Monday, July 20, 2015

DONALD TRUMP, WORKING CLASS HERO

Well, it's just delightful -- Donald Trump has an 11-point lead in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, according to a new Washington Post/ABC News poll:
[Trump] leads the 16-candidate field with 24 percent support among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents who are registered to vote, up sharply from 4 percent in May....

Scott Walker has 13 percent support, Jeb Bush 12 percent, with the rest in single digits.
But it was a multi-day poll, and as news of his remarks about John McCain emerged on Sunday his numbers went down quite a bit:
Trump’s support was 28 percent in this survey’s first three nights of polling. While the sample size of registered leaned Republicans on Sunday is quite small, he dropped to the single digits that day.
Now, that could mean the McCain controversy is the beginning of the end for Trump -- or it could mean that that was the low point of his support, at least for now. Trump and his fan base have been touting the ridiculous Sharyl Attkisson "fact check" of the initial Washington Post story on the incident. The "fact check," posted on Saturday, claimed that Trump really, really thinks McCain is a war hero:
2. When a panelist characterized McCain as a “war hero,” the Post is accurate in reporting that Trump initially said McCain is “not a war hero.” But then, Trump immediately modified his statement saying-- four times-- that McCain is a war hero:

“He is a war hero.”

“He’s a war hero because he was captured.”

“He’s a war hero, because he was captured.”

“I believe, perhaps, he’s a war hero. But right now, he’s said some very bad things about a lot of people.”

3. Did Trump say McCain is not a war hero because he was captured? No, not in the exchanges represented in the Post.
Some of the people who might have been made uneasy by Trump's remarks are actually going to fall for this convoluted attempt to suggest that Trump didn't really speak ill of McCain's military service. They'll stay with Trump.

*****

Meanwhile, who is and isn't supporting Trump? I'm amused by this:
Trump has struck a chord with at least a part of the Republican electorate. He does far better among those who are not college graduates than among those who are.
That's true:





Trump is also in the 30s among Republicans with a household income of less than $50,000 a year.

The conventional wisdom has been that Mitt Romney lost the general election in 2012 because he didn't have the common touch, and therefore Republicans need to nominate someone who's less of an elitist. But then you ask the GOP's working-class voters to pick a candidate -- and Trump's their man. Go figure.


9 comments:

Anonymous said...

In a way that has to be considered "ironic," the guy who talks the most about being "classy" and wealthy lines up with the Republican working class... because he's rude, impolitic, coarse, has a big mouth, he's in your face and doesn't care what you think of him. How different is he from a Confederate flag? You can wave him around to brag about how little you care what anyone else thinks of what you're really like.

Unknown said...

Trump is winning a race to the bottom.

Anonymous said...

BTW, Sharyl Attikisson has apparently never heard sarcasm before. At best one of those "war hero" remarks was half sincere. All the rest were practically accompanied by the sound "schmar hero" and/or the empty hand masturbation gesture.

Feud Turgidson said...

When was it that the extremist A-hole contingent of the Republican party Base came together so early behind one candidate?

When was it OTHERWISE? Certainly not since the rise of Nixon to national prominence in the last 1940s. Every single presidential election cycle, the A-hole contingent has come together as one behind the first clearly unrepentant A-hole to have the least patina of a chance.

And if the eventual nominee isn't quite the supreme A-hole that contingent is able to get behind so easily, then either the nominee campaigns during the general as a total bunswipe (Reagan, Dole, Romney) or else the nominee surgically attaches an additional organ by selecting a veep candidate that closes the A-hole gap: Nixon for Ike, Agnew for Nixon, Cheny for GWB.

Anonymous said...

@ Unknown, I was going to suggest that Bush '88 might be an exception, and then I remembered the Atwater-led campaign of pure demagoguery (Willie Horton, Pledge of Allegiance, ACLU). So Bush '88 was a bumswipe campaign too.

Frank Wilhoit said...

Trump's comments on McCain were misunderstood. He was really cracking on the North Vietnamese. He likes people who don't take prisoners.

El said...



McCain Is a Wife Beater and a Crook: Proof Click Here

McCain crashed 5 planes and one of his screw ups killed 130 US sailors. Wife beaters are not heroes.

Anonymous said...

The more comes out of Trump's mouth the more afraid I become...

Unknown said...

America has been in an economy downfall and headed for debt since the ending of world war 2.before world war 2 the country was the the richest most profitable country.also number 1 in education.to be successful you have to have an excellent leader and one that has a strong backbone.leadership and decision making has been a huge problem for our country for a longtime.Donald trump I believe will make a difference in our country for the best.yes he is rude and outspoken but atleast he shows his true intent in making a change to a country that is in devastation and debt.america needs a change from electing leaders that have no backbone and no desire to lead a country.