You know who must be rooting the hardest for Trump to stay in it through the fall? SNL announcer and former cast member Daryl Hammond. He could end up with a lot of screen time doing both Trump and former prez Clinton.
Out of morbid curiousity, is there any evidence Trump actually intends to run? Like, is he hiring campaign staff, advisor, opening state offices and gathering signatures to be put on ballots?
Googling to answer my own question, the answer is apparently yes
ETA: thanks Terr. Sounds like he intends to make a legitimate go of it, anyways.
Yes.
“To get on the ballot in Virginia,” the Trump advisor said, “we need to start working now.”
The effort to make sure Trump is positioned well – and has ballot access – in states after Iowa and New Hampshire is being led by two veteran political operatives hired this year by Trump: Alan Cobb, who formerly worked for the Koch brothers, and Michael Glassner, a veteran of the Dole and Bush ’43 presidential campaigns and former chief of staff to Sarah Palin’s political organization.
Trump said once that he doesn’t go into things to lose - that if he ever ran for president it would be with the intention and expectation that he will win.
On another subject, that telephone number thing - where Gawker gave out his cell phone number - is a prime example of what Ivana was talking about when she said “You can’t win, he will always find a way to outsmart you.” Either he conned Gawker into publicizing the number so he could direct people to a campaign message, or he was smart enough to turn it to his advantage and set one up once it happened.
That’s the Donald I’ve always known and loved. It’s fun watching him in action.
Yeah, baby! The Donald has us all right where he wants us! Ride that train, Starvy!
Are they sure he meant NASCAR and not MarioKart?
The Washington Times ran a column drawing another analogy: “Mr. Universe, Donald Trump, takes on the Nine Dwarves.”
Trump has said he’s going to be nice and respectful at the debate, but you know the other nine are going to be doing everything can to challenge the facts and figures he’s been using in his speeches and interviews and to try to portray him as a racist.
I doubt he’ll get much in the way of fairness from that smug harpy Megyn Kelly as moderator either.
On the other hand, he’s thrived on contentious situations his entire career, and whether dealing with bankers, lawyers, regulators, contractors, ex-wives, whoever, he always seems to come out on top.
But he’s in a new arena that he’s never done battle in before, with different rules and an audience that’s bigger by several orders of magnitude.
It should be a very interesting debate.
Well that’s just playing into Trump’s hands, right there.
I expect the other nine to be parroting Trump’s ideas while trying to couch them in more dogwhistley language, therefore losing out to the straight shootin’ Trump.
Go Trump Go! God I’m enjoying this.
The universally admired Giuliani has come out swinging for his old copain:
In an appearance on MSNBC’s Hardball Wednesday evening former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) praised Donald Trump, saying he has a little bit of Reagan in him.
“First of all, he’s not a Roman candle,” Giuliani told host Chris Matthews. “This is a very smart guy. This is a person who is media savvy in ways that some of the other candidates aren’t. And he’s a lot more substantive than you realize. I’ve know Donald 25 years. Meaning, he understands a lot of the world issues with a lot more depth than you probably realize.”
“So we might have a little of a Ronald Reagan here, a guy they underestimate,” Giuliani observed. “And in my particular case, I’m personal friends with five or six of them. And I have a hard time deciding who I’d like to see be president and I’m probably going to take a little while. But I expect Donald Trump is going to do pretty darn well tomorrow night.”
Trump — Romney 2016 !
Please tell me you’re not serious. Gi911ani is a ghoulish parasite who has sucked the blood of the 9/11 victims for nearly 14 years now. He’s a worthless piece of shit who should not be taken seriously by anybody.
One of my co-workers said the other day that he liked Trump and thought he would make a good President. And yeah he’s declared bankruptcy a LOT but he always comes back from it! And our country is super close to bankruptcy, and trump could bring us back from it!
Indeed. But obviously many voters liked him; and distinguished political thinkers align with his positions.
*Even McCain’s supporters on the Spaghetti-Spined Express know he can’t be trusted on social issues like abortion. I notice how everyone seems to agree that of course Rudy Giuliani’s voters would go to McCain.
Why would that be? On the two seminal issues of our time (other than abortion) – taxes and the war on terrorism – the two could not be more different.
Rudy cut taxes in New York City and, as a presidential candidate, proposed the biggest tax cut in U.S. history.
McCain voted against Bush’s tax cuts. Twice.
Rudy supports torturing terrorists – or using “enhanced interrogation techniques,” as they say. In one of the debates, Giuliani said: “I would tell the people who had to do the interrogation to use every method they could think of.” *
Of course, a few malcontents may consider him a bullying little blowhard, but that applies to most of them…
*
He claimed that veteran stock trader Richard Wigton, of Kidder, Peabody & Co., was guilty of insider trading; in February 1987 he had officers handcuff Wigton and march him through the company’s trading floor, with Wigton in tears. Giuliani had his agents arrest Tim Tabor, a young arbitrageur and former colleague of Wigton, so late that he had to stay overnight in jail before posting bond. Within three months charges were dropped against both Wigton and Tabor.*
Wikipedia
Not that many. In 2008 he managed 9% in NH (fourth place) and 15% (third) in Florida, with his campaign running massively into debt according to the Wiki page you’ve linked to. That’s not a sign of significant political support, and he’s even less relevant now.
It’s possible Trump is running due to Bill Clinton’s encouragement. Looks like Bubba still has his feel for the game. 
I posted this in the Pit thread, but really felt it was relevant to this one as well:
And as I pointed in the pit, somehow many conservatives do think that Democrats are unhappy to see Trump as the current leader at the polls for the Republicans, they couldn’t be more wrong.
You guys are priceless!
First, Trump was a crazy clown in a crazy clown car. Then he picks up steam and you’re bumfuzzled. Then he’s the front-runner but only because of advice from Bill Clinton.
It’ll be interesting to see how you’ll claim that your guys cleverly engineered it if he winds up in the White House. 
Still is.
No, bemused.
No, he’s in the race partly because of Clinton’s deft trolling. He’s *leading *because of, well, you people.
Are you suggesting it’s a real possibility?