Posted on 12/04/2015 2:09:09 PM PST by JSDude1
Lots of celebrating by Trump fans and despairing by Trump critics on social media today over this poll. It’s December, notes Philip Klein, and this guy’s now fully 20 points ahead nationally. And not only does he have a big lead, his lead’s gotten bigger: He’s up nine points since CNN last surveyed the country, thanks mainly to the decline of Ben Carson and Jeb Bush. His overall average in RCP’s tracker has now reached a new high of 30.8 percent. Trump critics have been sitting in the pumpkin patch waiting for the Great Pumpkin, i.e. Trump’s supposedly inevitable slide in the polls, for six months now. The CNN poll is evidence that the Great Pumpkin might not be coming.
Ron Brownstein was ahead of the curve in pinpointing the real split among Republican voters. It’s not “moderates†versus “conservatives†or “establishment†versus “tea partiers,†he argued in October, it’s blue-collar versus white-collar. Trump has consolidated a huge chunk of the blue-collar vote while the white-collar vote remains split among the rest of the field. Here’s a choice bit on that point from CNN’s new data. Advantage: Brownstein.
Republican voters are most sharply divided by education. Among those GOP voters who hold college degrees, the race is a close contest between the top four contenders, with Cruz slightly in front at 22%, Carson and Rubio tied at 19% and Trump at 18%. Among those without college degrees, Trump holds a runaway lead: 46% support the businessman, compared with 12% for Cruz, 11% for Carson and just 8% for Rubio.
(Excerpt) Read more at hotair.com ...
Great analysis...this is what Trump understands. He’s probably smart enough to use flowery words and pontificate forever on any subject. He realizes though that the vast majority of people in the US aren’t like that and immediately recognize polititalk. That’s why clinton doesn’t have a prayer against Trump. Cruz is conservative through and through but he needs to climb down from his Ivory tower and connect like Trump connects with the common man.
I have to agree he does come across like that. Don’t know if it’s just who he is or if he’s probably learned to weigh his statements as the media jumps on every mistake. What Trump has done with the media is truly stunning. They can’t touch him no matter what he’s said. He single handedly has changed the narrative but I still like Cruz due to his stand on social issues.
Hey, I was a N.J. boy! Atlantic City to be exact. Moved away after high school. That was a l-o-n-g time ago now.
I would be happy with a Trump/Cruz ticket also as I think it would have broad appeal. Yes, Cruz is an career politician but name any other that has turned himself into a pariah for standing up for what he believes in and calling out those of his own party? I hope your fears are unrealized as to his reliability. I would be greatly discouraged if he went along to get along. I just think he knows first hand how the “system” operates whether we like the system or not. Maybe Trump could use his “force of will” as you say to get things done but I think Congress will suddenly find its voice and demand its lost authority again when Obama is gone. If only we could do a clean sweep of Congress at the same time. We’ll see. I’m sure the long knives will come out for either one as the GOPe hates both of them as much, if not more than, the left does. It promises to be an interesting election cycle that’s for sure - if we are able to even survive Obama.
Very well said. Great post.
Apparently, you don’t realize that Chinese Checkers is actually a quite complex game — even more complex than (Earth-based 2-d) Chess, by some measures. (”Complex” refers to game-play, not the rules of the game.)
Also, you inadvertently highlighted Cruz’s apparent weakness vis-Ã -vis Trump — his relative inability to connect to ordinary humans.
Just pointing out the mixed messages that your visual metaphor sends.
Ted Cruz and his wife Heidi both worked in the Bush administration, Trump did not work with the Clintons and if you notice Trump is in the habit of saying that he is friends with this one and that one. That is just a smart business mans way of staying on good terms with important people.
For you to ignore Trumps dealings with the Clintons and his bribing of politicians and authorities in NYC...
And then you use innuendos with no proof to try to smear Cruz and his wife just because they had jobs in the Bush administration...
Tells me you don’t want to have any kind of reasoned conversations involving Trump or Cruz.
I see Trump in a different light than you do. I know he has his flaws but no one is perfect. I am just looking for what could be a negative on Cruz, not because I don’t like him, I gave Cruz some money but then I began to have some second thoughts. Cruz is from Texas as is Bush, Cruz worked for Bush in Washington and his wife also worked for Bush. They were part of the Bush administration. It isn’t far fetched to think that the Bush people may have had a back up for JEB, because they must have done private polling on Jeb and seen that his popularity was weak so they set up the elaborate system of decoys to distract outsider voters from the outsider candidates. I believe that Cruz was the stealth candidate who would come in in case JEB lost. Cruz would win and do what the Bush family wants. This is my hunch.
I started out liking George W. Bush and I ended up not liking him especially for his stand on immigration. Bush said Jesus was his favorite teacher but he lied to us about protecting our border. Republicans have been calling themselves conservatives ever since Reagan made conservatism popular then all the wannabees said that they were conservatives too. Many of them sold us out while pretending to be pious and good. But the issue that showed me who to trust was the illegal immigration issue. Democrat and Republican tricksters were both in favor of illegal immigration and they both continued to lie to us. I never forgot that. Illegal immigration is the crossroads where Democrats, Republicans and business all came to the same intersection.
I like Trump because he came out and boldly spoke out against illegal immigration. He was the one who made Kate Steinle a national name. There have been many victims like Kate Steinle but it took Donald Trump to bring it to the national debate.
AS far as the Bush machine, they have many years of experience in politics with many advisors so they know how to play the chess game of politics. I think that they could possibly pick a Ted Cruz person because he just comes across as the perfect conservative, a candidate that conservatives just could not resist.
So totally true. Trump is the change. He is the one who will change the system because from now on Trump will be the go to guy who will anoint new leaders. Just as under the old system the same old creaky politicians would keep their corrupt network going by saying...”Vote for my good friend Joe Schmo” and many people would vote for Joe Schmo because some machine politician endorsed him. Well, now millions of voters will vote for someone that Trump will endorse and he will be traveling the country endorsing candidates for governors, state senators, state reps, legislators, senators etc. People will trust Trumps choices and it will start an earthquake right under the feet of the establishment. It is good to be alive! I haven’t said that in a long time. :^D
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.