Donald Trump for President is a thought that sends chills down the spine of most logical people. How on earth can this glory seeking, self centered, megalomaniac be on top or near the top of most polls regarding potential Republican candidate in 2012?

The answer is clear…the guy is freaking amazing.

Full disclosure: I am not a friend nor am I an admirer of Mr. Trump. However our path’s have crossed both professionally and socially over the years. So I have some insight into the magic of Donald Trump.

The Master Manipulator

My very first exposure to Trump came when I was a Sportscaster on WABC radio in New York. One morning I received a phone call from a listener who gave me a tip on a story. He told me his father was Walt Michaels , the former head coach of the NY Jets, partner in a hardware store and that Trump was going to hire him as the Head Coach of the New Jersey Generals, the team Trump owned in the USFL.

I called Trumps office to confirm. There was a time when Journalists actually tried to confirm things before they reported them. An assistant took a message and Trump called me back in a matter of minutes. He began the conversation by complimenting the show I was on. When I told him what I knew he did not deny it saying that they were seriously leaning that way.

Then he cast his line and reeled in a two hundred a fifty pound Sportscaster.

He says that since he listens to me every morning he has come to the conclusion that I am a very astute football man and asks my council on whether or not Michaels is a good choice or not. I of course swallow this BS hook line and sinker. I give Michaels my imprimatur. In the end Trumps asks me if I would just sit on this for a day and he would call back in the morning to confirm

No problem Donnie, I’ll do that for my biggest fan.

Later that day Warner Wolf broke the story on the six o’clock news during a live pre-arranged interview with Trump.

He got me good.

A few years later I was with WNYW-TV and had to cover on a daily basis the Anti Trust suit that the USFL brought against the NFL. The suit was brought at the instigation of Trump. Pretty much every day for two weeks I had to sit in court and then get Trump’s sound bite at the end of the day. Swallowing my pride I did this dutifully everyday. One afternoon I spotted one of the owners of another team in the league and got a sound bite on the court house steps from him. When I was finished there was Trump looking at me with the look men have when they just saw there girlfriend making out with another guy.

Believe it or not I actually felt bad.

Then I said to myself that I was going to need Trump to keep me up to date on this story so I go get another bite from him and of course that is the one I used on the news that night.

He got me again. The guy is like crack. You just can’t get away from him.

The Trump Charisma.

Many years latter I was living in California and spending a lot of my free time in Aspen, Colorado.

One night I walk into the Caribou Club, a very high end private sort of Saloon where on any given night I was the poorest guy in the room. I was greeted by Little Susie, a local dental hygienist who for some reason felt it was her role in life to fix me up with women.

God Bless her soul.

She drags me off to a back room to meet this blond who had that LA/Aspen look down pat. Fake boobs, puffy fat injected lips, a face that had no movement. All in all pretty hot by some standards but not my type at all. The feeling was mutual and off I went to fend for myself.

When it was time to hit the road I went to say goodbye to Susie who was still with The Hottie who had clearly moved on to much greener pastures… she was all over D. Trump. He and I say hi and he begins to tell the girls what a great Sportscaster I was…Yadda..yadda..yadda…I heard this shit before …Good night Donnie.

For the next few days The Donald and The Hottie were inseparable. This happened during the window of time between Trump divorcing Ivanna and marrying Marla.

I actually had to get on a chair lift with the two love birds one morning. I am not sure but I think at one point she actually smiled, well at least I thought I saw her face move. I saw them at lunch, at dinner,in the Caribou every night.

You didn’t have to be Dr. Ruth to figure out what was going on.

One afternoon I was in Mezzaluna with the guys who owned the China Club. They invited me to their table and I took the only available chair which happened to be next to Elle McPherson. She and I chatted and since I had spent a number of years working for fellow Aussie Rupert Murdoch I shared my crazy Aussie stories with her, much to her delight I might add.

Now here comes the Trump charisma part of this.

The Donald comes in with The Hottie and sits one table away. After a few moments she jumps up and waves to someone and then goes to meet that person at the door. The guy she greets is an older looking man about Trumps age. The Hottie drags the guy to the table and introduces him to Trump.

Now I am sitting next to one of the most beautiful women in the world, Elle (the body) McPherson and she is actually engaged in my conversation and I can’t take my freaking eyes and attention off Trump.

I hear The Hottie says to Trump “ Donald…I would like you to meet my Dad.”  Yep, she wants her father to meet the guy she has been shacking up with all week.

Well the old man starts pumping Trumps hand like he just met his future son in law. They sit together and it was hard to tell who had the bigger crush on Trump, the broad or her old man. I was eves dropping as hard as I could because I was positve that at some point this guy would actually thank Trump for banging his daughter.

Now that’s Charisma. When I meet the fathers of the women in my life they usually look at their daughters and say “we need to talk”.

So it is no surpise to me that Trump is actually wooing people with his bravado and posturing as he pretends to be running for President. It is no surprise to me that there are people who actually get caught up in his BS and think he would be a good candidate. The guy is a great salesman and he is great at selling the one product he know most about, Donald Trump.

The bigger political message is that the American people are looking for change. The last election clearly indicated that the voter is fed up with the status quo in Washington and any person who is of some accomplishment who has not been a career politician is going to get serious consideration. If the fact that Trump is so high in the polls is not an indication that the American Voter is desperate for non politician type candidates… I just don’t know what is.

I just want to warn my Republican friends that when it comes to Trump don’t let him do to the party what he was doing to that bimbo in Aspen. They really don’t need someone to love them and leave them.

To put it nicely.