I get a kick out of listening to Donald Trump as he tippy-toes like a Fantasia ballerina along the line dividing successful billionaire from national pol.  He rumbles and blusters.  He could crush you with one well-aimed foot, yet he dances in graceful, casual disregard.  He refuses to utter the words, “I am running for President of The United States!”

The Donald searches for a dance partner

Although I am impressed by some of it, I am unconvinced by the whole of it. 

Not that The Donald couldn’t win should he actually decide to run.  I simply have severe doubts that he will take the ultimate plunge.

Trump says many of the things that appeal to important segments of the Republican Party.  He speaks of repealing Obamacare.  He claims to have reversed his earlier support for the pro-choice agenda.  He goes to CPAC and wows the crowd on how China, our foreign allies, and OPEC are taking advantage of America.  He even questions President Obama’s citizenship qualifications to hold his Office.

But I cannot get over my sense that The Donald’s Mystical Coiffure has no intention of laying atop a President’s head.  Not that I wouldn’t LOVE to see that portrait!  

My disbelief is rooted in the unlikely event that a man with the international business, finance, and entertainment Power the likes of Donald Trump would relinquish said Power to become a politically henpecked – not to mention salaried – Chief Executive.  Perhaps I’m wrong.  Perhaps The Donald has so strong a deep and abiding love for his country that he believes he is The Answer. 

But no, The Donald could perform no better service for his Country than the dance he is performing right now.  And frankly, I doubt that even The Donald sees himself as The Best Man for The Job.  What he is doing with his indelicate ballet is drawing as much attention as possible to the issues he believes are MOST CRITICAL to future U.S. health and success.

Many of us wholeheartedly agree with The Donald in that our national propensity for skyrocketing debt and oil-fueled gluttony are damaging our long-term future; how we could enable our most threatening rivals to overtake us; how we finance the kind of infrastructure investments in China of which we can only dream of here; and how these problems could one day be this country’s undoing.

I just can’t see Trump fixing any of this himself, especially from The Oval Office. 

My theory not only explains The Donald’s sudden bull rush from the high weeds of Manhattan.  It also makes sense of his sudden infatuation with The Birthers.

What The Donald is doing is pushing the political and financial messages that many conservatives cherish.  And drawing as much attention to those messages as possible (hence the birther pronouncements).  His numbers sit atop current Republican presidential polling; and he’s polling even higher when Tea Party favorites Michelle Bachman and Ron Paul are removed from the polling equation.     

What I think The Donald is doing is developing a position that the Real Candidates in the Republican Party will eventually view as a threat to their flanks.  When this happens, an astute politician will do one of two things.  He will attack that threat or he will attempt to absorb it.  Said politician will make those positions his own, especially if said candidate sees those positions as holding sway over a substantial segment of the electorate he covets.

Conservatives and Tea Party Republicans are sympathetic – as the poll numbers show – to The Donald’s message.  But I think they covet a Strawman; a strawman looking to push an important agenda, and then to push away The Job in which The Donald would never want to trapped.

So who might eventually usurp The Donald’s message, and therefore position themselves as The Favorite Son of The Right?  How much more attractive will that title look should it be accompanied by the kind of financial connection only The Donald could offer?   

If it happens, you can be sure those financial connections would not be far behind.  And if it works in November 2012, rest assured that Mystical Coiffure will become an Oval Office mainstay.