If more of the same is what he has in mind, he really hasn’t worked out why there have been millions streaming towards Trump who seem to have a series of problems they wish to see dealt with, problems that the likes of O’Rourke find invisible and for which they have no useful advice to offer.