Posted on 01/14/2016 5:22:33 AM PST by RoosterRedux
Donald Trump took his front-running campaign for the Republican presidential nomination to Pensacola, Fla., on Wednesday night. And, holy cow, did people come out in droves to see him.
Here's a photo of the crowd taken by WaPo's own Jenna Johnson.
*snip*
Trump's campaign claimed it gave out 20,000 tickets; the arena holds 11,500 people. According to Jenna's reporting, there were "at least 11,000" in attendance and "several thousand more were turned away."
Large crowds are the rule, not the exception, at this point for Trump. He had 8,000 people in Lowell, Mass., earlier this month; more than 2,000 showed up in Burlington, Vt., -- not exactly a conservative enclave -- to hear Trump speak last week.
I've written a lot about crowd sizes this election and how they remain an uncertain indicator of actual support. But, Trump's ability to draw thousands and thousands of people to hear him speak this close to actual voting -- we are 19 days from the Iowa caucuses -- suggests to me that the enthusiasm and passion he has sparked among a certain segment of the GOP base isn't going anywhere any time soon.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Troll level: sub-Padawan
Trump was never a “Democrat socialist,” although he did used to be a right-leaning moderate (although a self-described “conservative”), who has spent far more time in the Republican Party than the Democratic one. He supported Reagan and then Bush. He almost lost his fortune during the recession during Bush I’s administration, but even so he remained a registered Republican throughout the Clinton era. In his 2000 book, The America We Deserve, he attacked Clinton (later public compliments notwithstanding) and switched to the Reform Party because he was considering a run for President on the Reform Party ticket. Perhaps still resenting the Bushes for all his money loss under Bush I (and later being an opponent of the Iraq War—as I was), he switched to the Dems in opposition to Bush II and stayed there during his administration. When the time came to support the leftist Obama, however, he did not (saying he hoped Obama would be a cheerleader for the U.S. is hardly an endorsement) and switched back his registration to Republican. The reason for all this switching is rather obviously because he is primarily a nationalist-populist, and neither party really represents that viewpoint. He has never been a leftist. In fact, he’s only been a Democrat when George W. Bush was in office, as he apparently really didn’t like Dubya (by late in his term, I wasn’t too crazy about him either).
A lot of Cruzers like to point to his support of nationalized healthcare in his 2000 book, The America We Deserve. But that doesn’t make him a socialist, when most of his positions were conservative. This is supposed to be his great lefty tome, but overall it just isn’t. Even in the book, Trump wrote that although he is conservative, health care was the issue that he was liberal on. By 2011, his attitude on this matter had changed drastically (as seen in his book, Time to Get Tough). If having supported national healthcare (in this case, well in the past) makes one a socialist, regardless of what the rest of your views indicate, then the vast majority of conservatives in Europe and Canada are out-and-out socialists (what does that make their opponents?).
If Kelo is what is bothering you, I simply think that’s being blown out of proportion, whether one agrees with it or not. Considering the use of eminent domain to be actual “socialism” is taking fanaticism altogether too far (do you really believe the U.S. is currently a full-blown socialist nation?). I personally don’t see the point in using the word to mean almost anything. It’s just like the lefties calling Trump a Nazi or Fascist. The words are being used so broadly that they no longer really mean a thing except that the speaker really dislikes the subject being spoken about. People should be able to disagree with Trump without going so wild on the hyperbole and distortions like so many do on this site.
The (un)popular Abraham Lincoln had mood issues too.
I will go ahead and say “Wow”.
A huge reason the GOPe and the DNC are running scared and attacking every day. People have had enough; more than enough.
“But a lot of people are talking about it”
Uh, as far as I can tell, YOU’RE the only one talking about it, actually just making it too, for that matter.
“He’s attracting Democrats, just another reason for conservatives to be suspicious of his candidacy.”
Which is why everyone was so suspicious about Reagan, right? Because Democrats were fed up with the fool Carter and voted for Reagan?
Yes, it’s a BAD thing when anybody but registered Republicans vote for a Republican candidate, for sure.
I don’t see any evidence of mental illness in Trump
but there is definitely something wrong with you.
He is throwing the same line Trump used towards Cruz for citizenship. “I’m no tsaying it’s an issue, some people are saying it may be an issue, and he may need to go to court to figure it out, because the Dems will bring it up.”
He is just trolling.
Though Trumps comments were brilliant and effective.
You mean, because showing up at jam-packed arenas to speak to thousands of like-minded Americans who want to “make America great again”, is driving him over the brink?
or what, exactly?
“That’s part of the problem with mental illness, it’s hard to detect in yourself.”
The irony.
It burns.
:)
Reagan Democrats were conservative. Trump Democrats are liberal, as he is.
Trump apparently didn’t have a problem with socialism, based on his donations to Rotten, Reid, Shumer and Pelosi, among others. Barf me.
I did want to thank you, before I pressed POST, for your civil and thoughtful discourse. To me, Trump is barely acceptable, and after last night, he has become less so. I truly think that he would be a disaster. We’ll see.
Back in 1964, a lot of folks said Gioldwater was insane and if you voted for him the country would get bogged down in a land war in Asia. A lot of Republicans did vote for him, and sure enough a year later the country was bogged down in a land war in Asia.
Here’s what I think I’d do: I’d go and seek a full psychiatric screening if I was Donald. You go see a psychiatrist. You go to a doctor to ask for what’s called a psychological screening. You go in seeking a clean bill of psychiatric health from the doctor, even if you think you’re doing just great. That’s part of the problem with mental illness, it’s hard to detect in yourself. Donald could go right in, do it quickly. It can go quickly. Clean bill of health, very good.”
Psychiatric screening can really only test for the main normal. Anyone extremely bright or eccentric, hugely successful entrepreneurs, for example, will not test as normal.
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