For the first time in days, his appearance wasn’t mired in talks of campaign cuts or failed jabs at Marco Rubio. So the new poll shows Cruz surging, Rubio fading somewhat and Bush improving on his 4 percent claimed then. Are they accomplished enough?
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“Can you be a conservative, and be liberal on military spending?” he asked.
Trump traded barbs with Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who called the front-runner’s idea to deport the estimated 11 million immigrants who arrived in the USA illegally “a silly argument” that “makes no sense”.
“Like everybody else in America”, Georgia Democrat Dan Halpern said, he’s “just wondering when the wind is going to come out from under the sails of both Carson and Trump”.
Since September, the politicians’ race has been conducted as if the populists’ race doesn’t matter, or as if the risks of engaging the populists are greater than the upside of taking them on.
“This is all of the counties in the state represented”, said Susan MacManus, a political science professor at the University of South Florida. Perhaps Trump will say something that finally, really gets him in trouble.
Trump suggested Carson is “an enigma” and, while Trump warned the audience there is “no cure” to the “pathological” temper Carson has said he had as a destitute teenager in Detroit, Trump also cast doubt on Carson’s account of trying to hit his mother and stab a friend before his religious conversion.
They are the ultimate party insiders. Trump’s new diplomatic style, too, comes as he competes for Carson’s supporters, who mostly like the retired neurosurgeon for his even-tempered, pleasant approach. Together, these two outsiders attract 48 to 50 percent of poll respondents. Combined, they lead all the other candidates put together, excluding only those under the margin of error. Or Jeb Bush’s plan to relaunch his campaign and eliminate Rubio.
As Rubio’s polling numbers increase, so does the frequency of attacks.
“For the life of me, I don’t know why we have stigmatized vocational education”. He leads by double digits in New Hampshire.
The Republican establishment is supposedly now nervous this could mean an automatic victory for Hillary Clinton – if Trump or Carson becomes the nominee. Republicans grew so exhausted of Cruz’s antics that they yelled out “No!” when he tried to push his case. Many French thought the momentum of the National Front and Marine Le Pen would have been exhausted by now.
Rubio stumped for that 2013 bill – a compromise between conservatives eager to secure the border and liberals set on a path to citizenship for the undocumented – which he helped negotiate before later backing away from it. They look ready or even anxious to cave on religious liberty, or on mass immigration. While turning the question around to immigration, he also went over his time twice.
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No longer can the politicians’ race be conducted as if the populists’ race doesn’t exist. But regardless of whether Thursday’s performance was that of a man self-imploding on the stump or a candidate reigniting a stalled campaign, it was a clear reminder that it’s a mistake to assume Trump will go quietly. The republican candidates have realized Trump’s policies are isolating voters and, thankfully, they appear to be ready to remedy that mistake.
