Other contenders have been grabbing staff, working supporters, and raising massive amounts of campaign cash for months and longer, leaving little more than political dregs left for a newly minted candidate.
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With less than two weeks until the debate and fewer than 60 days until voting commences in Iowa, candidates are scrambling to get a foothold in the polls.
Trump grabbed 36 percent of the vote, up 9 percentage points from mid-October. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) share 16 percent. In third – and still sinking – is Ben Carson.
That support is pretty even among the groups that were large enough to include in the pollsters’ demographic break-outs.
On one level, Graham was undoubtedly talking for himself, expressing the frustration of an experienced Washington lawmaker who can’t believe he’s losing to people who’ve never brokered a legislative amendment. Cook suggested that many conservatives “are working through various stages of alienation and anger that is manifesting itself for now in support for Trump and Carson”, a process he likened to the five stages of grief described.
Sanders did just as well, or even better, against top Republicans in topping Trump 49 – 41 percent, Rubio 44-43 percent, Cruz 49 – 39 percent and Carson 47 – 41 percent.
The Republican party’s often bombastic presidential frontrunner shifted tone at a rally here Wednesday night, praising law enforcement officers for risking their lives, and calling for a moment of silence for the victims of Wednesday’s mass shooting in Southern California. We’ll be able to see whether Trump’s poll numbers hold up in the next two months of polling.
But Iowa is getting closer, the stakes are getting high, and in this season’s Republican primaries, the tablet bearing the Eleventh Commandment is cracking.
So if you’re the establishment, looking at this and wringing your already well-wrung hands, you wonder what’s happening – how this guy could come in from nowhere and steal your party’s heart?
“It doesn’t matter what he says or who he offends, whether the facts are contested or the “political correctness” is challenged, Donald Trump seems to be wearing Kevlar”, said Malloy. According to Silver, in 2012 the CNN/ORC polls had an average error of 1.8 points, and slightly favored Republican candidates by 0.6 points. Republicans are more likely than others to see a deportation effort as helpful to the economy (44% think it would help, 30% that it would hurt). Which is squarely in Trump’s wheelhouse: Anger at a thing but not having a clear way of fixing it.
Kasich’s many invocations of the Almighty to try and bolster his calls for more government spending have been one of the most curious aspects of this year’s race. At least one protester was escorted out of the building by security before Trump was introduced, and other demonstrators attempted to disrupt the presidential candidate mid-way through his speech with a “Dump Trump” chant.
Obamacare-repeal vote set: Republicans are pushing toward Senate approval on Thursday of legislation that would demolish President Obama’s signature health-care law and halt federal money for Planned Parenthood, setting up a veto fight the GOP knows it will lose.
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The establishment keeps seeming to hope that Trump will fade as more people start paying attention to the election.
