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Commentary: By lecturing Trump, Obama pulls his weight in reality show

Xinhua, May 8, 2016 Adjust font size:

By lecturing Donald Trump, a near-lock Republican presidential nominee and archrival of his party's front-runner Hillary Clinton, about the seriousness of U.S. presidency, President Barack Obama has pulled his weight in the general election. ( However, his wording used to defend the "seriousness" of the White House has decayed the credibility of his lecture, because the presidential election is anything but serious. In other words, the election has become a reality show.

Choosing a president for the world's most powerful country does give the election some inborn nature of seriousness. However, the way its players run it did -- if not all -- turn one of the smartest design in U.S. history into a reality show, which is full of money politics, verbal confrontation and plot reversals.

Money alone surely cannot guarantee the ticket for the White House, but without money you don't even have the chance to start the journey.

The truth is that the presidential election is so increasingly dominated by big money that some analysts even label the electoral system as one "of the 1 percent (of the richest), for the 1 percent and by the 1 percent."

As for verbal confrontation -- indispensable part of any show -- the presidential election has never been a stranger. Spreading slanders and scandals of opponents has become a most preferred and frequently used weapon. The side effects can be horrible, as confrontation between runners is fueling -- if not creating more -- division in the American society.

Like every other show, the presidential election is also full of plot reversals, some of them are pretty ironic.

Back in 2005, Bill and Hillary Clinton were VIP guests at Trump's wedding. That means they were at least in good terms at the time. But a lot can change in 11 years: Hillary now has become a "crooked" woman for Trump while the latter is a "presumptuous nominee" in the eyes of the Democratic front-runner.

As a beneficiary of the system, Obama, the lame-duck president, clearly knows his role in the show. No one will doubt his ability and acting skills to escorting Hillary to the White House. Lecturing Trump in the name of "defending presidential election seriousness" is just a start. Endi