Democrats arent there yet but may be approaching the neighborhood.
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The Donald in Michigan meanwhile let loose on Beijing, saying something ought to be done to “reign in China” – but again offered no specifics – after its sharp currency devaluation Tuesday, a move Trump blasted as a “disgrace”.
What Trump drives home through ill-considered remarks about Mexican immigrants, former Vietnam POW John McCain, and now Fox News host Megyn Kelly is that he’s no plain-spoken candidate of character. He bluffed his way through the debate with rhetoric and showmanship rather than policy positions! That’ll add heft to his campaign. He wouldnt even pledge to support the eventual Republican nominee!
Other candidates fared better. Many of Trump’s competitors in the 2016 field-and Red State’s Erick Erickson, a Fox News Contributor who disinvited Trump from his weekend conference with various candidates and activists over it-took that to mean Trump was insinuating that Kelly was menstruating, but Trump later noted that he was talking about her nose.
As Buffalo Springfield once sang, Theres something happening here.
As for Trump, 55% of those who watched the debate said they are now less comfortable with him as a candidate for president, while 23% said they are more comfortable. That number is up significantly from PPP’s poll in April.
Though Carson has never held elected office, many conservative commentators and analysts agreed that he capitalised on the short time that he had to speak at the debate. “But for the time being he continues to lead the pack”.
At this point, it is fair to say that a significant portion of the party has lost faith in the GOP establishment. He was the only candidate with the courage to say what they were thinking, and they loved it.
In Thursday’s debate, Trump was pressed on his own business bankruptcies but not on the specifics of how he would jump-start the economy.
Carson has compared the Affordable Care Act to slavery. We’re confident such Republican voters still exist. Cruz vehemently opposes the Iran nuclear agreement. Fiorina wants to shrink bloated government.
The online poll of 278 self-identified Republicans has a credibility interval of 6.7 percentage points. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) released a video before the debate on Thursday singling out Carson as the Republican rival he most admired in the race.
In a typically slow summer news cycle, Trump has been the gift that keeps giving, lending TV news producers and website editors a steady diet of content, often out front as the leading story across platforms.
Erick Erickson, editor-in-chief of the RedState blog, said Trump obviously believes Kelly asked tough questions because she was having a period, and “I don’t want my daughter in the same room with Donald Trump”.
One problem, however, is that her favorability has been going down, according to polls.
The contrasting fates of President Barack Obama, who mastered grass-roots organizing, and Hillary Clinton, who didn’t, in their 2008 Democratic primary clash proved that the charisma of a rock star candidate – on which Trump overloads – is not enough. No one yet knows whether Trump will commit to building the vital infrastructure of a genuine political campaign, which typically needs an advertising strategy, intricate polling data, get-out-the-vote operations and rapid-response war rooms staffed by political veterans. To state the obvious, this could be a wild and unpredictable ride.
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Significant numbers of voters seem to be demanding authenticity, passion and rough edges from a nominating process designed to produce none of the above.
