Tuesday, January 29, 2019

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz's Ego-Crazed Foolishness

Starbucks CEO whose over sized ego may reelect Trump.
Perhaps the most important thing facing America is making sure that Donald Trump is NOT re-elected in 2020.  To make sure this occurs, we need a unified Democrat Party with a good candidate and no vanity campaigns by third party or independent candidates.  We do not need another Jill Stein (who may have conspired with Russia) or Ross Perot campaign that splits the anti-Trump vote.  Yet, despite this reality, Starbuck's CEO Howard Schultz has indicated that he is considering exactly such a campaign - something that must be thrilling the Trump camp.  Not surprisingly, many (including yours truly) are furious with Schultz's plan that will benefit no one but Trump.  I'd go so far as to say that I have spent my last dollar at Starbuck's if Schultz's foolishness continues.  A column in the Washington Post looks at Schultz's ego driven idiocy.  Here are column excerpts:  
Just what we need, another ego-crazed billionaire with zero experience in government who thinks he is destined to be president. What could go wrong?
Howard Schultz, the man who put a Starbucks on every corner, said in a “60 Minutes” interview aired Sunday that he is mulling a run for the White House as an independent. Schultz admits he’s “not the smartest person in the room,” but he must be smart enough to know he can’t possibly win.  He is quite capable of reelecting President Trump, though.
At present, the specter of a second Trump term looks comfortably remote. The blue wave in the midterm elections and Trump’s cellar-dwelling approval numbers show what the country thinks of him and his corrupt, chaotic, kooky administration. A recent poll shows him trailing any of his likely Democratic opponents. If the election were held next week, I’m pretty confident that Trump would lose to a ham sandwich. He does have a chance in 2020, however, if the anti-Trump vote is split between two or more candidates. Imagine Schultz, a lifelong Democrat, siphoning off even 5 percent of the Democratic candidate’s vote in, say, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida. The horror of 2016 threatens to become a recurring nightmare.
Schultz seems to be an honorable and decent guy, and I have nothing against him. But I most certainly will if he saddles the nation with four more years of Trump’s racism, xenophobia, misogyny, ignorance, dishonesty and incompetence.
As I said, Schultz can’t actually win as an independent. Even Trump was smart enough to figure that out.
A person familiar with Trump’s thinking told me why. Trump understood that the most likely outcome, if he ran on his own, would be to guarantee Hillary Clinton’s election by taking votes away from the GOP candidate. In his wildest dreams, he might hope to win enough electoral votes to keep either major-party candidate from reaching a majority. But in that case, the election would be thrown to the House of Representatives — which would surely choose the Republican or the Democrat, not Trump. His reasoning about the inevitable outcome was sound — and remains so today. Schultz may follow through on his pledge to spend whatever it takes to compete in all 50 states. But he can’t win. I know that party affiliation has been steadily weakening and that a plurality of voters consider themselves independents. Despite all of this, the Democratic Party and the GOP remain deeply entrenched and highly adaptable institutions. Either might be susceptible to a hostile takeover, as Trump proved. But only a supreme narcissist would think himself capable of singlehandedly vanquishing both. The inference is that Schultz might be more likely to run, and persist in running, if it looks as if an ideological progressive such as Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont or Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts is likely to win the Democratic nomination. Schultz may be hoping to get the attention of Democratic donors and influencers, and shift the intraparty debate in a more moderate direction.
Or — and I fear this is more likely — he may just be surfing a great big wave of pure ego.
The anti-Trump majority of Democrats, independents and sensible Republicans must let Schultz know, in no uncertain terms, that this is no time for such foolishness. Instead, perhaps, he should angle for a Cabinet post. Or just have a decaf latte and chill.

1 comment:

Sixpence Notthewiser said...

These millionaires have to stop. Yes, he may be much better than Cheeto (most everybody would be) but this is not the time for social experiments. If Cheeto is not impeached, Vlad could make him win again. And that's just not an option.