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Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul (AP)— a Republican candidate for president — today warned his party risks its worst electoral beating since 1964 if frontrunner Donald Trump wins the GOP nomination. “It would probably be the worst defeat we’ve had since (Barry) Goldwater, I’d predict, if Trump where the nominee,” Paul said in a Boston Herald Radio “Morning Meeting” interview, referring to the 1964 race during which the Republican from Arizona carried only six states against Lyndon B. Johnson. A recent Quinnipiac national poll showed Trump lapping the field with 28 percent of those surveyed saying they support him. Paul, who...

Real estate mogul Donald Trump has broadened his lead over his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, a new poll shows, as more Republican voters begin to see the bombastic billionaire in a favorable light. The Morning Consult survey shows Trump leading among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents with 37 percent of the vote, compared with just nine percent for the second-place finishers, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) are tied for the next spot with six percent. Former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) claims...

Immigration: When Donald Trump proposed mandatory deportation of illegal aliens, pundits and politicians on both sides of the political aisle were appalled. But on this issue it looks like Trump has the public on his side. The fire from the right was almost as fierce as that from the left. "It's not conservative and it's not realistic and it does not embrace American values," said Jeb Bush. Sen. Lindsey Graham called it "absolute gibberish." Conservative commentator Charles Krauthammer called the idea "crackpot" and "morally obscene." But the prize for overheated rhetoric goes to Hillary Clinton, who said Trump wants to...

Fox News came to Donald Trump’s defense, in a sense, on Monday after Rand Paul accused the network of giving the GOP frontrunner “twice as much airtime” as every other candidate at the first GOP debate earlier this month. “And then everybody wonders why he’s doing well in the polls,” Paul said in an interview with Boston Herald Radio today. “Maybe we shouldn’t predetermine to give somebody who really isn’t even a good Republican, or a good conservative — maybe we shouldn’t be predetermining to give them twice as much time as everybody else.” But in a statement to The...

Trump also isn’t kicking Bush while he’s down or “punching down” with these viral video stings. Would anyone have believed, just a few months ago, that Donald Trump would be accused of beating up on the wimpiest kid in class by going after Jeb Bush, once portrayed as the nigh-inevitable Establishment prince in waiting, his fundraising totals so incandescent that other candidacies would melt away before them? But here we are, watching Conventional Wisdom grapple with the idea that Trump seems to be picking on small fry with a viral video that, far from “ribbing” Bush, contrasts his infamous “illegal...

Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 3h3 hours ago This is no "act of love" as Jeb Bush said… https://instagram.com/p/7DdvbEmhWG/

A new poll released Monday shows Ben Carson tied with Donald Trump for the lead in Iowa with 23 percent support, marking the first time since mid-July ... The Monmouth University poll shows the surgeon’s support has unexpectedly increased by 15 points...Iowa frontrunner Scott Walker has dropped 15 points to fifth place now. Businesswoman Carly Fiorina holds third place in the new poll with 10 percent ... Ted Cruz is in fourth place in the poll with 9 percent support, while Jeb Bush has sunk to 6th place with 5 percent of the vote. ...

Longtime Bush family adviser Mary Matalin says Donald Trump is wrong about former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s energy level. “Donald Trump can say whatever he wants to say about Jeb. But saying that he’s low-energy is wrong because the guy is an Energizer bunny,” she said in a Sunday interview with radio host John Catsimatidis on “The Cats Roundtable” on New York’s AM-970. Trump, leading the Republican presidential race, has repeatedly targeted the former Florida governor over the last few weeks, calling him “low-energy.” Matalin, wife of Clinton insider James Carville, suggested Trump could make it all the way to...

Hillary Furious After Trump Calls Weiner A 'Perv' Trump also suggested that Abedin, the daughter of Islamic supremacists — is a security risk. But Hillary’s defense consisted mostly of an effort to change the subject. “Donald Trump has spent the summer saying offensive things about women, but there is no place for patently false, personal attacks towards a staff member,” said Hillary’s press secretary Nick Merrill. Clinton’s statement also tried to stigmatize public debate about Abedin’s actions. Trump “should be ashamed of himself, and others in his own party should take a moment to stand up to him and draw...

2. An anti-Trump ad deluge after Labor Day? It's no secret the Republican establishment is unnerved by Donald Trump and his lead in national and key state polls. And now, after weeks of assuming his support would be fleeting, there is a debate about how to take aim at Trump -- and just who should finance such an effort. CNN's Maeve Reston noted that most GOP strategists see risks in having the attacks come from the other candidates or their directly affiliated super PACs. So, she reports, there is conversation about what other group might raise money for anti-Trump TV...

Donald Trump lashed out at his fellow Republicans in a speech to a conservative crowd in Nashville, Tenn., on Saturday. The bombastic billionaire said that inside-the-Beltway GOPers “become weak” ­after they’re elected. “They walk into these magnificent buildings . . . and they go ‘Oooh, I made it,’ ” he mocked. “ ‘I’ll vote for ObamaCare extensions, I’ll do whatever you want.’ “Well, it won’t happen to me, I promise you,” he said.

Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie on Saturday compared tracking illegal immigrants in the United States to locating FedEx packages, even pledging to ask the company's founder and CEO to temporarily work with his administration to show immigration officials how to do it effectively. The comments, at a town hall meeting in New Hampshire, caused an uproar on social media, Mediate and CNN reports. "At any moment, FedEx can tell you where that package is," the New Jersey governor said. "It's on the truck. It's at the station. It's on the airplane. It's back in another station. It's back at the...

Former Gov. Jim Gilmore, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, on Friday challenged GOP front-runner Donald Trump to a “mano a mano” debate on birthright citizenship. Gilmore has criticized Trump’s plan to overturn the birthright citizenship provision of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It guarantees citizenship to babies born in the U.S., even if their parents are in the U.S. illegally. “Donald Trump is wrong on this issue and on his views of the 14th Amendment,” Gilmore said in a statement. “I challenge Donald Trump to debate ‘mano a mano’ on this issue. His comments are irresponsible,...

Former governor gets little attention AUSTIN — Former Gov. Rick Perry started out with flair. Not even a felony indictment could keep down his campaign spirit as he went after the presidency. He can boast being the longest-serving governor of one of the largest, most prosperous states in the union, one who called down border guards to address a national crisis, and one with the message that his state’s economic prosperity could be modeled and put into practice for the nation at large. Yet several months after his June 4 presidential campaign launch, he is floundering. A recent Public Policy...

Ohio Gov. John Kasich is “not ready to be Commander in Chief” because of his stance on spending cuts for the U.S. military, GOP presidential rival Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told New Hampshire voters Friday. “John Kasich is a good friend of mine,” Graham said, according to Time , before adding, “He said he has no problem with sequestration.” Graham told voters that sequestration hurts U.S. national security. “As the enemy increases in its ability, our approach is to disarm,” Graham said. “If the next president doesn’t understand that the cuts are killing us, in terms of defending ourselves, you’re...

OREM — Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul had one word for the Donald Trump phenomenon that seems to be sweeping the country: "Insane." Asked if he thought Trump would eventually flame out, the freshman Kentucky senator said, "We can only hope so." Paul's comments came Saturday after a raucous rally at Alder Home Security that attracted about 600 Utahns who waved red and white towels and clamored for "President Paul." He only disappointed supporters when he declined to crowd surf after his speech saying, "Maybe next time." In Utah on the last day of a five-state western campaign swing, Paul...

Washington — PITY Poppy. When I went down to Houston a few years ago to eat pizza with the former president, he was his usual gracious self, speaking fondly about President Obama and his new pal Bill Clinton. But there was one person who got dismissed with a brusque obscenity: Donald Trump. It was at the height of Trump’s birther madness and Bush was disgusted by it. So I can only imagine 41’s dismay and disbelief — and acid flashbacks to spoiler Ross Perot — now that Trump has popped up to block the path of the son who Poppy...

THE Donald Trump phenomenon is a great gift to pundits because it can be analyzed and criticized in so many different ways. But two shorthands seem particularly useful. First, Trump is essentially using the Republican primary to run a third-party campaign, not a right-wing insurgency. Second, Trump’s appeal is oddly like that of Franklin Roosevelt, in the sense that he’s a rich, well-connected figure — a rich New Yorker, at that — who’s campaigning as a traitor to his class. -snip- In certain ways this narrowing can be good for the republic. Elites can have wisdom that populists lack, certain...

Washington (CNN)GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump is at 23% likely to win the GOP nomination, according to a prediction markets game run by the company Pivit. On Monday, the real estate mogul was at 19% likely to win the nomination, second to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush who was at 24% odds. Bush's odds have now dropped below Trump's. As of Thursday morning, Bush was a at 20% odds to win the nomination. Pivit is a game - a live online prediction market that factors polls and other factors and will change as the public weighs in on the increasing...

I host a regional radio talk show. Every single show for the last six weeks, Monday through Friday, I've received calls, emails and Facebook comments during my broadcast from audience members starving for a new-and-improved nation. It's apparent from my vantage point behind the microphone that if you're even remotely glossy-eyed by presidential coverage in the media, you'd better buy some eye drops. The panorama of candidate content, communications and messaging is barely on the horizon, and soon to be in full view as the Iowa caucus and primaries in New Hampshire, South Carolina, Florida and Nevada come into focus....