DONALD TRUMP MAKES A FEW SMALL TWEAKS

In the race for the GOP presidential nomination, maybe Mitt Romney will finally have some competition for Most Shameless Flip-Flopper.

New York Times Caucus blog today:

Donald Trump wanted the crowd of activists at the Conservative Political Action Committee to know just who he thinks has the skills, smarts and guts to be president: Donald Trump, of course....

"If I decide to run, I will not be raising taxes," he said. He said he is pro-life, against gun control and will work to repeal Mr. Obama's health care plan....

New York Daily News, October 8, 1999, when Trump was considering a run for the presidency on the Reform Party ticket:

Trump, a registered Republican, said he supports tax cuts, abortion rights and universal health care, but not gun control.

Well, maybe I exaggerate -- 2011 Trump is 50% consistent with 1999 Trump. At least on those four issues.

Oh, and what exactly was Trump's "universal health care" plan around that time? Somehow I don't think this would have cheered the CPACers:

I'm a conservative on most issues but a liberal on health. It is an unacceptable but accurate fact that the number of uninsured Americans has risen to 42 million. Working out detailed plans will take time. But the goal should be clear: Our people are our greatest asset. We must take care of our own. We must have universal healthcare.

What?! He didn't think we already had the best healthcare system in the world?

Our objective [should be] to make reforms for the moment and, longer term, to find an equivalent of the single-payer plan that is affordable, well-administered, and provides freedom of choice. Possible? The good news is, yes. There is already a system in place -- the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program -- that can act as a guide for all healthcare reform.

A government program! (Yes, a government program with a choice of private-sector plans, but still: a government program!) Oops. And nice words about single-payer! Double oops!

And, from that old Daily News article, here's another tidbit Trump didn't reveal at CPAC about his 1999 presidential trial balloon, perhaps knowing that it might have gotten him run out of town on a rail:

Donald Trump -- builder, casino operator and beauty pageant mogul -- already has decided on Oprah Winfrey as his dream running mate.

"She's popular, she's brilliant, she's a wonderful woman," he said of the talk show queen. "I mean if she'd ever do it; I don't know that she'd ever do it. She'd be sort of like me. I mean, I have a lot of things going; she's got a lot of things going," he told CNN's Larry King.

Yup -- Barack Obama's most famous fan.

Oh, and, from the recent past:

He’s donated money to Democrats fairly often, and recently. He gave $10,000 to the Democratic Committee of New York State last fall, for instance, according to FEC records. He gave $2,400 to Senate majority leader Harry Reid in 2009, and he’s often donated to New York’s own senior Democratic senator, Chuck Schumer.

Harry Reid? For the CPACers, that's unforgivable. I don't care how much business he does in Vegas.