Unpresidented = Potatoe?

There are those of us of a certain age who were always grateful that George H.W. Bush remained in solid-enough health that we never experienced the notion of Dan Quayle being elevated from the vice-presidency to the head of our federal government.
 

QUAYLE: What would his 'presidency' been like?

He being the man who showed a certain intellectual incuriosity (we still laugh at his gaffe of using an archaic spelling of “potato” in trying to correct a child at a spelling bee.

FOR PRESIDENT-ELECT Donald J. Trump is showing us that he has the same traits. Despite an advanced education (Fordham University and the Wharton School of Business at University of Pennsylvania), he is proof that being able to pass college classes is no guarantee that someone ought to be considered intelligent.

Heck, Trump gave us his own Quayle-type gaffe with a recent Twitter message where he meant to use the word “unprecedented.” Only his new job title apparently is dominant on his mind these days, because it came out “unpresidented.”

Trump will never get to live this gaffe down, just as we still remember that extra “e” on potato that Quayle gave us nearly three decades ago – and that may well be a prominent part of his obituary on that day years from now (he hopes!) when he departs us.

Not that this should be any surprise.

THE WHOLE THEORY behind Trump’s rise to political significance has been one of appealing to a certain segment of society that is suspicious of anyone who claims to be too intellectual.

TRUMP: Maybe he'll show us!

Which means I’m sure the Trump Nation, so to speak, is coming up with sarcastic wisecracks in reference to anyone who brings up the fact that Trump can’t spell “unprecedented.”

For all I know, many of these people may have seen Trump’s latest Tweet from a twit and didn’t even realize there was a spelling error until it was pointed out to them.

And for these kinds of people, there’s nothing lower than a know-it-all who always seems to be capable of pointing out when they make a mistake.

Nobody would mistake Melania Trump ...

THEY DON’T WANT to have someone point out their gaffes, or those of the people they want to believe are truly wisened (as some in our society seem to think of Trump just because he has managed to survive in the business world without his bankruptcies actually managing to financially bust him).

... for Marilyn Quayle, although w/ her hair,

Which is probably how they also feel about those who point out that they voted for a bigot, or were willing to look the other way to the bigoted backers who are the key to comprehending how Trump managed to “win” an election despite gaining some 2.8 million votes fewer than Hillary Clinton.

What I think we’re going to experience in the next few years (four, or maybe less if he really does get bored of being in the Oval Office) is the sense of what life would have been like if we had ever had to experience the concept of “President Quayle.”

Considering that I previously had considered the Trump presidency to be the equivalent of California experiencing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger or Minnesota being silly enough to think one-time pro wrestler Jesse Ventura ought to be in charge, I wonder if being the next Dan Quayle is a step up – or down!

THE TWO HAVE a certain sense of similarity when it comes to a lack of interest in what anybody else thinks about them.

... Marilyn could have been Mary Tyler Moore

Except, perhaps for the type of women they like to surround themselves with. Trump goes for a certain type of woman whose sense of glamour brings to mind the old cliché, “It costs a lot of money to look that cheap.”

While Quayle gave us as a spouse Marilyn, the woman whose “flip” hairstyle brought back memories of Mary Tyler Moore back in the days when she was the TV spouse of Dick Van Dyke.

We’re going to get enough gaffes in coming years so that there’s a good chance that “unpresidented” may fall by the wayside – just because he’ll manage to say or do something even more stupid.

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