Salon is running part two of a three-day series of interviews with entertaining cultural critic Camille Paglia. She's enjoying Trump's blustering buffoonery as much as I am.
So far this year, I'm happy with what Trump has done, because he's totally blown up the media! All of a sudden, "BOOM!" That lack of caution and shooting from the hip. He's not a president, of course. He's not remotely a president. He has no political skills of any kind. He's simply an American citizen who is creating his own bully pulpit. He speaks in the great populist way, in the slangy vernacular. He takes hits like a comedian – and to me he's more of a comedian than Jon Stewart is! Like claiming John McCain isn't a war hero, because his kind of war hero doesn't get captured–that's hilarious! That's like something crass that Lenny Bruce might have said! It's so startling and entertaining.
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Our politicians, like our comedians, have been boring us with their canned formulas for way too long. So that's why Donald Trump has suddenly leapt in the polls. He's a great stand-up comedian. He's anti-PC–he's not afraid to say things that are rude and mean. I think he's doing a great service for comedy as well as for politics!
