Donald Trump hires veteran GOP operative Rick Wiley

Your analysis of John Kasich's devious campaign is right on target.

I'm more cynical than most...to me he's a kamikazi pilot aiming to take down the front-runners in a monomanical suicide mission of trying to be relevant and important.

Leni

Fweee Bwian!

> “ Walker and Cruz are more compatible as they are both small government conservatives, and Trump is not running as a small government candidate.”

Preaching ‘smaller government’ is pushing your buttons.

A lot of conservatives including me like to dream of smaller government. But then there’s reality.

I know the path BACK to smaller government and it’s not through Washington DC. That place has built too much legislative and constitutional structure in the past 100 years to wave a wand at over 4, 8 , 12 years and Presto! we lave smaller limited government.

In other words, your and my dream for smaller government is largely a fantasy. It will take a generation or more of believing Americans to get back to the small government model of the 19th century.

Pragmaticism is needed. Pragmaticism is what Trump is all about. Walker cut union siphoning off of state goverment but he hasn’t cut spending. As Trump has said, he has a $2 billion shortfall and he will have to borrow to meet the budget. His fight with the unions and the GAB made him a folk here or rockstar in Wisconsin. But as I said he’s no hero, he’s a damsel in distress that brings out chivalrous responses among voters who want to be seen as heroes to their damsel.

Cruz? All talk, no action. He has never cut any spending anywhere and he makes enemies where he doesn’t need to. Cruz will not be president and if we dream he would be, then we’d have a tough time dreaming he could ever get anything done.

Ronald Reagan couldn’t get limited or smaller government in 8 years. Cruz is no Reagan, not even close.

Exactly what is ‘smaller’ government.?

I could go rattle off things like abolish the IRS, abolish the EPA, Abolish the Departments of Education and Energy, defund PP and so on.

Well that’s all well and good but then there’s reality. One needs to have Congress behind it and that’s where the fight is, that’s where the negotiating and horse trading come in. And that’s where Trump is the master.

But you like to vote for the ‘rallying cry’, the things that push your buttons. When you become aware of that, you will be the wiser.

I will vote for the outsider that actually has the skills to make things better and not the one that thinks they can fool me with their words and rallying cries.

That is where I recognize the name from - the Walker campaign. Walker was ahead of Iowa and out of the race right after the caucus because of such a poor showing. Wiley and his folks turned Walker into "the anti-union" guy; as if that was a seller outside the GOPe. Walker was so much more than that and had the playbook to beat the hard left (3 times).

Trump would be smart not to toy with his messaging; but leave organizational and strategy stuff to Wiley.

Pragmatism is needed. Pragmaticism is what Trump is all about. Walker cut union siphoning off of state goverment but he hasn’t cut spending. As Trump has said, he has a $2 billion shortfall and he will have to borrow to meet the budget. His fight with the unions and the GAB made him a folk here or rockstar in Wisconsin.

Repeating Trump's lie. There is NOT a $2 billion shortfall in Wisconsin.. Wisconsin is running at a small surplus. No matter how many times Trump and you mimicking shrieking Trumpanzees repeat this lie from Democrat talking points WILL NOT make it true.

Walker inherited a huge debt and deficit from his Democrat predecessor. Walker fixed both and he did so while lowering taxes, balancing the state budget AND defeating the unions and a corrupt state election ethics agency (GAB).

You are partially right about DC not being the place to achieve smaller government. But a so-called Trump "pragmatism" and the authoritarian national approach he truly intends will actually make the federal government even LARGER.

What is needed is a devolution of power back to the states, back to counties, cities and smaller units of government. The more localized a decision is produced, the more accountable that decision, government or individual politician is to individual voters and taxpayers. That is the conservative solution and the one espoused by Ted Cruz - the only conservative in the race.

Should have been done a few months ago. Corey Lewandowski is a great guy who was great at the where and when of setting up rallies and pulling each one off successfully. He was a scheduler.
To beat the Republican establishment you have to hire a few establishment guys to help you win like Paul Montefort and this guy who worked for Scott Walker

> “No matter how many times Trump and you mimicking shrieking Trumpanzees repeat this lie from Democrat talking points WILL NOT make it true.”

It’s not Trump, it’s from the Wisconsin legislative budget office. Here is one report for 2015-2017. It’s been revised already and is undergoing a further revision which increases the gap even more.

http://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/misc/lfb/budget/2015_17_biennial_budget/800_2015_17_cost_to_continue_budget_december_19_2014.pdf

A good background report for those that are not aware of the nuances of Wisconsin budget language is here:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2015/09/18/scott-walkers-claims-about-wisconsin-budget-deficit-and-tax-cuts-fact-checker-biography/

Name-calling and referring falsely to Trump as the cause of all your problems is not going to get you anywhere.

Preaching ‘smaller government’ is pushing your buttons.

Pushing greater everything is also a way to push buttons. Reagan learned in 1976 that preaching the $90 billion budget cut (a lot of money in those days) was good enough to scare the old folks in Florida in costing Reagan the state and probably the nomination (Florida was third primary in those days, Iowa was an asterisk, and it went NH, Mass. Fl).

He learned his political lesson and decided to emphasize cutting taxes, and leaving the budget cutting promises to welfare queen anecdotes and the principled stance of the dangers of big government as a general proposition, avoiding much in specifics, especially with a hostile Dem-controlled House.

In Reagan's case, we knew his moral, political and philosophical framework lying underneath all of this. Cruz' is similar and has been for a long, long time, including during his time working for the Bush folks. Those who parents fled Cuba are inclined to appreciate the true gift of Freedom, and to see the dangers of bigger government.

State government in Wisconsin did shrink. I lived there. You didn't. I SAW the stuff government stopped doing. I KNOW property taxes went down, even thopugh we rented our house. I saw first hand cuts made as I contracted to the State of Wiconsin. I saw Scott Walker return the prescription for the poison pill known as the Milwaukee to Madison bullet train.

Frankly, it is hard to have an honest discussion when Trump can do NO wrong, and any of his enemies can do no right.

To call Walker a "Damsel in Distress" is the fantasy.

I shook Ronald Reagan’s hand. I know quite a lot about him. Reagan was all about ethics, integrity, honor and OPTIMISM.

Donald Trump is an inspirational force and brings loads of optimism. His recent appointment of Paul Manafort shows he is more in the old Reagan camp than all of the other candidates combined including those that dropped out.

Manafort was Reagan’s campaign manager. He said recently in a televised interview that working with Donald Trump reminded him greatly of working with Ronald Reagan and he also said he has known Donald for 30 years.

Manafort lives in Trump Towers in Manhattan.

Cruz is no Reagan, trust me, he’s not. But he thinks he is and that is the problem.

I shook Ronald Reagan’s hand. I know quite a lot about him. Reagan was all about ethics, integrity, honor and OPTIMISM.
,br> I did, too. In 1976, at the New Haven Park Plaza for a Lupus fund raiser. I have his autograph on the invitation that hangs on my wall.

I have been reading on Reagan since I was 12 years old. And followed his candidacies and presidency closely.

Manafort worked for Ford against Reagan before he worked for Reagan (just as Fred Biebel in CT and a whole lot of other opportunists). He is a hired gun, and his current boss is Donald Trump. That doesn't make him a bad man, and I'm glad that Trump got someone competent to navigate for him in this area. As a hireling of Mr. Trump, we have to consider his words in that light.

On the issues, and on the matter of having a coherent philosophical core, Cruz is a lot closer to Reagan than Trump is.

Manafort isn’t working for pay. That’s documented in the press. He doesn’t need the work.

His travel and lodging is likely picked up but that’s about it.

So take his words in that light.

Ok enough of this, vote for Cruz or whoever. When you’re ready for receiving wisdom, contact me.

When you’re ready for receiving wisdom, contact me.

I presently get most of mine on things Reagan and political from a man who had been Reagan's state chair in CT (1976). He doesn't hold himself out to be a font of wisdom, but he often is.

It’s not Trump, it’s from the Wisconsin legislative budget office. Here is one report for 2015-2017. It’s been revised already and is undergoing a further revision which increases the gap even more.
http://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/misc/lfb/budget/2015_17_biennial_budget/800_2015_17_cost_to_continue_budget_december_19_2014.pdf
A good background report for those that are not aware of the nuances of Wisconsin budget language is here:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2015/09/18/scott-walkers-claims-about-wisconsin-budget-deficit-and-tax-cuts-fact-checker-biography/

Name-calling and referring falsely to Trump as the cause of all your problems is not going to get you anywhere.

*****

Obviously you have a reading comprehension problem. Even the references you cited (the Washington Post article from last September, btw) clearly identifies the budget deficit cited by the Legislative Reference Bureau as the preliminary figure used in Wisconsin's biennial budget process.

It's not a real budget number. Wisconsin state government was not operating at a deficit then or now. It's a hypothetical statement by the LRB that:

1) "if everything were funded at the same level as in the previous budget (EVEN THOUGH WE KNOW IT WON'T BE),
2) "and if all of the agencies were granted all of their wish lists (EVEN THOUGH WE KNOW THEY WON'T)
3) and if state tax revenues remained the same (EVEN THOUGH WE KNOW THAT CURRENT & FUTURE TAX CUTS RESULT IN INCREASED STATE REVENUES)",

then there will be a budget deficit.

Trump cited Time or Newsweak as the source for his false statement. You cite the Washington Compost. Yeah, they are a credible resource. I'm surprised you didn't cite Madison's Capital Times, Salon, or the Huffington Post.

There is not now, never has been, nor ever will be an operational budget deficit under Scott Walker.

But it is a Democrat talking point from last September. And it is identical to a Democrat talking point every other year when the Governor is a Republican.

Even if the Donald had no clue about "the nuances" of Wisconsin's budget process and was just mindlessly repeating something he read on the internet (which is his modus operandi) when he attacked Walker with this turd of an argument last fall, he was immediately made aware LAST FALL that it was bogus.

Donald doubled down and lazily repeated it this spring during his half-assed attempt to campaign in Wisconsin.

I will give you credit for taking the time to "research" the subject, but debit it right back because you did so solely to defend the Donald's doufusness and NOT as an attempt to verify it for truth, validity or accuracy.

What should trouble you is that the Orange Blowhard suggested that to fix the Wisconsin "deficit" that doesn't really exist, Walker should have raised taxes.

Donald had 6 months to figure out the reality of Wisconsin's budget, but was too lazy to do so. And his reflexive solution - again, shooting from the hip - was to suggest raising taxes.

That's not conservative. And not a presidential candidate that should be given ANY credible support by the good denizens of FreeRepublic.

And it is one of the many reasons that the Donald got his butt kicked in Wisconsin. I wish every state had the same largely educated voting public.

Spin it!

The evidence is there for all to see.

Your opinion is devalued by your hostile name-calling and juvenile expression.

Tin foil.