Posted on 09/16/2015 6:20:06 AM PDT by GIdget2004
When Donald Trump steps onto the debate stage Wednesday, he'll face his rivals for the first time without one of his most valuable assets: a crowd.
The raucous 4,500-strong audience of rank-and-file Republicans that packed into a Cleveland sports arena last month for the first GOP debate fueled the bombastic billionaire, who has copped to making many of his sensational comments as an "entertainer" rather than as a presidential candidate currently smoking the rest of the GOP field in the polls.
But Wednesday night's debate will have a different feel in the more somber confines of the Reagan Presidential Library with a more subdued crowd of several hundred donors and party insiders.
Half a dozen campaigns contacted by POLITICO this week predicted the shift could have an unsettling effect not only on Trump but on many of the other contenders who fed off the energy of the lively arena during the Fox News debate on Aug. 6. Ohio Gov. John Kasich, for example, basked in the warm applause of a hometown crowd. Neurosurgeon Ben Carson delivered soft-spoken jokes that drew roars of laughter. Trump drew some cringing laughs when he cracked a joke about Rosie O'Donnell that he built into an indictment of political correctness.
A quiet crowd, the campaigns noted, can turn punchy quips punchless, stifle the sharpest retorts and turn a potent applause line into an awkward rejoinder.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
Au contraire... There will be a “crowd” of 10 other GOP presidential candidates who will be wondering, “How the hell did this guy get to be so popular?” and only Ted Cruz will know the answer to that question: He’s not you!
It’s like these people have no idea of the experience Trump brings to these things. He’s been involved with tough crowds and hostile situations in the world of business and entertainment for decades!
It’s kind of how people thought that some old movie actor had no business running in 1980 because he cannot possibly hack it against D.C. Insiders.
I’m with you. I’ve never been a Trump supporter, per se, but I wonder why, among all of the GOP candidates, only Ted Cruz isn’t attacking him and why the GOP, DNC, the liberal media, etc., are coordinating an attack on him.
With most of the candidates being wound up tighter than a hatband, their concentration on the issues will be skewed by their desire to take out Trump. That distraction could be fatal. Trump, meanwhile, remains cool under fire and takes the day.
Most of them know they have nothing to offer, otherwise they would tell how their way is better than Trump’s, but the polls tell us that their proposals - to date - haven’t exactly rung anyone’s bell.
This election won’t be about the promises made, but, will be about the one the people see as willing to, and being brave enough, to keep those promises.
Both parties have gone the anti-America route under the tyrannical direction of one Barack Obama. He’s the Pied Piper of progressivism, and is leading us toward the cliff.
Not too many crowds in the audience when Trump was onstage being filmed on The Apprentice. Not gonna be a major factor.
Trump is selling himself. All he has to be is genuine and not worry about what he says. All the others know only thing they have to sell is what they say, their persona sucks so they have to walk a tight rope on what comes out of their mouth.
Where ever he is right now there isn’t any butterflies, there isn’t any nerves and there isn’t any worries. All the others are wound up tight as a $2 clock afraid they will say the wrong thing or look bad on camera or no one will laugh at their joke or , etc., etc., etc.......
So they packed the house with GOPe supporters?
Because Cruz is smarter than the other GOP candidates...He realizes attacking Trump has caused the others to look silly.
IMO, tonight’s debate is going to look like 10 young, spoiled children snarking and spitting and pitching tantrums while the one adult sits back and them to sit down, shut up and behave...
Obviously Trump is shaking in his Ferragamo’s. While the others were in their basements with their handlers force feeding them prepared answers, Trump was having the time of his life at two mega-rallies.
Uh, they get 1 minute for responses. That is tailor-made for witty retorts and sound-bite jabs. Trump will be in his element.
I was being a bit facetious. I expect there’s a lot more to it than that...
Exactly.
Trump knows how to read people. He has made doing that his life’s work and he has built a fortune as a result.
Trump knows how to engage his audience. He talks TO them, rather than speechifies AT them.
I hope there is...they would make a superb team.
Obviously you are not stupid. I have a fine friend - a playwright - who lives in Cleveland. He’s no fool, either. Love to visit one day.
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