Trump Walks the Political High Wire

Charlie Cook: “It’s hard to look at Don­ald Trump and his pres­id­ency through any con­ven­tion­al lens or ap­ply any nor­mal yard­sticks to him. Wheth­er part of a grand plan or im­pro­visa­tion, state­ments and be­ha­vi­or that would have ended the ca­reers of oth­er politi­cians have made it pos­sible for him to prosper. Trump’s strange polit­ic­al al­chemy works des­pite the fact that it seems to defy lo­gic and polit­ic­al grav­ity. Walk­ing on a high wire may seem crazy to the rest of us, but it’s just a day at the of­fice for the Fly­ing Wal­l­en­das, and for them, things have worked out pretty well. (I know one mem­ber of the Wal­l­enda fam­ily, and she’s bright, im­press­ive, and per­fectly nor­mal.) Trump, like the Wal­l­en­das, thrives on the oohs and aahs of his audi­ence.”

“So while many of us can watch things that Trump does with shock and even hor­ror, we need to keep an open mind about the out­come. As he showed dur­ing the pres­id­en­tial cam­paign, he can be crazy like a fox. But for any oth­er politi­cian con­tem­plat­ing a Trump-style cam­paign, I ad­vise ex­treme cau­tion. He’s a polit­ic­al dare­dev­il like no oth­er, and it re­mains to be seen wheth­er he’ll turn out like Evel Knievel. In oth­er words: Kids, don’t try this at home. It may or may not work for him, but it surely won’t work for any­one else.”