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Wednesday, January 6, 2016

The Certainty in Uncertain Times of Being Donald Trump

 AN EDITED VERSION OF THIS PIECE IS SCHEDULED TO APPEAR IN THE SUNDAY MAGAZINE SECTION OF THE NEW YORK TIMES

("Disqualified")

Politics, is at it's very heart uncertain. Negotiations to be undertaken, deals to be made, compromises to be accepted. There is none of this in the language or the very being that is Donald Trump. 

We live in uncomfortable times, from economic stagnation at home to economic disintegration abroad; from disturbing scenes of death on our streets to demonic beheadings on our screens; from Syria to Iran;  from Paris to San Bernardino; from  Assad to Putin ; from one environmental calamity to the next. Many yearn for simple answers to problems of staggering complexity.

And while Mr. Kasich may lay claim to political acumen and savvy, none of that can resolve the fears and anxieties of an increasingly bewildered and frustrated public.  To be a politician in today's Republican party, to even contemplate alternatives, is akin to admitting defeat. 

So, unless the world shifts on it's axis in the next 30 days, Mr. Kasich, and his grown up in the room mantra, will find himself very far on the outside looking in. Instead, Mr. Trump, with all his theatrics, with his Great Wall and his barrier to refugees, with his promise to create order out of chaos, with his ability to rile up and calm down in the same thought, will stand triumphant.

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