United Liberty

Just when you thought he and his toupee were gone:

Donald Trump’s decision to drop out of the 2012 presidential race may be as ephemeral as NFL quarterback Brett Favre’s decision to throw in the towel in 2008.

Like Mr. Favre, who was back on the gridiron playing for a different team just months after his teary farewell from football three years ago, Mr. Trump also appears to be considering suiting up to get back in the game – only this time as an independent.

“It was not an easy decision for me [to drop out of the Republican primary race in May], but I think that it will be an easy decision [to return to the campaign] if the Republicans choose the wrong candidate and if the economy is bad. I think it will be a really easy decision for me to make,” Trump told the Monitor in an interview in Panama City, shortly after inaugurating the Trump Ocean Club, the first Trump hotel and tower outside the United States.

If “The Donald” feels the time is right to get back in the race, look for him to make the announcement on the next season of his reality TV show The Apprentice – his primetime soapbox.

Have presidential elections jumped the shark? Even with our 24/7 news culture that we’ve developed over the past few decades, it still seemed to me, up until this point, that the presidential election was still taken as a mostly serious business. (Palin’s nomination as VP last time around was a bit unwise, but it still didn’t turn the whole thing into a joke.) It used be we were taking our time to choose the leader of the country—even if we really didn’t know what we were doing, we still approached it with some gravitas. Now, the presidential election seems to be a tool to boost TV ratings.

I’m not sure what to make about his statements regarding Panamanian president Ricardo Martinelli vis-a-vis American politics; I don’t think a lot of Americans know what is going on in Panama, and I certainly don’t. This is something every voter is going to have to examine, especially if he decides to pull a Favre in the end.

But in any case, will the last American please turn out the lights?