Since Trump started in a few years ago with the whole birther rhetoric, I’ve had an odd feeling that he reminded me of someone. While reading a Daily Kos diary written by Hatrack. It finally hit me.
Trump is the evil re-incarnation of Ted Baxter, the clueless TV news anchor from The Mary Tyler Moore Show, as portrayed by the late, Ted Knight
The big difference of course is that Ted didn’t have a malevolent bone is his body. He was just a lovable bubble head.
The big similarity is that, like Trump, when Baxter spoke off the cuff he simply said a bunch of words that clearly did not originate in his brain. Pure drivel.
The other similarity is that when either of them speak, they believe that their drivel is convincing.
Some examples of Baxter lines that could just as easily have been spoken by Trump.
Take his ad lib obituary for Chuckles the TV clown.
Chuckles, uh, leaves a wife. At least I assume he was married, he didn't seem like the other kind. I don't know his age, but I guess he was probably in his early sixties; it's kind of hard to judge a guy's face especially when he's wearing big lips and a light bulb for a nose. But he had his whole life in front of him, except for the sixty some odd years he already lived.
Or how about when he would tell his own origin story? It began with:
It all started at a 5,000 watt radio station in Fresno.
Then there was the time Ted had this exchange with Lou Grant, his boss in the newsroom.
LOU: Where do you get off changing Murray's copy?
TED: It was flat, Lou! I didn't change the facts, I just jazzed up the language.
LOU: Jazzed up? Jazzed up? Ted, you do not change the wording of a direct quote. And I do not believe that the Queen of England calls the French Ambassador "The Dude from Frog Town."
A few more random Baxter-isms
I tell you, this is a great country. You know what makes it great? Because you don't have to be witty or clever as long as you can hire someone who is.
I have to tell you this. Your aunt is pushy and arrogant. This goes against nature. Women should be gentle and refined. If God had intended them to be pushy and arrogant, He would have made them men.
When asked a question from an interviewer:
Woman: Mr. Baxter, what is your position on School Tax?
Ted: I'm against it. I don't think school kids should be taxed.
And my favorite line by Tru… errr.. Baxter
I'm going to be rich, Mary! I'm going to have all the things that money can buy. Happiness. Good health. Spiritual fulfillment. Then - then one day, I'm going to use my money to do something good for my country. I'm going to make a huge contribution to a presidential candidate and buy myself a political appointment. Ted Baxter: United States Ambassador to Hawaii.
While kind of funny, this is also a more than a little scary - a cartoon-like buffoon from a 70s Sitcom with a real chance of becoming our next President.