Voters have been angry for years now. The Trump persona is compelling. Or maybe they’re just happy when their candidate gets an invite to appear on camera, since, unlike Trump, the rest of the field could benefit from more name (and face) recognition.
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“Donald Trump has a certain swagger about him that I think registers with people. It’s a long, tough road, Greta, I can tell you“, he said.
This is a big part of Trump’s appeal to disaffected conservative voters: they misinterpret arrogance and volume for strength, and toughness for competence, and they disregard the importance of political experience for the most politically demanding job in the world.
Trump on the other hand is a community of one. At least that way you don’t end up with some lily-livered politician who goes back on his promises.
Republican presidential candidate, businessman Donald Trump holds a Bible as he speaks during the Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition’s annual fall dinner, Saturday, September 19, 2015, in Des Moines, Iowa.
And since entering the race for the Republican nomination, the outspoken billionaire has made enough gaffes to have torpedoed most any other presidential aspirant. For now, however, many voters just don’t seem to care. And they resent the pluralistic future to which his personal and political journey leads. “Amazing”, he wrote.
Republican presidential candidates, from left, former Pennsylvania… Ben Carson, adding to an already impressive list of daffy prescriptions, suggested last weekend that Muslims should be barred from the presidency despite the Constitution’s unambiguous decree that the office is not subject to a religious test.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who has largely avoided criticizing his fellow candidates, isn’t expected to join his rivals in taking on Trump.
Jeb Bush, the man with the resources and stature? When President George H.W. Bush accepted a tax increase to reduce the deficit in 1990 – despite his 1988 campaign pledge of “No New Taxes!” Those results fit nicely with the fact that 22% of respondents in last month’s Des Moines Register/Bloomberg survey described themselves as a “business-oriented establishment Republican“.
He has, however, called for his fellow Republicans to drop the pursuit of an amendment overturning the Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges over the summer, which ruled the same-sex marriage bans of Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee unconstitutional. In a speech to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce yesterday in Houston, Bush reiterated his support for legal status for undocumented immigrants and embraced the “vitality” of a culturally diverse society.
“Am I morally obligated to defend the president every time somebody says something bad or controversial about him?” At a time when his party is flirting openly with Islamophobia, it gets more interesting. Remember, Ron Paul drew only 7 percent in a June 2011 Des Moines Register poll and 13% in a late October Register poll when the caucuses took place on January 3, 2012. Fifty-nine percent think his comments on Fiorina’s appearance were inappropriate as well as 49 percent who think his comments about Columba Bush were inappropriate. But his favorable rating among likely caucus attendees, 71%, is second only to Carson’s 79% favorable rating, and only 16% of likely caucus attendees say they could never support him for president. “I haven’t seen it. We’re in uncharted territory”.
Trump was well-received. So were Senator Cruz and Louisiana Senator Bobby Jindal. That can be attributed to leading candidate and real-estate tycoon Donald Trump. Trump’s best-sellers include “Trump: The Art of the Deal” and “Time to Get Tough”.
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Despite Trump’s standing in the polls, serious questions remain about whether he can win the White House.
