Posted on 08/18/2015 12:05:17 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
A Fox News poll released on August 16th, showed Donald Trump continuing to enjoy a dominant lead in the Republican race for the 2016 presidential nomination. Trump polled at 25 percent in the 17 candidate field, well ahead of retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson who was in second place with 12 percent support. Ted Cruz was in third place at 10 percent, with no other candidate in double digits.
Trump’s commanding lead is no longer surprising, given that he has been comfortably ahead in several recent national surveys, released from multiple different polling firms. What makes the Fox News poll so frightening for GOP strategists, however, is that Trump’s nearest competitors are not establishment favorites like Jeb Bush, Scott Walker and Marco Rubio. Instead, if Trump falters, Ben Carson or Ted Cruz appear to be next in line to ascend to the top of the GOP pack.
Pundits have long argued that Donald Trump will eventually fade as voters take a more sober look at the Republican options and cease their reckless flirtations with candidates on the fringe. However, that “conventional wisdom” is predicated on the notion that Republican voters both want to win in 2016, and that they recognize that choosing a more moderate candidate is their path to victory.
However, the Fox News survey suggests that GOP voters are disinterested in choosing one of the Republican establishment candidates with extensive experience governing. In fact, given their preference for political outsiders like Trump and Carson, Republican voters may even see elected experience as a liability. “If you’re part of the government, you’re part of the problem”, they reason. The notable exception to that adage is Texas Senator Ted Cruz, whose main accomplishment as senator has been as an obstructionist who keeps the U.S. Senate from getting things done.
Republican party leaders have spent the better part of the last two decades stirring up their base with anti-government rhetoric. That strategy has helped them win victories over Democrats, but not without consequences for establishment GOP politicians, who are now facing the wrath of the anti-government voters they helped cultivate. With GOP voters looking at Donald Trump, Ben Carson and Ted Cruz as their potential saviors, its pretty clear that the angry mobs are not just upset with Barack Obama.
They have grabbed their pitchforks and torches to go after the Republican establishment as well. Jeb Bush and Scott Walker may not have noticed yet, but Republican voters aren’t looking for somebody with executive experience as governor. Instead, they are looking for a candidate with little or no experience, because they have been conditioned to virtually reject the idea of governing at all.
Haaaaahaaaahaaaa......thanks, that will be stuck in my head all day.
Keith Brekhus of Politicus USA called Obamacare a “smashing success”
They’re the people who really believe that we conservatives are so stupid that we’d take advice from them on how to win. Right, I need people who think it’s a bad thing that Senator Cruz has tried to keep the monkey off our backs.
I saw the title and thought it was another commentary by George Will.
I don't know who the author is, but this is a good observation. However, one thing he forgets is that at the beginning of virtually every GOP campaign, there is a populist candidate with no political background who becomes that year's messiah. There are always a couple of promising actual conservative candidates, but they get no attention because the GOP is looking for the man on the white horse. The populist idol, of course, usually self-destructs or goes third party - but too late for the good candidates to get traction, so instead we have one of the well-funded establishment candidates who has barely had to campaign and can just slide into the main slot because people are tired of the circus.
However, what's new is exactly what this author observed, but he assigns it to the wrong cause. What has actually happened is that people have gotten so used to seeing an unpleasant, crude, unknown nobody with wacky, unpopular ideas imposing his will from the White House, ignoring our political system and our elected representatives, that they think this is something desirable. They are looking for someone who promises, essentially, to be another Obama (although a white one this time) because that's what they've gotten used to.
Was beginning to think I'd been forgotten. Those withdrawals can be tough :)
Among the candidates, Trump is confident, aggressive, self-funded, and knows how to deal with the toads of the Media and GOPee RINO elite Establishment. The more they try their dirty tricks, the stronger he gets because he's got a program to fix what's been broken by these a**holes. Go Donald!
Crazies, hobbits, wacko birds, vulgar unwashed masses, and now lunatics.
Keep it up, the more you **** on your base, the weaker you become.
I agree. It has been very successful smashing the people it was supposed to help.
He’s a Communist first, American distant second.
I rather doubt Keith Brekhus is concerned at all that the Communists have taken over the Democrat party.
...”nothing sez lunatic quite like a billionaire, a neurosurgeon and prodigy Constitutional scholar and debater.”...
Great observation. The loonies on the left, with their little educations and degrees in journalism, cannot even comprehend what goes into the many years it takes to get a real education. Why, you even have to learn about history, the past, the different forms of government and the poverty and mourning brought to those who embraced socialism. You even have to WORK in the private sector which is where all the wealth for everyone in this country is produced. You do not make your living trying to corrupt whatever you can in government and the legal system to get enough votes to keep you in power through the next election. We are ALL sick of Left Loonies and it is time they were removed from power.
HOORAY Trump HOORAY Carson HOORAY Cruz
Cruz belongs up there, and I understand why Trump is up there, but the support for Carson frankly I find baffling.
Talk about having your head stuck in a hole in the ground.
The DC metro denizens, highly paid wage slaves toiling away in the various industries and corporations off stage, quietly and in private are applauding Trump’s message.
A lot of democrats would vote for Trump.
If Trump, Carson and Cruz are lunatics, then I’m proud to admit I’m one too, for IMO they are the only three candidates that are true Americans.
Anyone else remember when we were called lunatics and thugs back in 2000? We were dancing around on Broadway holding signs that said things like GRASSROOTS REPUBLICAN LUNATICS AND THUGS. It’s so charmingly Stalinesque of them to go for the mental hygiene card.
...been called so many names.
By the party that I helped put in power in 2008 and again in 2012.
The libs, socialist, commies are getting nervous. Yes the handwriting is on the wall, the USA is about to turn.
Megadittos.
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