Posted on 02/13/2016 12:50:30 PM PST by TBBT
Few professional analysts seriously expected six months ago that Donald Trump could win the Republican nomination. But after Tuesday night, it is a clear possibility.
How much of a possibility? To get that answer right, it is important to understand some things about the Trump phenomenon.
Perhaps most important, Trump's campaign is not a Tea Party phenomenon. While there's been a tendency to try to lump Trump in with various G.O.P. insurgencies of the last few years, that role is best filled by Sen. Ted Cruz, who really occupies the "Tea Party lane" of the G.O.P. primary more cleanly.
Instead, Trump is a part of a much older insurgency within the G.O.P., dating back to the 1992 Pat Buchanan campaign and even to some internal debates within the Nixon administration. Candidates in this vein, such as Gov. Mike Huckabee and Sen. Rick Santorum, have argued from varying angles that the economic libertarianism of the G.O.P. is a tough sell, and should be pulled more toward an economic populism that allows for increased redistribution and for helping the "little guy" who has been left behind in the era of globalization. It is because of this confusion that so many of the early attacks on Trump - from questioning his conservative bona fides to making fun of the way he talked - fell flat. Trump's voters simply didn't care about these things.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
It seems that nobody likes Cruz except the people who love him.
How many of these hit piece threads have you posted from the MSM? I’d bet a lot.
The more the federation of frauds attempts to discredit Trump, the more Amerians want to vote for him. Keep up the good work.
Yeah, we've been hearing that.
Many of the Trumpists have learned from the master that vulgar language is A-OK.
What do you think those folks are going to do, just forget to show up?
Yawn.
Another Trump is over he’s finished. He’s at 40% nationally.
The big Carrier layoff video. Another terror attack. Trump is right and voters are realizing it.
Someone posted that?!
It was yanked, but it definitely shows some of these Cruz people are skirting some dangerous ground.
Would the NY Slimes ever say such a thing about a Demonorat or a RINO?
Right, he has no secondary base. The people who don’t love him cannot stand him.
I have two hopes.
One, that Cruz gets the nomination
and, two, that if Trump gets it he doesn’t find a way to lose the general.
Cruz supporter here, but doesn’t Everyone have a limited ceiling of support?
a pro abortion, pro union, pro illegal person will not vote for any republican, hence the limited ceiling of support.
what nonsense.
Neither Trump nor Cruz need 80 percent to win.
just 51.
I didn’t see much negative in that article from the Times.
What part offended you?
The fact that it’s from the Slimes.
Uh, yah. Obama’s level of support is limited. Hillary’s is limited. Bernie’s is limited. Pope Francis’ is limited. Michael Jordan’s is limited....
Wow. I seem to have misplaced my card but, thanks.
The only things that are still certain are death and taxes; and now, propaganda for the clueless in election years.
This isn't about certainly, it's about desperately needed wholesale change in order to save the Republic and our culture. The GOPe has proven their ineptness beyond question.
The Democratic party and progressives are TELLING us they want to eliminate our freedom and culture.
And then there are the Jonathan Gruber acolytes...
Polyandry much? Ya think declining America cares about that BS?
Gak.
Who are the other thirteen? I’d love to see them.
If everyone who saw Trump in IA had gone to a caucus in IA, Cruz, Rubio, and Carson combined could not have bested him.
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