Saw some people demonstrating for Trump for President downtown. Not many, no more than 10, but haven’t actually seen anything like that before where I live.
Did Trump’s attack on Dubya hurt him in SC?
Although The Donald is still the leading candidate by several measures, I still think it was all a publicity stunt. Even now, I wonder if Trump is avoiding victory – not spending much on retail politics, continuing to alienate with his nasty mouth, relying on mostly free advertising. I think actually winning the GOP nomination is at cross-purpose to his plan.
Has not much of his animus been directed against Jeb Bush speciifically? Could some grudge against that Governor be a major motivation for Trump’s involvement at all? Bush is well-funded by certain very rich men; could The Trump’s bid be, in part, a spit-in-the-eye at some of his fellow billionaires?
What would the race look like now if Trump had never gotten involved?
Though I don’t agree, there is some evidence for what you say, IMO. A couple of weeks ago he insulted the entire audience to the point where they were all booing him. And he made the comment that he could shoot someone down in the street, and it wouldn’t matter to his supporters. I can’t imagine why he would have said this last thing in particular, as it’s pretty much an insult to the intelligence of everyone who wants him president. But, I think he was right about the general idea – his supporters ARE actually that stupid.
Several folks have suggested Trump’s campaign began as a lark or a prank and he was amazed to find himself surfing the frontrunner wave.
Your ideas are another reasonable interpretation. If he’s not actually pissed at Jeb, maybe he’s whacking Jeb to get back at GHWB or GWB for something they did way back when. He’s known for holding grudges.
Alternative:
History is also full of folks who looked like the heir apparent nominee from well before formal campaigning began until about now when they began to flag and then they fell by the wayside in March or April.
It might just be that Trump’s star has burned brightly, but alas :), not longly enough. We’re now seeing the first sputterings of the fade-out.
nm; inadvertent double post.
In a statement so full of projection it requires an IMAX screen, Trump has called Cruz a liar, unhinged, and a basket case.
Trump says that if Cruz doesn’t stop being a big lying poopy head, Trump will sue him over his eligibility to be President.
That was my favorite part. Taken at face value, Trump is convinced one of his primary rivals is ineligible to be President and he is not going to do anything about it if the guy takes down some ads. If you’re so certain the guy can’t be the President, then by all means defend us from this menace now! Don’t let the Canadian usurper off in exchange for something so trivial as taking down some ads. Trump’s thinking seems to be, “Cruz’s candidacy threatens the very Constitution! Oh, you stopped saying those mean things about me? Carry on then.”
Why do people persist in parsing his words as if they were true? His purpose is clearly to reinforce the idea that Cruz = not real American. I can’t imagine that Trump would believe he had a chance with such a lawsuit. He might file one, knowing it would not be heard until post-election but WOULD be covered in the media.
So what is this? The 69th time someone’s made a prediction of the inevitable doom of TRUMP because he said a big no-no about Megyn Kelly or John McCain or the Bushes? The Donald was never “heir apparent” nominee-even as he consistently led the mediarati sought to marginalize his lead as temporary and he’s been just as strong if not stronger since the beginning of voting finishing at a respectable second in a state which in many ways is the antithesis of his campaign and winning a crushing victory in New Hampshire.
You misunderstand. I make no predictions in that post. Due to an intervening post I didn’t notice I also did not make clear that I was responding to septimus’ post #1943. Wherein he suggested Trump might be tiring of the game, or had some special hidden grudge against Jeb and, having torpedoed Jeb’s campaign, his work was now done here.
I have in the past in other posts consistently predicted that Trump is the most likely R nominee and in fact has a decent shot at the Presidency. This is not my preferred outcome, but I try pretty hard to distinguish between what I want to happen and what I think will happen. Others don’t try that hard.
Cheers.
I don’t. Quite the opposite. I’m parsing his words to marvel at how fucking insane they are. Either he’s a lying, blustering sack of shit who doesn’t believe his own spittle-flecked insults, or he’s one of the most venal and thin-skinned candidates we’ve ever seen. The fact that anyone can give Trump’s words a moment’s thought and come away saying, “You know, he has some pretty good ideas” is just mind-boggling to me.
As an aside, in an op-edyesterday, Trump came out again in support of torture. He wrote, “The enemy is cutting off the heads of Christians and drowning them in cages, and yet we are too politically correct to respond in kind.” Because apparently in Trump’s mind: 1) we are responsible for defending Christians from Muslims all over the world, no matter what other political realities are in play; and 2) we only refuse to engage in torture out of “political correctness” rather than out of a desire not to lower ourselves to the level of our enemies.
I am horrified and saddened that this guy has a real shot at being the goddamned President of the United States.
Stephen King is not a Trump fan: Presidential candidate that puts the fear in horror writer Stephen King
And that’s the point a lot of people have been trying to make. Is this realllllly the guy you want representing this nation on, say, foreign policy, climate change? Obviously not.
No response from Trumpy yet, but I will bet it’s something like, “Obama is stooooopid!!”
As many good citizens in many otherwise good countries have learned to their chagrin, you can get a pretty bad government installed when enough folks decide they have no stake in the current system.
As it’s usually the less-informed folks who come to this wrong-headed defective conclusion, they can drive a country into serious trouble.
Venezuela, Greece, Germany in 1933, Italy around the same time. etc., etc. Yup, I did it; may Godwin strike me dead. 
Trump repeatedly gets Ben Carson and Barack Obama confused:
Understandable.
And when all those leaders came to power they had definite agendas and organized ideological mass movements behind them, following them and pushing them. They had at least the illusion of a historical imperative, of being the wave of the future. Trump has none of that. He has only a screaming mass behind him, and can claim no historical imperative greater or more specific than general angry-white-working-class-male discontent. If he gets the presidency he won’t know what the fuck to do with it.
Bolding mine.
Which is the only part of this sordid situation which gives me hope.
If he wins, bloviates for 4 years while running his businesses in his spare time and meantime Congress & the executive departments simply proceed ahead more or less on course we’ll be fine. Obama didn’t get too much done with 50+% of Congress dead set against him. Imagine what 90+% dead set against would look like. His very ineffectuality will end up taking the wind out of the sails of the angry mob.
Bottom line IMO, President Trump *per se *is far from ideal, but is survivable. Absent of course hostile power adventurism on a big scale. Putin invades Turkey or China invades Taiwan would be bad; very bad. Ditto NK & SK going hot. Those are not tests I’d want us to face with a crippled executive.
I do NOT see Trump being able to directly subvert the system as e.g. Mussolini or Chavez did. He ain’t suspending Congress, ruling by decree, firing then packing the Supreme Court, or creating a Praetorian Guard inside the DoD.
That concern is farther out. And IMO, is real.
If he, or a successor in the same vein begins to develop a real rightside reactionary populist party, or even a subparty-within-the-Republican-party with lickspittle Trumpist congressional candidates in 2018, now we’ve lit the fuse under a very real threat to the United States as presently constituted.
Trump may not have thought of Chavismo writ large, but he might end up listening to somebody who has.
I wonder if anybody had told him how much of his business work he would have to walk away from?
(Prob everyone’s familiar with this story, but didn’t see it in this thread)
Pope questions Trump’s Christianity suggesting he should be building bridges, not walls
Well why not? Bridges can be used to march people out … perhaps over walls.