This x1000.
Anybody who thinks that Trump is going to be hurt by this is fooling himself. Nothing dents Trump’s appeal because, for the umpteenth time, his supporters do. not. CARE.
Point taken, but I’m trying to remember when he’s had to deal with being laughed at regularly. Anger and outrage don’t hurt him, as we’ve seen, just feed him. I’m thinking this could be different if they can ridicule him into losing his cool. If so then this would be the first time that he’d be the trollee and not the troll. It could blow up in his face. Clearly I’m bucking the odds here, and that’s ok because I don’t need him to fail. I would just like to watch. 
Why would you assume I think that? I don’t believe he can ever turn it off, until he dies or becomes too senile to remember who and what he is: an incredibly insecure, hypersensitive, hyperaggressive bully.
Who’s laughing at him? He’s absolutely trolling Fox News. Just look at the exchange between him and Bill O’Reilly last night.
Fox News is already looking pathetic. “Please Donald, can’t you just forgive Megyn Kelly?” No. “Won’t you please reconsider?” No.
Oh, I’m sure Ted Cruz and others on the stage will get their digs in. Really, though, the best strategy for them and the moderators would be to make not a single mention of Donald Trump’s name. But they won’t be able to resist. And Donald will win because he’ll be a main topic of discussion and, as we’ve seen, even if it’s negative it will bolster his position.
Other than the (rather compelling) fact that Frank Luntz was in charge of it, what reason do you have to think so?
Even if not a single candidate utters his name throughout the debate, Trump will spin it as a win: “Look at those cowards. They were too afraid to even mention my name!”
Well, at least we’ll have one Republican presidential debate this year which some candidate other than Trump can claim to have “won.”
Who will it be, I wonder?
Rubio. He is* totally *surging, coming on strong, a meteoric rise. If meteors rose. Which they don’t.
No question that there are some 20ish percent of voters in Iowa and NH who are solid Trump supporters and who do. not. care. even. if. he. shoots. someone.
And yes while whether or not they do. care. enough. to. actually. VOTE. does matter (they are of demographics that are traditionally less likely to actually bother) they are not the group that this might impact.
Again, there are a sizable group of unsures. 30 to 45% of likely GOP voters in the first two states. Some who said “Trump, if I have to decide today, but I am still deciding.” and even more who have been unsure supporters of others, yeah Cruz and the rest.
They are looking for something that will help them decide. Those who were saying Cruz but were not sure? They were winnable for Trump. Those who still were saying Carson but increasingly realize it would be a wasted vote? They were winnable too. And some of those who were unsure for him? They are losable.
Hey I’ve got no dog in this fight. My interests are best served by the circus keeping going and Trump staying in this for the duration just means that all of them end of getting covered in the elephant shit that will keep getting flung in all three rings. I am not sure if his winning the nomination would be the best thing for my interests or not and am fine if he wins it or if he quits in a huff because the voters disrespected him.
Cruz strikes me to be as big of an asshole as Trump is, and, in the event of actually somehow winning the presidency, with even more potential to cause great harms. I am not rooting for Cruz to have a clear passing lane (even as I have little fear that either could actually win a general election). Trying to find a way to say this not crudely … giving him a stage to act the part of alpha male unchallenged … does not seem like the best way to stake claim on the biggest group of GOP likely voters: the still unsures.
Got a nickel says Trump just shows up, at the very last minute, and the crowd goes wild! Elvis has entered the building! Say he wasn’t gonna, but his friends talked him into it, swallow his pride for the good of the country.
And it’ll sell.
I’m laughing at him. So is most of my facebook feed. He looks like a chicken shit afraid to have his statements challenged. There are lot more people out there paying attention to all this besides just likely Republican primary voters.
I’ll make it a quarter if they show him outside the studio door, where a beefy guy with a clipboard tells him he’s not on the list.
I wonder how much coverage the other networks will give Trump’s ralley, err I mean veteran fundraiser. It would be an interesting turn if they all gave it live coverage during the debate. Which way would the ratings go?
I’ll make it a dollar if the Donald shoots him.
Exactly. In no way does FOX benefit from this, and I think the seeds of doubt about FOX being a tool of the establishment RINO’s, a news network created for the purpose of misleading “True Americans”, have already been planted in the minds of their viewers. Their audience will now have to ask themselves the question of whether they want RINO news or “real” news, like that found on the internet, and there’s a large number of them (Trump supporters) who already have decided against FOX.
Or not, and all this will blow over in the next 3 months.
I’d take that bet. Unless FOX News were to issue a major, kiss-ass apology to him (which they haven’t, AFAIK), he won’t want to seem ‘weak’ by changing his mind about the debate.
I think that was his gambit, after the tweet from FOX News or whatever that set him off. I think he expected the threat of his absence to provoke an official apology, which he would gloat about and grudgingly agree to attend the debate. When the apology didn’t come, he had no choice but to stick to his guns and stay out of the debate. And, as others have said, it probably won’t matter since he can do no wrong in the eyes of his worshippers.
The other scenario, more likely maybe…Trump “twitters” his way through the whole debate.
Okay then, so a pencil-necked Twitter admin with a phablet tells him he’s not on the user list…
(post shortened)
And you’d be wrong. Trump had been discussing Megyn Kelly’s role in the upcoming GOP debate. I assume he either A) wanted FOX to muzzle Kelly, or B) wanted FOX to replace Kelly. Trump tweeted questions to his followers about whether he should attend the debate.
(I assume most, if not all, media outlets subscribe to Trump’s tweets. The rest would be a cross section of Republicans, conservatives, Democrats, progressives, liberals, Christians, Muslims, Jews, atheists, white/black/yellow/brown/red people, and the hopelessly bored with nothing else to do.)
Meanwhile, someone (aka He-Who-Will-Not-Be-Named) at FOX chose to attack Trump with a silly insulting tweet.
Trump responded by finally deciding that he did not want to do FOX’s debate. After all, Trump is powerful enough, and savvy enough, to put together an competing event (that CNN just announced is sold out).
Trump is in control of this campaign cycle. Bernie and Hillary are now in discussion over having another/more debates outside of the dictates of the DNC. (Man, these old folks can sure get cranky in their old age. 
)
I agree. He’s about to crater.
Although Carson still appears to be half cometose.