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Hillary Clinton better watch out. If she’s not careful, she will lose the Democratic presidential nomination to –Donald Trump.At the CNN townhall Tuesday night, Trump, who really should be running on the other side of the aisle, showed what a truly formidable challenger he could be for Clinton if he just vaults over the barrier between the two parties and competes against Clinton, as he answered a question asking him to identify the three top functions of the federal government.Trump was asked, “In your opinion, what are the top three functions of the United States government?”Trump answered, “Well, the greatest function of all by far is security for our nation. I would also say health care, I would also say education.”Moderator Anderson Cooper didn’t let Trump off the hook, asking, “So in terms of federal government role, you’re saying security. But you also say health care and education should be provided by the federal government.”Trump, using his Very Good Brain, responded, “Those are two of things. Yeah, sure. There are obviously many things. Housing, providing great neighborhoods.”Cooper reminded Trump that he had said he would prefer to eradicate the Department of Education, pressing, “Aren’t you against the federal government’s involvement in education? Don’t you want it to devolve to states?”Trump blustered, “No, I want it to go to states. Yeah, absolutely,”Cooper, attempting to make sense out of Trump’s positions, asked, “So that’s not part of what the federal government should do?”Trump, fumbling, “Well, the federal government. But the concept of the country is that we have to have education within the country.”Cooper: “And federal health care run by the federal government?”Trump: “Health care. We need health care for our people. Obamacare is a disaster.”Cooper: “That is something that the government should be doing?”Trump: “The government can lead it but it should be privately done.”Here are the responsibilities of the federal government, as outlined in the Constitution by people with brains bigger than Trump’s, from Article 1, Section 8:[float=left]Collect taxes, pay debts, borrow money, regulate commerce, establish uniform naturalization laws, establish uniform bankruptcy laws, coin money, establish punishment for counterfeiters, establish post offices and roads for delivering the mail, provide laws for copyrights and patents, constitute tribunals accountable to the Supreme Court, establish punishment for crimes committed at sea, declare war, raise and support various branches of the military, establish a national capital, make laws.[/float]Nothing in the Constitution of the United States asserts that the federal government is responsible for providing health care or education for its citizens. But there is a document that does champion the federal government’s job to do so: the 2012 Democratic Party platform, which states:[float=left]We believe accessible, affordable, high quality health care is part of the American promise, that Americans should have the security that comes with good health care … President Obama and the Democrats are committed to working with states and communities so they have the flexibility and resources they need to improve elementary and secondary education in a way that works best for students … To help keep college within reach for every student, Democrats took on banks to reform our student loan program, saving more than $60 billion by removing the banks acting as middlemen so we can better and more directly invest in students. To make college affordable for students of all backgrounds and confront the loan burden our students shoulder, we doubled our investment in Pell Grant scholarships and created the American Opportunity Tax Credit worth up to $10,000 over four years of college …[/float]If Trump decides to suddenly run as a Democrat, Hillary may have a fight on her hands. To paraphrase Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront, he could be a contendah.
