Mitt Romney claiming victory in Nevada has brought him one step closer to becoming the Republican Party’s presidential candidate. However, it appears that Romney can’t take all the credit on his own. Donald Trump, who recently endorsed Romney as a favored candidate, has claimed he was responsible for Romney’s emphatic win. According to an article on The Huffington Post published yesterday, Romney was already poised for a win in Nevada, and polls actually indicated Trump’s endorsement was viewed as negative by 41 percent of Nevadans.
Furthermore, the Democrats seemed bemused by the seemingly mismatched pair. Obama’s campaign allegedly sent out a Twitter post reading, “in case you missed it” with news of Trump’s endorsement attached. Evidently this was not seen as a threat to the competing campaign. According to another article published in TIME last Friday, however, the endorsement may not be such a horrible misstep after all. Trump has been in the public eye for years; consequently he knows how to capture the attention of the press. While the question remains whether this publicity will help or hurt Romney’s campaign, one can’t deny that it has drawn a lot of media attention to Romney’s cause in general.
It’s important to realize a “celebrity” endorsement will only go so far in affecting a political campaign. The distraction is innocent enough, but hopefully the American voting public will focus on policy rather than irrelevant publicity. It would be a shame if American political gains were reduced to which party had more famous personalities among its supporters. Especially when the supporter in question claims his attitude toward a caucus win is, “A lot of people are giving me credit for that. And I will accept that credit. Always accept credit.”
Obviously, having famous faces behind your campaign will gain you national attention. The degree to which they are involved does have to remain in check. The following weeks will certainly indicate whether Trump’s approval is a political blessing or a curse.
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