Posted on 09/21/2015 4:28:07 PM PDT by BlackFemaleArmyColonel
The man in charge of former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum's presidential campaign says Donald Trump's status as the Republican front-runner is built on the theft his opponents' strengths. John Brabender, who acted as Santorum's senior strategist during his 2012 White House bid and currently manages the Pennsylvania senator's presidential campaign, joined a host of top campaign staffers Monday at an event co-hosted by National Review Online and Google. Trump ranks first in the Washington Examiner's presidential power rankings and Santorum is fifteenth. After addressing Santorum's bottom-tier status, Brabender was asked to discuss Trump's monumental impact on the GOP field.
"Trump has stolen something from almost every candidate who has hurt him and helped himself," he told moderator and National Review editor Rich Lowry. The veteran campaign staffer offered up an example, describing Trump's blunt messaging and unapologetic demeanor as a successful variation of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's "tell it like it is" slogan. Similarly, some immigration experts previously accused Trump of stealing Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's spotlight as a leading hardliner on immigration, leaving Walker scrambling to regain his position as a GOP favorite before deciding to withdraw from the race Monday. Santorum has yet to make it onto the stage for a primetime Republican debate this election cycle. He has polled at less than 1 percent for most of the summer, according to polling data from RealClearPolitics.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
You could look at this two ways, Santorum’s view that Trump stole each candidate’s strength or that Trump is the sum of all other candidate’s strength.
>> Trump’s blunt messaging and unapologetic demeanor [are] a successful variation of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s “tell it like it is” slogan.
Right, because up until this campaign, Trump had a reputation as a mealymouthed, shrinking violet. We all knew that.
Booo rick santorum... booo. boo hiss
Hmm.
I thought they were stealing from him in the last debate.
“Similarly, some immigration experts previously accused Trump of stealing Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s spotlight as a leading hardliner on immigration, leaving Walker scrambling to regain his position as a GOP favorite before deciding to withdraw from the race Monday.”
“Spotlight?” This isn’t Trumps’ fault. Walker made many missteps by saying he was for things before he was against them.
Sad.
Good grief. I forgot he was still running. Where he is running is anybody’s clue.
Santorum seems like a nice enough guy - but an also ran. He couldn’t win the nomination in 2012 and he’s supposed to win it now with a crowded field. Bunch of sore losers. Guess they’d all be okay if it was Bush in the lead, right?
LOL
Maybe Trump stole their ability to operate in their comfort zone which, for most of them, involves taking money from big donors, then dancing to their tune regardless of what the base wants.
Trump changed the rules - instead of politics as usual, he raised the bar to ACTUALLY BEING HONEST.
Oh, and that statement that Walker was “the hard-liner” on immigration is just so much garbage - he was about as much in favor of amnesty as the other softies. NFW was I going to vote for this guy, even before Trump got in.
The other thing I can think of is to take the best of every candidate and incorporate those things into yourself. That is what a successful leader does. Considers ideas from his employees and incorporates those into his successful business. Most of the other candidates are single shots. Period.
When was Scott Walker ever “a leading hardliner on immigration”? A flip-flopping squish is more like it.
That is one of the most preposterous things I have read in this campaign.
OMG so The Donald stole everyone’s thunder along with whatever else and it’s sour grapes.
Put some ice on it and go home.
So let me see if I understand this. Trump is bad because he has stolen the other candidates “strengths.” In other words, there are a few things about the other candidates that people like, character traits, principles or political ideas. Each of the other candidates only has a few things the people really like, only a few ideas that are exciting, only a few changes they want to make to our government that the American people are crying out for. Donald Trump is therefore bad because he has an overwhelmingly larger number of things he says or does, or wants to do in Washington that the general public also really want to do. I see. That’s is terrible.
Because Trump was such a shy, modest, considerate individual before he ran for president.
Any chance of winning?
An attribute of a good businessman ...
So right.
What other candidate has come out hard core Pro 2nd amendment and pro concealed carry?
Political strength lies in the ability to identify elements of a message that work then use them persuasively to gather supporters.
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