The real question

You may remember that when this whole thing started--the man-who-will-be-President descending from the upper floor of Trump Tower with his trophy wife at his side--when he first started babbling about Mexican rapists, news people would say of him, "the man takes the oxygen out of the room"--no one else can breath. He takes the stage, and everyone else simplyl disappears. His huge, in-your-face swagger was so outlandish that news media couldn't take their eyes off him and neither could the American public. 

He was larger than life, so Macy's-Thanksgiving-Day-Parade balloon-ish that there was no room left on the street for anyone or anything else. To say he dominated is ridiculous understatement. For weeks, Chris Matthews used to stop Hardballing if the Donald happened to be speaking anywhere in America. Trump always made news. He made sure he made news. 

When he said, right down the street from where I live, that he could gun someone down on Fifth Avenue and his people would love him, he was, even then, absolutely right. No American ever guessed anyone could get away with what he did and does and still get elected--no tax returns, three wives, hundreds, even thousands of lies (my people in Hawaii are finding out all sorts of bad stuff about this man named Obama--he didn't even have anyone there). 

His habitual belittling (Lyin' Ted, Little Marco, Crooked Hillary) was gross, his unending idiotic fantasies (Mexico will pay for a wall a wall like China's) so loopy people wanted to believe him. And then did.

Amazing coincidence. Barnum and Bailey tells the American public this week that after 146 years, they're bringing down the big top and parking the caravan. No matter. We've got a new national circus now, a pudgy orange guy with weird hair, who knows better than anyone how to keep the world entertained. Barnum and Bailey who? 

Not long ago, he told someone somewhere that his favorite movie of all time was Citizen Kane. He is Charles Foster Kane. He's either a total idiot or as smart as he claims to be. He either doesn't understand the movie or he does--and he's telling us, like Hamlet, that he's only mad when he wants to be.

He a master at keeping the attention on himself, staying atop the fold, his mug front and center, on the Evening News. And now he's king. Even more cameras will be aimed at him. He can't lose. He sucks the oxygen right out of the room with every huge breath. The rest of us just pant.

Can you imagine any other candidate flying around from one of his temples to another in his own air force and not paying a dime for our schools, for our veterans, for new roads and bridges? If you believe the Washington Post, even his contributions are other people's money. He's never argued about the claim that he's a billionaire who hasn't paid taxes for 18 years. 

We're all slack-jawed around him, speechless, trying to get our breath.

Today, he becomes my President and yours. Today, he will be the leader of the free world. He'll need no megaphones, no elevators, no Trump Towers. Today he will actually be as big as he always claimed he was. After today, everything he says will be miked. 

That Donald Trump can lead goes without question. In epic Old Testament fashion, he beat the tar out of umpteen Republican candidates, left them all bloodied on the stage, then dispatched the Democrat, the first female nominee, by making her a "nasty" woman. He can lead all right. 

The only question left is the one that rises from the pages of the New Testament. That President Trump can rule isn't in question, but can he serve? That's the real question. That's what matters. 

We'll all be watching. That's for sure.