After taking my partisan hat off and looking at it carefully, I have come to the conclusion that Donald Trump may be the best thing to happen to the Republican Party in years, and he certainly is a viable (if not best) contender for a Presidential run. Here are my thoughts:
He is not an insider. We hve grown weary of the current spate of career politicians jockeying for position. While the Republican Party is hardly on its death bed, it has suffered in the last few years repeating the same memes over and over again. Trump is generally not seen as being associated with that cabal and that may be the plus needed to succeed.
He is already a household name. Like it or not, everyone knows Donald Trump, the self-made millionaire. Like him or not, one has to respect his rise to fortune because the only way to do that is to make good real-world decisions. He is a tough negotiator, but unlike the current spate of Republicans he is a negotiator. He gets things done. Successfully.
He is a businessman. Many see this as a minus, but I back it as a plus. We need a leader that can look at budgets and in simpler terms explain what they mean. We need some balance-the-budget business acumen in the White House. Trump would not shy away from unpopular budget choices, he would actually sell them.
He has a hard-line world view. I initiallly laughed when he said "If we invade a country, it should belong to us!" That certainly would make people in other countries think twice about picking a fight with the US, only to be "rebuilt" at the back end of the conflict. But I think these comments get to something much deeper, a belief that if we expend taxpayers dollars abroad we should reap some sort of tangible benefit from the exercise. Our altruism in that respect has done nothing but add to the public debt, and it is time that we look at the costs vs. result before we get into conflicts. We may "feel good" about deposing a dictator overseas, but was it really worth a couple of trillion dollars? We need someone who will look at the balance sheet before going to war.
I also believe that Donald Trump would also take a hard look at trade imbalances and actually do something about those economies that take advantage of the United States. Too often we lose in "fair trade."
He is adaptable. Every new President's transition into office is rough, and for Trump it may be harder than most. That being said, can it be any more different than stepping out of the field of real estate and into television? And succeeding in that fickle environment? For years?
He is ... different. Many of the past (and current) Presidents are lawyers from Ivy-league schools. And where did that get us? Donald Trump's education started at the New York Military Academy, continuing to Fordham University and finishing with a business degree at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. A son of German immigrants, he helped his family start with nothing to have built the Trump Organization. He has learned from big wins and devastating losses in the real world.
You gotta love the hair. A butt of many jokes, Donald Trump's comb-over also separates him from the well-groomed slick-willies in the room. It is good to have a trade mark, and if it something as harmless as a hair style so much the better.
So there we have it. Trump as President? We could have far worse, and for the Republicans there may be none better.