Does it feel like Groundhog Day to anyone? I feel like we are in the midst of a repeat from the 2007-2008 presidential campaign. I am not sure if you remember that time. A relatively unknown senator from Illinois was making a strong push against Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nominee. No one saw this coming. Hillary was supposed to be the bride for the wedding. She was going to be the first woman in the White House and Slick Willy was going to be the First  Man in the White House.

That wedding never occurred though. The bride was left at the alter. Her fiancé, the Democratic National Committee, left Hillary high and dry, standing there looking like a fool for an unknown senator. A senator with radical, left-wing fringe ideas that his people were able to bury deeply.  A senator with no substance to his speeches, but he could deliver them with conviction, and that was all he needed.

Barack had to get abnormally fancy on his campaign slogan. “Hope and Change.” Wow. What a concept. Because no one has ever hoped for something better. And change. You got it. More poverty and more unemployment. Well too bad those who voted for him weren’t paying attention to what was being said in his speeches other than “hope and change.” Actually, they were paying attention to the only thing being said in his speeches. Hope and change was the only thing to be heard. There was nothing else to be heard. It was like a verbal Nascar race. “Alright, Darell Waltrip, here is the green flag start. We have Hope leading around turn one. Now, Change has taken the lead going into turn 2 and holding in turn 3. Coming out of turn 4 in a tie. We are going into lap 2.” His speeches were just like this. They were so predictable and circular. He hid the talking circle with great speaking abilities and knew exactly when to influx his voice and stir emotions. Obama knew how to work on people’s emotions. And that won over blind voters.

Here we are seven years later. A president that worked people’s emotions like a liberal scamming the ignorant about climate change, then jetting off in their personal airplane after riding in a limo to the airport, has brought nothing but more poverty and division. But what does Trump offer? He says the same thing now that he said when Reagan was leaving office. How does one compare Reagan’s work to Obama’s? You can’t.

So, now we are back in the season that has politicians fighting each other to win the presidential nomination. One of the biggest surprises is that three outsiders are threatening the Washington establishment. The biggest surprise is Donald Trump. But how has he managed to get to the top of just about every conceivable poll?

I will tell you how. He is doing the exact same thing Obama did in 2007-2008. He is speaking and manipulating people’s emotions. His speeches don’t have substance to them. Go watch them on YouTube. Occasionally, he will mention that he wants to build a wall and deport all of the illegals. There’s no argument from me on that. Feasible? I don’t know since there are 11 million illegals, but there needs to be enforcement of the illegal immigration laws. Other than immigration, Trump says he will negotiate better than anyone else because he has done business with the Chinese and so on. And is there a speech or an interview in which Trump cannot not mention that he has made billions and billions of dollars? Spare me. We get it. You made a lot of money. We are all aware of it. You are the quintessential pompous billionaire, but nobody can see that. I feel like this is 2007 all over again. Did we not learn about arrogant jerks running for the White House in 2007, who gave good speeches?

If you were one of the people in 2007 that didn’t like Obama, then you should feel the same way about Trump. They give similar speeches in terms of lack of substance. There are a lot of promises being made, like Obama made in 2007/2008. Even in simple interviews, Trump refuses to answer some questions. One that comes to mind is his favorite Bible verse. He said it was personal. How is that personal? He was asked what his favorite verse was, not why. He refused to answer the question because he doesn’t have one. Now, he wants to mention at each speech that he is a Presbyterian, clearly attempting to make up for ticking off the misled evangelicals. But what part of the Presbyterian Church? The part that allows gay marriage to be performed in their church, or allows gay ordination?

Maybe it is me, but I just don’t get it. Trump’s speeches are no different than Obama’s were years ago. All you have to do is calm yourself down and listen to the words, not the way the words are said, or influxed. Listen for substance, weeding through the personal attacks on others, talking about Dirk Nowitzki (the basketball player), and the beauty of an arena, laughing at paparazzi, and bragging about how he has made billions of dollars. Or maybe you should listen to that because this tells you all you need to know.

This is what Americans are getting revved up about? A guy who is copying an orator that talked his way into the White House, so that he could “fundamentally transform America,” successfully screwing it up.

He makes fun of Ben Carson, saying that Ben Carson wouldn’t make a good president because he was not loud enough. Well, by that logic, then the quality that makes the best president is being the loudest mouth. Yeah that’s hearty.

The rave over Donald Trump is a problem. I agree that American politics is broken. It is broken beyond comprehension, but how does a loud mouth buffoon that is severely pompous, mentions his money at every opportunity, tells Fiorina she needs a face lift, and has nothing to say with substance get so many people to follow him like mindless minions? These people look like the same minions that followed Barack Obama to the voting booth in 2008.

I am in the group that says political correctness is running amuck, and I am glad that Trump has stepped out on certain things and thrown that nonsense out of the window. Political correctness needs to be stopped.

All I am saying is listen for anything substantive. Listen to Trump being repetitive. Open your ears up and find the meat of what he is talking about. Good luck finding it.