Donald's Doofus Days

When a prominent politician acts like a doofus, someone usually gets around to writing a column saying, pace Otter in "Animal House," "Well, let me tell you about another so-called doofus. His name was Ronald Reagan."

Here's the latest of the genre: Joe Scarbourgh on Donald Trump.

Two flaws in the former congressman's argument. Usually a doofus is just a doofus and not another Reagan. Second, Reagan wasn't a doofus, whereas the usually artful New York tycoon is acting like one by insisting that the president of the U.S. is a liar and usurper.

It's one thing to get yourself a little birther cred, which may be the price of admission for the GOP nomination in 2012 (though getting a birther elected is another matter). But Trump seems to be making it the centerpiece of his campaign. Is he being opportunistic, perhaps on the advice of his longtime friend and adviser Roger Stone, or does he really believe it? If the latter, I hope it wasn't because someone showed him this.

As for Trump's running second in GOP polls, I bet that's mostly name recognition. Read Stone's own perspective here.

You're Welcome

Another General Motors thank you, and an inspired one. You have to admire a company willing to compare itself to Bluto in "Animal House."

Musical Memories That Will Long Endure

I'm glad the PE is confident that the United States will endure, as he said today at his Lincoln Memorial concert. I didn't think we were so pessimistic as to think otherwise. It was an allusion to FDR's 1933 Inaugural Address:

This great Nation will endure, as it has endured, will revive and will prosper.

But Mr. Obama's remark didn't come out quite as elegantly. The only other off note in HBO's broadcast of the concert was Garth Brooks' performance of the Isley Brothers' 1959 song "Shout." The rendition was more closely patterned on that of the fictional band Otis Day and the Knights in "Animal House," complete with Brooks and members of the backing choir making like John Belushi and Flounder in the basement of Delta House.

But then there was Bruce Springsteen singing "The Rising" with his acoustic guitar and a gospel choir. U-2 performing "Pride (In The Name Of Love)," about Christ and Martin Luther King, Jr., from the very place most associated with King. Stevie Wonder, Usher, and Shakira together on "Higher Ground." Pete Seeger leading the crowd in "This Land Is Your Land." Will we ever have a Republican inauguration with such musical moments? Hard to imagine.