"I've been known as being a very smart guy for a long time."
So Donald Trump told CNBC. And who are we to disagree?
Trump, in fact, is too modest. He's a genius.
Only a pointy-headed, book-reading, NPR-listening intellectual would deny that Trump is in the same IQ class as Sarah Palin, America's sweetheart and Tea Party icon.
President Barack Obama has, on repeated occasions, called upon the nation to put aside its partisan, polarizing political behavior; to think of the many, rather than the few; and to embrace a transcendent vision of hope and change.
It is in this kumbaya spirit that the Phoenix offers Mitt Romney's campaign some sound advice: put The Donald on your ticket. Make Trump your vice-presidential running mate.
Now that Romney has clinched the Republican nomination with his victory in the Texas primary, it is time for the Mittster to start thinking about who will be his Dick Cheney, his prince of darkness.
Face facts: Romney and Trump go together like blueberry pie and ice cream. Both were born rich and made themselves even richer; both have interesting hair; and while Trump has no on-the-record experience of knocking down a gay high-school classmate and forcibly cutting the young man's long locks, we have no doubt that, if the opportunity had ever presented itself, Trump too would have scalped the kid.
And then there are important policy issues, such as bankruptcy. Romney famously counseled that the best way to save Detroit was to let the Motor City go broke. Although Obama recklessly failed to heed this sage advice, Romney was quite justified in taking credit for Detroit's remarkable turnaround.
Trump knows a thing or two about bankruptcy — after all, various Trump companies have successfully filed for Chapter 11 protection four times.
Overall, the fit is almost too good to be true: two tycoons for the price of one.
There is, of course, the delicate question of ego. Could Romney function in the shadow of the incandescent Trump? How, for example, did Romney react to the Associated Press report headlined, "Romney clinches nomination, but Trump overshadows"?
As a former Mormon bishop, we're sure that Romney is a high-minded guy, capable of thinking big — even deep — thoughts.
And what's more high-minded than Trump's unbounded, unflinching, and unusual efforts to convince the nation that Obama was not born in America? A lesser man might be deterred by Obama's Hawaii birth certificate, but not Trump.
Trump's insistence that the president is a foreign-born scallywag in the face of tough questioning by CNN's Wolf Blitzer was a thing to behold. It left Blitzer almost speechless, no small feat.
That is moxie. True grit. The right stuff.
What should Romney do about aides who quote Shakespeare and whisper in his ear, "There's many a man has more hair than wit"?
Dismiss them, Mr. Romney. In your heart, you know Trump is right.
