In assessing the Trump candidacy, there are so many tentacles, that it is difficult to know where to begin. What we know... Trump is polling around 30%, and leads all other candidates in polling by a large margin. What I believe... On a personal level, I like his schtick. His brash, self aggrandizing style has always been entertaining as a reality TV star. That same style, with his accompanying lack of political correctness, also holds appeal in the political arena. We have gotten far too politically correct as a society, and it is enormously refreshing to see someone that doesn't Kow Tow at the altar of political correctness, and get away with it. With that being said, I do not believe he has anywhere close to the requisite experience or skill set to be President, and I think his overall antics quite simply are far beneath the dignity of the office of the presidency. I also do not believe he has ever legitimately had a chance to win the Republican nomination. I fully realize that someone can point to the polling and conclude that he is the front runner. I do not believe much of his support comes from actual Republican primary voters. While it is anecdotal, without exception, the people that I know that support Trump and believe he can actually win, are all people that don't follow politics at all. Their general mindset is " I like his lack of political correctness", "he makes things interesting", and "he cant be any worse than any other clown politicians that are out there". These are people that don't typically pay a whole lot of attention to politics, and his antics help to draw them in. Regardless of what someone tells a pollster that calls their house, I do not believe the bulk of these supporters are the type to be taking part in primary voting. Primary voters tend to be a very ideologically driven bunch, and Trumps historical positions can hardly be described as appealing to an ideological crowd. I have seen some posters already implying some type of conspiracy, because while being the front runner, the crowd at the CNN debate didn't seem to support him at all. People that attend a presidential debate are an ideologically driven crowd, much like primary voters, and the ideological crowd does not support Trump. Who does his candidacy help?... This is a tough one. What Trump brings to the process is uncertainty, and neither side likes uncertainty. On the plus side for Republicans, he is driving huge ratings for the Republican debates and the primaries in general, which gives valuable exposure to whichever candidate will eventually win. He has successfully been able to put the concept of truly securing our border on the forefront of the political landscape, which may very well make the eventual nominee have to adopt a stance that will actually substantively address this issue if they do win the presidency. His lack of political correctness, and the ability to get away with it, also may help to expose just how silly we/the media have become regarding the concept. On the negative side for Republicans, he holds great peril. There is the potential for him to run 3rd party, which would likely be disasterous for Republicans. There is the potential that some of his supporters will decide to stay home on election day because they are upset that he didn't win. His brashness gives the left some ammo to try and paint all Republicans as lunatics that deep down are just like Trump. If by some minor miracle he were able to win the nomination, the press would turn on him so fast it would make your head spin, and ultimately he would be unelectable in the general election. With all that being said, while I am conflicted, as a person that wants a Republican to win the presidency, I believe that I would prefer that his candidacy slowly dissipates into the wind. I enjoy what he has brought to the table, and am legitimately entertained by it, but I believe the longer he stays in the race, the negatives that he brings will outweigh the positives. I believe if I were a leftist, that I would be hoping he sticks around through the end of the primary process, and would even be hoping that he won the nomination.
The Democrats with Women, and Latino's. Isn't it interesting to any of you that the first thing out of his mouth was to go after Mexicans hard, and that the next thing he's done is poorly veiled comments about women being on their periods, or being of poor appearance or being a "beautiful lady.". Other than that he's attacked virtually all the established Republicans as failed administrators. Weak or lacking energy. My initial reaction that he is democratic plant looks ever more likely in my eyes. He's done nothing but make himself into the perfect Democratic dream of a Republican straw man.
I agree for the most part but just wanted to add one note: If 30% of Republicans back Trump it means 70% support someone else.
Trump is the best thing that could have happened to the Dems, while his Ego takes up the room the rest are hard pressed to get their own message out and he alienates many voters because some will believe that he represents the GOP, which he actually does not. Hopefully he will be gone soon enough for the other candidates to do enough damage control to make a solid run at the Whitehouse the longer Trump stays in the fray the less chances another GOP candidate has of winning.
Not really. Trump is too much a narcissist to play the part. He's in it for himself and he loves the attention. His politics are completely amoral and a mixture of any ideology that serves his purpose at the moment, so he can appeal to both left and right weak-minded people. The problem is that he is such an outrageous character that he has a certain charm, regardless of your politics. But any sober contemplation of Trump as president is ludicrous. And if most presidential slogans turn out to be bitter crap, just imagine the bitter consequences of Trump's slogan to 'make America great again'. He'd probably sell us out to the Chinese for a hotel concession in China.
I am not one that tends to buy into conspiracy theories. In my view, Trump is in this for himself, not the Democrats.
How much experience did Obama have and why does it matter Trump who has at least run something in his life but not with Obama who had never previously been in charge of anything? By the way second place is Ben Carson The two of them have more support than the rest of the field combined. Please understand there is nothing difficult to understand about Trump and for that matter Carson's popularity. People are sick to death of career politicians and neither of them is. They can win on that basis alone. There are about to be a bucket load of people that haven't voted since Reagan that are voting again because there is finally some one speaking to their issues.
It's 15 months before the election, so for generating interest Trump is a plus. He'll fade. People tire of the same show over and over. I don't see his potential of running 3rd party as that risky or likely. If Trump goes down, he'll likely go way down. To run 3rd party, Trump has to agree to be a loser and I doubt his ego could handle the prospect. Nor do I agree he'd only pull from Republican votes.
Comparing Trump with someone you claim is inept is not really a good tactic, you know that, right? Carson is a viable candidate and has more Presidential quality in his big toe than Trump has in his entire body. Low level operating people fall for loud mouths that open their pie hole and make big promises and claims, thinking people realize it is all talk and that he could not do much of anything when it comes to his claims and promises and that when pushed The Donald has no plan in place on how to do anything other than to say, trust me. Do not lump Carson and Trump together I would think it would make Dr. Ben Carson's skin crawl to have anyone associate him with the Carnival Barker. As I said 70% of Republicans do not support The Donald and after last nights debates I would say he is not going to be getting much more support, meaning he has reached close to his limit with Republican supporters and his number may even begin to drop. Once the actual race starts Trump will not last long, heck at this point I can see why The Donald does not like debates either, he came of lame and outclassed during the last debate and I doubt it will get any better from there.
There are reasons career politicians are career politicians. They know how to win elections. If not, they wouldn't be there. They'll keep prodding Trump until he makes that one over-the-top blunder even for many of his supporters. The longer Trump goes, the more he is just another politician too. There actually is only one poll Trump has majority of Republicans. The poll of how many Republicans say they'd never vote for him.
He has money, he can outspend everyone else without PAC money which would look like the politicians and others are being bought by special interest and further he says things a lot of people click with especially immigration, improving the economy and national defense (like refitting our land based missiles with new technology and maybe a new generation of missile) and he will appoint advisers to he will count on he is sounding a lot like Ike who also admitted he didn't know everything. I would not count him out with the average American voter in the end if the Democrats put in Biden or Clinton he is going to look like a good option. To me he would be the best choice of the three from what I can tell.
