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Donald Trump is many things -- a demagogue and a pompous blowhard, a braggart and a race baiter -- but in the end, he's nobody's fool, except perhaps his own. Thus, his recent lauding of Sarah Palin and his hiring of her former Chief of Staff reveal that Trump's campaign for the presidency is, ultimately, more of a circus act than it is a serious endeavor for the White House. If Trump were really serious, he'd be keeping the quitter governor at bay. Trump and Palin have many things in common--and Palin has long been enamored of the Trump family's...

While perusing the articles and stories one can find on the computer (my wife says I spend way too much time on this thing), and the posted comments related to the articles, I came across a comment concerning Donald Trump (imagine that) and his lack of qualifications to be the next president. A poster had commented that Republicans can’t seem to get it right in their selection of candidates; notably, with Trump in the mix. Deciding to have a little fun with this person, I pointed out that the Democrats hadn’t done such a hot job picking a candidate in...

Looking forward to these results, especially the consensus vote. Fox News’ criteria for its first debate seems, unfortunately, to bias strongly toward name recognition rather than broad appeal, and I think that hurdle undermines the meaningful policy discussions that these early events should foster. Put another way: If a candidate could get consensus support but can’t get in the door of the debate, then is the debate really representative of the preferences of the Republican electorate? Thanks for participating. (POLL-AT-LINK)

•Trump campaign is ugly, and could be fatalDes Moines, Iowa: At her campaign launch in New York last month Hillary Clinton appeared polished and implacable, engaged but not engaging. At his in Miami, Jeb Bush looked better than he had in earlier appearances, but still something was amiss. He has yet to lose a certain flatness. Last weekend at a rally in smalltown Iowa, Donald Trump looked like he was having an absolute ball. So did his audience. Trump bounded onstage to the cheers of a full house of around 700 at a high school auditorium. Another 500 or so...

In 2012, six Republicans gave $5 million or more over the course of the entire presidential campaign. For 2016, nine Republicans gave $5 million or more in the first six months. Donors can contribute unlimited amounts to candidates' super PACs, and they have. Here are the nine Republicans who you need to know as their donations shape the primaries. Dan and Farris Wilks: $15 million The billionaire brothers made their fortunes in fracking, and along with their wives, are sending $15 million to boost fellow Texans Ted Cruz's presidential campaign. Robert Mercer: $11.3 million Mercer, a reclusive hedge funder from...

The defense attorneys for the six Baltimore cops charged in the arrest and death of Freddie Gray made two explosive claims in a court motion filed on Thursday. According to The Baltimore Sun, the officers’ attorneys are claiming that the office of Baltimore city state’s attorney Marilyn Mosby has evidence that the 25-year-old Gray had “attempted to injure himself” in police custody prior to his April 12 arrest. They also claim that Mosby had a “private meeting” with the medical examiner who conducted Gray’s autopsy days before the report was released. Mosby’s office has failed to turn that evidence over...

Donald Trump charged Wednesday that a sexually 'deviant' former congressman who is married to Hillary Clinton's closest aide has likely seen the contents of classified emails that passed through the former secretary of state's private home-brew server. Huma Abedin, the Pakistani-American chief of staff to Clinton, was wed in 2010 to then-Congressman Anthony Weiner, the Democrat whose star fell to earth amid lewd sexting scandals. Republicans in Washington are furious with Clinton for destroying tens of thousands of emails dating from her time in office, and for including classified information in an unknown number of others. Trump told DailyMail.com during...

Now that Iran has agreed to curb its nuclear program, Foreign Minister Javad Zarif says it’s time for Israel to follow suit and abandon its long-rumored nuclear arsenal. “Iran’s push for a ban on weapons of mass destruction in its regional neighbourhood has been consistent,” Zarif wrote in an editorial for the Guardian. “And while Iran has received the support of some of its Arab friends in this endeavour, Israel — home to the Middle East’s only nuclear weapons programme — has been the holdout.” The nuclear deal signed in Vienna by Iran and the P 5 + 1 countries...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Mitt Romney is out there ripping into Ted Cruz, and I made the observation that I can't recall a presidential candidate -- losing presidential candidate -- ripping presidential candidates in his own party in the next election cycle. I was trying to think, in the modern era, if there was an example of it. I couldn't think of one. It wasn't so much trying to think of Reagan's 11th commandment as I was thinking more about establishment Republican versus upstart Tea Party conservative. By the way, here's another thing: I've been doing... In the course of show...

There’s Jeb, and then there’s everybody else. It came as no surprise that Jeb Bush is the uncontested Sultan of Super PACs with his independent expenditure arm, Right to Rise, pulling in a jaw-dropping $103 million during its inaugural reporting period, more than double its closest competitor. That tally was huge but it might have been less impressive than another metric: 1,656 – that was the number of pages of the Right to Rise report filed with the Federal Election Commission on document-dump Friday, astonishing both for the breadth and depth of the contributions listed therein. Bush is getting his...

On paper, Cruz 2016 is raking in cash—but the ultra-wealthy donors in charge of spending the cash don’t seem that interested in actually helping their candidate.Ted Cruz’s coterie of supportive super PACs are crawling with cash—but it’s not doing him much good at the moment. The Republican presidential contender, a first-term senator from Texas, has an unusual network of super PACs in place to boost his White House prospects. Instead of giving his imprimatur to one main super PAC, which is the norm, Cruz has four officially sanctioned super PACs: Keep the Promise PAC, Keep the Promise I, Keep the...

BIRCH RUN, MI — The Michigan Democratic Party is organizing a protest outside the Saginaw County venue where GOP presidential hopeful Donald Trump will speak on Tuesday, Aug. 11. The Facebook page for the protest, "Rally Against Donald Trump," was created on July 30 by the Michigan Democratic Party. "We cannot let Trump's anti-immigrant, anti-veteran beliefs be welcome anywhere in our state," the event page states. A poster for the protest references the current GOP frontrunner's "anti-immigrant, anti-veteran statements." Trump will be the keynote speaker at a Lincoln Day event, a fundraiser for the Republican Party in Saginaw and Genesee...

He might run. No he won’t. He might run. No he won’t. For nearly 30 years and during at least four election cycles, Donald Trump teased the American public that he might run for president of the United States. To standing-room-only crowds in tiny New Hampshire restaurants to viewers of “Meet the Press,” he told anyone who would listen that he could win if he ever ran. So no wonder in late May the New York Post ran a story under this headline: “Stop pretending — Donald Trump is not running for president.” But after all that hemming and hawing...

For a person who wants to be President of the United States, Sen. Ted Cruz is sure not acting presidential. When he was Majority Leader, Harry Reid called Ted Cruz a "schoolyard bully" on the Senate floor. I won't go that far, because I don't know the man personally; I've never spoken to him, and it would be unfair for me to characterize someone in such a personal fashion without doing so. But I will reiterate something that I wrote last March: Sen. Cruz is not qualified to be President of the United States. It's not because he's a bully...

Earth just got a new next-door neighbor.Astronomers have found the closest rocky planet outside our solar system using the Spitzer Space telescope. The planet, known as HD 219134b, orbits a star just 21 light years away, and NASA is calling a "potential gold mine of science data." The planet is probably a bad place for life as we know it: it’s 1.6 times the size of Earth and more than four times the mass. Plus its three-day orbit is too close to its host star for liquid water to form, even though the star is cooler and smaller than our...

Texas Senator Ted Cruz is a very smart accomplished guy. That does not mean he will ever be elected president, the office he currently seeks. His views are well to the right of most Americans, and that includes Republicans. Cruz also has a penchant for losing the filter that exists between his very capable brain and his mouth. Slamming one of your party’s leaders on the Senate floor isn’t normally a good idea. In national polls, Cruz gets about 5 percent of the Republican vote. Among the early voting states, he does a little better in Iowa and South Carolina...

In his pursuit of the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, Rand Paul has made sure to put lots of distance between himself and his father—and Dad appears to be firing back.Ron Paul does not approve of his son Rand Paul’s position on the Iran deal, and he let him know Thursday evening in a speech that called him out—though not by name. “Right now one of the big issues, you know, in the news, probably on foreign policy, is whether or not the Obama administration should talk to the Iranians,” the elder Paul told the crowd at the Young Americans for...

Planned Parenthood is certainly the target, but its destruction is not the goal, any more than destroying ACORN was the true goal back in 2008. Destruction would be a happy side effect, but the true goal is to destroy the pathway for women to have access to legal and safe abortions. See more of our coverage on the misleading Center for Medical Progress videos here. http://rhrealitycheck.org/tag/center-for-medical-progress-video/ To understand exactly how the most recent Planned Parenthood sting was planned and coordinated, you must go back to 2013. In July of 2013, Washington, D.C. reporter David Corn revealed the existence of a...

Doral Vice Mayor Sandra Ruiz sponsored a resolution to condemn billionaire presidential candidate Donald J. Trump for his allegedly “racist” comments about Mexican immigrants. The city is home to one of Trump’s largest assets, the Trump National Doral Miami golf course and hotel. He previously received the city to the key, but his popularity with public officials there has waned since he made controversial remarks about Mexican immigrants on June 16 when he announced his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. The population of Doral is mostly Hispanic and foreign born. Trump said about Mexico: “They’re sending people that have...

Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2015/07/31/gop-presidential-candidate-ted-cruz-celebrated-trump-controversial-immigration-comments-dad-says/30944153/