The decline and fall of Donald Trump

By Michael J.W. Stickings

You knew it was going to happen. But maybe you didn't think it would happen so soon:

Donald Trump has had one of the quickest rises and falls in the history of Presidential politics. Last month we found him leading the Republican field with 26%. In the space of just four weeks he's dropped all the way down to 8%, putting him in a tie for fifth place with Ron Paul.

A lot of it no doubt has to do with the release of Obama's long-form birth certificate, a blow to Trump's ridiculous Birther campaign, as well as the killing of Osama bin Laden, which made Trump's self-absorbed shenanigans look even sillier and more irrelevant by comparison, but regardless it was really only a matter of time before even Republicans came to realize he's an arrogant, spotlight-hogging blowhard whose only loyalty is to himself.

For the rest of us, it's been an unpleasant joke. But now we can turn back to a thoroughly underwhelming and indeed embarrassing (for Republicans) Republican presidential field, which today will welcome another arrogant, spotlight-hogging blowhard, if a more determined ideological one, Newt Gingrich.

Good times.