[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....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:
Scott Walker has 13 percent support, Jeb Bush 12 percent, with the rest in single digits.
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: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.
“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.
*****
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.
