The Des Moines Register calls for Trump to end his campaign

t's time for Donald Trump to drop out of the race for president of the United States.

People
who run for public office typically perform a great public service,
regardless of whether they win on Election Day. That's particularly true
of presidential candidates, most of whom must devote two years of their
lives to hard-fought campaigns that involve staggering personal and
financial sacrifices, all in an effort to serve their country.

And then there's Trump.

In the five weeks since he announced his campaign to seek the GOP
nomination for president, Trump has been more focused on promoting
himself, and his brand, than in addressing the problems facing the
nation. If he were merely a self-absorbed, B-list celebrity, his
unchecked ego could be tolerated as a source of mild amusement. But he
now wants to become president, which means that he aspires to be the
leader of the free world and the keeper of our nuclear launch codes.

That
is problematic, because Trump, by every indication, seems wholly
unqualified to sit in the White House. If he had not already
disqualified himself through his attempts to demonize immigrants as
rapists and drug dealers, he certainly did so by questioning the war
record of John McCain, the Republican senator from Arizona.

McCain is an American hero. During the Vietnam War, he spent more than
five years being tortured as a prisoner of war, and he refused early
release unless every man captured before him was released as well.
Trump, on the other hand, didn't serve in the military, partly because,
as he puts it, he was "not a big fan of the Vietnam War." But that
didn't stop him from trashing McCain at the Family Leadership Summit in Ames on Saturday.

"He's not a war hero," Trump sniffed. Amid scattered booing, Trump
decided to double-down: "He's a war hero because he was captured. I like
people that weren't captured."

Then, perhaps sensing the ground
was opening up underneath him, Trump tried to back-pedal while
continuing to bloviate. "I believe perhaps he is a war hero," he said,
"but right now — he said some very bad things about a lot of people."

If Trump, our would-be commander in chief, doesn't like POWs, how does he feel about men and women killed in action?

His
comments were not merely offensive, they were disgraceful. So much so,
in fact, that they threaten to derail not just his campaign, but the
manner in which we choose our nominees for president. By using his
considerable wealth, his celebrity status, and his mouth to draw
attention to himself, rather than to raise awareness of the issues
facing America, he has coarsened our political dialogue and cheapened
the electoral process.

He has become "the distraction with traction" — a feckless blowhard
who can generate headlines, name recognition and polling numbers not by
provoking thought, but by provoking outrage.

In just five weeks,
he has polluted the political waters to such an extent that serious
candidates who actually have the credentials to serve as president can't
get their message across to voters. In fact, some of them can't even
win a spot in one of the upcoming debates, since those slots are
reserved for candidates leading in the polls.

Last week, just
before he decided to go after McCain, Trump was at the top of at least
one national poll. But being electable is not the same as being
qualified, and Trump has proven himself not only unfit to hold office,
but unfit to stand on the same stage as his Republican opponents.

The best way Donald Trump can serve his country is by apologizing to McCain and terminating this ill-conceived campaign.







The Des Moines Register | DesMoinesRegister.com

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