Then I take it youre voting for Trump too... http://www.diamondandsilkinc.com/how-to-switch/
About That Palin Endorsement. The NY Daily News Nails It Again.
By NewYorkerForLife
Tuesday Jan 19, 2016 · 10:55 PM PST
The Daily News with another cover page for the ages.
Laugh it up. In case you can’t read it, the small print says, “Birdbrains of a feather flock together.”
That’s all, folks.
By NewYorkerForLife
Tuesday Jan 19, 2016 · 10:55 PM PST
The Daily News with another cover page for the ages.
Laugh it up. In case you can’t read it, the small print says, “Birdbrains of a feather flock together.”
That’s all, folks.
BBC
Is Donald Trump now unstoppable?
You know that moment on an aircraft where there are three choices of main meal, and you've chosen the chicken and tomato pasta bake.
But by the time the cabin services person gets to your seat, you are told the bake has gone and all you can have is the tasteless salmon and dill or the irradiated, overcooked beef.
Yes, you're disappointed. But you are also immediately in a new mindset. The choice is no longer about what do I want the most. It's what do I mind the least.
The Republican Party establishment finds itself in that position now on the eve of the Iowa caucus.
The palatable, easy-to-digest candidates - a Marco Rubio, a Jeb Bush, even a John Kasich or Chris Christie - are not on the menu.
There is only so long that you can look at the polls and say one of them will break through to challenge the two insurgents, Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.
As things stand, rather than the "moderates" getting together and trying to work out which of them has the best chance to face down Trump or Cruz, they seem to have formed themselves into a circular firing squad and are busy spraying each other with gunfire.
So it's hard to overstate the significance of what has been unfolding over the past few days. It is the grudging acceptance by significant parts of the Republican establishment that not only is Mr Trump the least worst option - he is virtually unstoppable in the race to be their candidate.
The conclusion they've reached is they can live with Mr Trump but they can't with Mr Cruz. Mr Trump will cut deals and compromise; Mr Cruz won't. Mr Trump is biddable; Mr Cruz is not.
Let me say that again. Unless there is a seismic shift in polling, Donald Trump stands to be nominated as the Republican candidate for the 2016 general election. Potentially the first ever president who has never held elected office or been in the military.
But let me go back to the assertion about the Republican establishment starting to cosy up to Trump. What's the evidence to support that?
As wise old owls, they don't come much wiser than Senator Bob Dole. The 92-year-old, decorated World War Two veteran and former presidential candidate has been there, seen it and done it all. And this week he said that Mr Cruz, a senator from Texas, would be "cataclysmic" as the candidate.
"If he's the nominee, we're going to have wholesale losses in Congress and state offices and governors and legislatures," said Mr Dole, who amassed 35 years' service in the House and Senate.
Meanwhile one of the senators who today epitomises the "establishment" is Orrin Hatch. He says he's "coming round" to Mr Trump. It turns out that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, from Kentucky, has also had conversations with Mr Trump.
Also, highly unusually, the serving governor of Iowa, Terry Branstad, weighed in. When asked directly whether he wanted to see Ted Cruz defeated, he didn't equivocate . "Yes," he said.
At one of the first Republican debates, Cruz tried to make light of how people saw him: "If you want someone to grab a beer with, I may not be that guy," he quipped. At the time it seemed like self-effacing modesty, but - wow - do the Republican high command loathe him. The ABC strategy seems to be Anyone But Cruz.
And so, faced with no chicken, tomato and pasta bake, they are swinging decisively against the slippery fish, and going for the leathery, old spray-tanned beef, with a heavy heart.
Because these are the very grandees who commissioned the exhaustive research after the 2012 defeat about how the GOP needed to connect with the ethnic minorities, women and disadvantaged. All groups that - it could be argued - that Mr Trump has been alienating with his rhetoric.
But what he's tapped into is something bigger, which is the profound and visceral anger felt by so many towards that amorphous thing in Washington, "the establishment".
It was brilliantly put by Edward Luce when writing in the FT about Mr Trump's appearance in Iowa earlier this week with Sarah Palin, someone cut from similar cloth: "The more tongue-tied Mrs Palin seemed, the more intently her supporters backed her. The more the media mocked her, the more her fan base exulted. Mr Trump has elevated that approach into an art form. In an age when knowledge is a mark of elitism, ignorance is power. It is also great marketing."
So can he be stopped? Well, if after Iowa and New Hampshire - the first two states to vote - the circular firing squad of moderate/establishment candidates got together and agreed that there can only be one of them to take on Mr Trump, then maybe. The shortest word in that last sentence was "if", but it is a HUGE if.
The primary process is long and protracted and, as I said earlier, Iowa and New Hampshire are not the pulse of the nation. A lot can happen, a lot can change. Primary history is littered with political mayflies whose wings flutter brightly at the start but live for a very short time. The polls may also be wrong; and the people who profess their greatest support for Mr Trump might not be the people who bother to go and vote. But, but, but.
The polls currently have Trump around 20% ahead of the nearest establishment candidate, with support in the mid-30s - and nothing that has happened along the way these last six months has left a mark on him.
Furthermore, you would have to guess that if Mr Trump's nearest rival, Mr Cruz, pulls out of the race, most of his support will switch to the real-estate mogul.
All of which can only lead to one conclusion - Mr Trump is now going to be extremely difficult to stop.
This might help explain why Republican grandees are starting to make their first tentative moves towards Mr Trump.
And it helps explain why - as often happens on a flight - you end up saying - I'm going to get something to eat when I land.
Is Donald Trump now unstoppable?
You know that moment on an aircraft where there are three choices of main meal, and you've chosen the chicken and tomato pasta bake.
But by the time the cabin services person gets to your seat, you are told the bake has gone and all you can have is the tasteless salmon and dill or the irradiated, overcooked beef.
Yes, you're disappointed. But you are also immediately in a new mindset. The choice is no longer about what do I want the most. It's what do I mind the least.
The Republican Party establishment finds itself in that position now on the eve of the Iowa caucus.
The palatable, easy-to-digest candidates - a Marco Rubio, a Jeb Bush, even a John Kasich or Chris Christie - are not on the menu.
There is only so long that you can look at the polls and say one of them will break through to challenge the two insurgents, Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.
As things stand, rather than the "moderates" getting together and trying to work out which of them has the best chance to face down Trump or Cruz, they seem to have formed themselves into a circular firing squad and are busy spraying each other with gunfire.
So it's hard to overstate the significance of what has been unfolding over the past few days. It is the grudging acceptance by significant parts of the Republican establishment that not only is Mr Trump the least worst option - he is virtually unstoppable in the race to be their candidate.
The conclusion they've reached is they can live with Mr Trump but they can't with Mr Cruz. Mr Trump will cut deals and compromise; Mr Cruz won't. Mr Trump is biddable; Mr Cruz is not.
Let me say that again. Unless there is a seismic shift in polling, Donald Trump stands to be nominated as the Republican candidate for the 2016 general election. Potentially the first ever president who has never held elected office or been in the military.
But let me go back to the assertion about the Republican establishment starting to cosy up to Trump. What's the evidence to support that?
As wise old owls, they don't come much wiser than Senator Bob Dole. The 92-year-old, decorated World War Two veteran and former presidential candidate has been there, seen it and done it all. And this week he said that Mr Cruz, a senator from Texas, would be "cataclysmic" as the candidate.
"If he's the nominee, we're going to have wholesale losses in Congress and state offices and governors and legislatures," said Mr Dole, who amassed 35 years' service in the House and Senate.
Meanwhile one of the senators who today epitomises the "establishment" is Orrin Hatch. He says he's "coming round" to Mr Trump. It turns out that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, from Kentucky, has also had conversations with Mr Trump.
Also, highly unusually, the serving governor of Iowa, Terry Branstad, weighed in. When asked directly whether he wanted to see Ted Cruz defeated, he didn't equivocate . "Yes," he said.
At one of the first Republican debates, Cruz tried to make light of how people saw him: "If you want someone to grab a beer with, I may not be that guy," he quipped. At the time it seemed like self-effacing modesty, but - wow - do the Republican high command loathe him. The ABC strategy seems to be Anyone But Cruz.
And so, faced with no chicken, tomato and pasta bake, they are swinging decisively against the slippery fish, and going for the leathery, old spray-tanned beef, with a heavy heart.
Because these are the very grandees who commissioned the exhaustive research after the 2012 defeat about how the GOP needed to connect with the ethnic minorities, women and disadvantaged. All groups that - it could be argued - that Mr Trump has been alienating with his rhetoric.
But what he's tapped into is something bigger, which is the profound and visceral anger felt by so many towards that amorphous thing in Washington, "the establishment".
It was brilliantly put by Edward Luce when writing in the FT about Mr Trump's appearance in Iowa earlier this week with Sarah Palin, someone cut from similar cloth: "The more tongue-tied Mrs Palin seemed, the more intently her supporters backed her. The more the media mocked her, the more her fan base exulted. Mr Trump has elevated that approach into an art form. In an age when knowledge is a mark of elitism, ignorance is power. It is also great marketing."
So can he be stopped? Well, if after Iowa and New Hampshire - the first two states to vote - the circular firing squad of moderate/establishment candidates got together and agreed that there can only be one of them to take on Mr Trump, then maybe. The shortest word in that last sentence was "if", but it is a HUGE if.
The primary process is long and protracted and, as I said earlier, Iowa and New Hampshire are not the pulse of the nation. A lot can happen, a lot can change. Primary history is littered with political mayflies whose wings flutter brightly at the start but live for a very short time. The polls may also be wrong; and the people who profess their greatest support for Mr Trump might not be the people who bother to go and vote. But, but, but.
The polls currently have Trump around 20% ahead of the nearest establishment candidate, with support in the mid-30s - and nothing that has happened along the way these last six months has left a mark on him.
Furthermore, you would have to guess that if Mr Trump's nearest rival, Mr Cruz, pulls out of the race, most of his support will switch to the real-estate mogul.
All of which can only lead to one conclusion - Mr Trump is now going to be extremely difficult to stop.
This might help explain why Republican grandees are starting to make their first tentative moves towards Mr Trump.
And it helps explain why - as often happens on a flight - you end up saying - I'm going to get something to eat when I land.
[h=6]- JANUARY 23, 2016 -[/h][h=1]DONALD TRUMP, CHALLENGING POLITICAL CORRECTNESS, STRIKES A CHORD[/h]New York Times
At a rally in Iowa this week, Donald J. Trump explained in bold terms and broad brush strokes the many ways he would improve the United States as president: building a wall, rebuilding the military, beating China on trade. When a protester chimed in to question how the Republican would do the things that he promised, Mr. Trump decided that instead of removing the man from the audience, he would respond.
“You watch,” the billionaire developer said flatly. His supporters cheered.
Mr. Trump has regained momentum in Iowa two weeks before the state’s caucuses, and many voters cite his bravado and willingness to assail political correctness, more than his policy proposals, as the main reasons.
“I like that he’s not politically correct,” said Sarvinder Naberhaus, 54, of Ames. “Nowadays everybody has to have the same opinion. I love that he’s being so blunt.”
For Bill Brown, a 58-year-old factory worker who caucused for Mike Huckabee in 2008, Mr. Trump’s tough stance on immigration is a plus, but the fact that he does not shy away from sensitive political issues is the primary appeal.
“He speaks what’s on his mind,” Mr. Brown said. “I’m tired of political correctness.”
The term “politically correct” has become a boogeyman in the battle for the Republican presidential nomination, as candidates look to embrace the outsider mantle in a year when being “establishment” is out of style. Mr. Trump has pushed the envelope in this area with his ban on Muslim immigration and contentious comments about women and Mexicans.
While such ideas have offended some, his supporters see the fact that Mr. Trump has not backed away from his views, even when criticized, as evidence that he will fight for them.
Benjamin Rittgers caucused for Mitt Romney in 2008 and became so disillusioned with the Republican Party that he changed his affiliation to independent. He recently re-registered as a Republican so that he can caucus for Mr. Trump on Feb. 1.
“I think he can follow through,” Mr. Rittgers, 39, said at the rally where Mr. Trump was endorsed by Sarah Palin. “I don’t want someone who will just compromise with the Democrats.”
Mr. Trump’s opponents lately have pointed to his previous liberal positions, and some have suggested that he has a weak grasp of Christianity. His most ardent fans, however, shrug off these arguments, pointing out that former President Ronald Reagan was once a Democrat and that former President Jimmy Carter – disliked by many Republicans – was a man of deep faith.
Ultimately, Mr. Trump’s outsider status seems to win out.
“I like the idea of someone who is not a politician,” said James Rogers, who drove to Iowa from Wisconsin to hear Mr. Trump speak. “I’m going to vote for him.”
At a rally in Iowa this week, Donald J. Trump explained in bold terms and broad brush strokes the many ways he would improve the United States as president: building a wall, rebuilding the military, beating China on trade. When a protester chimed in to question how the Republican would do the things that he promised, Mr. Trump decided that instead of removing the man from the audience, he would respond.
“You watch,” the billionaire developer said flatly. His supporters cheered.
Mr. Trump has regained momentum in Iowa two weeks before the state’s caucuses, and many voters cite his bravado and willingness to assail political correctness, more than his policy proposals, as the main reasons.
“I like that he’s not politically correct,” said Sarvinder Naberhaus, 54, of Ames. “Nowadays everybody has to have the same opinion. I love that he’s being so blunt.”
For Bill Brown, a 58-year-old factory worker who caucused for Mike Huckabee in 2008, Mr. Trump’s tough stance on immigration is a plus, but the fact that he does not shy away from sensitive political issues is the primary appeal.
“He speaks what’s on his mind,” Mr. Brown said. “I’m tired of political correctness.”
The term “politically correct” has become a boogeyman in the battle for the Republican presidential nomination, as candidates look to embrace the outsider mantle in a year when being “establishment” is out of style. Mr. Trump has pushed the envelope in this area with his ban on Muslim immigration and contentious comments about women and Mexicans.
While such ideas have offended some, his supporters see the fact that Mr. Trump has not backed away from his views, even when criticized, as evidence that he will fight for them.
Benjamin Rittgers caucused for Mitt Romney in 2008 and became so disillusioned with the Republican Party that he changed his affiliation to independent. He recently re-registered as a Republican so that he can caucus for Mr. Trump on Feb. 1.
“I think he can follow through,” Mr. Rittgers, 39, said at the rally where Mr. Trump was endorsed by Sarah Palin. “I don’t want someone who will just compromise with the Democrats.”
Mr. Trump’s opponents lately have pointed to his previous liberal positions, and some have suggested that he has a weak grasp of Christianity. His most ardent fans, however, shrug off these arguments, pointing out that former President Ronald Reagan was once a Democrat and that former President Jimmy Carter – disliked by many Republicans – was a man of deep faith.
Ultimately, Mr. Trump’s outsider status seems to win out.
“I like the idea of someone who is not a politician,” said James Rogers, who drove to Iowa from Wisconsin to hear Mr. Trump speak. “I’m going to vote for him.”
[h=6]- JANUARY 23, 2016 -[/h][h=1]HOW DONALD TRUMP IS STEALING IOWA’S EVANGELICAL VOTE[/h]Bloomberg
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson have made their Christian faith and the kind of issues that motivate faith-based voters a central part of their pitches to Iowa's heavily evangelical Republican caucus-goers.
But in the state that will kick off voting for presidential nomination with its Feb. 1 caucuses, they're both being bested by Donald Trump, the thrice-married celebrity billionaire.
Cruz jumped out ahead of Trump in Iowa polls last month, largely on the strength of evangelical voters he poached from Carson. But with voting just days away, the New York businessman has surged back into a competitive position in Iowa.
On Friday, Trump's campaign cut a radio ad that will begin playing in Iowa and South Carolina, another evangelical stronghold and early-voting state, featuring a portion of a speech by Jerry Falwell Jr., the president of the Liberty University, delivered to introduce Trump.
Falwell is named after his father, the late Reverend Jerry Falwell, who founded Liberty University, along with the politically powerful "Moral Majority" in the 1980s. Falwell Jr. showered Trump with praise -- though he stopped just short of an endorsement -- while introducing the billionaire.
"Donald Trump has stunned the political world by building an unlikely coalition that crosses all demographic boundaries of age, sex, race, religion and social classes and all party lines," Falwell said in the portion of the speech excerpted in the ad. "Donald Trump is a breath of fresh air."
Faith-based voters are traditionally an important component of the Iowa Republican caucus vote: In a Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register poll this month, 57 percent of likely Republican caucus-goers said they attend church at least once a week. In the December edition of the same poll, half of likely Republican caucus-goers identified themselves as "born again" or evangelical Christians.
Though Trump has begun to allude to his Presbyterian faith in speeches, he has not made religion a central part of his campaign in the same way some of his rivals have.
Cruz and Carson have each made direct appeals to pastors within the evangelical community, with Carson frequently speaking at evangelical churches during Sunday services -- events not advertised by his campaign staff. Cruz even launched an Iowa initiative in which he sought an endorsement from a pastor in each of Iowa's 99 counties, an evangelical version of a "Full Grassley."
Cruz frequently ends his campaign rallies urging his supporters not only to vote -- but to pray.
"Pray, lift up this country in prayer," Cruz told a crowd of a few hundred the day after the most recent debate at a rally in Columbia, South Carolina. "Spend one minute a day saying, 'Father God, please continue this awakening, this spirit of revival that is sweeping this country. Awaken the body of Christ that we might pull back from the abyss.'" He then recalled that former President Ronald Reagan was sworn into office with his hand resting "on Second Chronicles, 7:14."
Cruz, the son of a born-again Christian pastor, recited the passage verbatim from memory. And the stirred crowd nodded and murmured in approval.
Flash forward to earlier this week when Trump took to a podium at Liberty University. Students started an online meme poking fun at his attempt to quote "two Corinthians," more typically referred to as "Second Corinthians."
Trump's rough edges may be part of his appeal, said David Andersen, a political science professor at Iowa State University.
"A lot of people come to Iowa and try to be evangelical. Voters can see through that. Donald Trump doesn't care about being anything but himself," he said. "Donald Trump is winning over evangelicals by being honest and not faking that he's evangelical."
Two other Republicans, Rick Santorum, a former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee — who scored surprise wins in the 2012 and 2008 Republican Iowa caucuses, respectively, largely because of evangelical support - are also in the race again this year and seeking the same voters.
That crowded conversation has created an opening for Trump, Andersen said. "Evangelicals haven't coalesced behind any one candidate, and Trump has capitalized on this," he said.
Cruz and Carson, along with Huckabee and Santorum, frequently make their opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage key stump issues. Trump rarely, if ever, mentions abortion or gay marriage in his massive rallies, although he said that he is pro-life and supports traditional marriage in an interview with CNN this month.
Trump didn't mention either of the issues at his events at Liberty University and Oral Roberts University. And it may not have mattered much at the Oklahoma school, where Trump was introduced by former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.
The 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate and a conservative rock star whose latest book is a devotional, Palin praised Trump's power as representing the "fabric of of America [with it's] work ethic and dreams and drive and faith in the Almighty."
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson have made their Christian faith and the kind of issues that motivate faith-based voters a central part of their pitches to Iowa's heavily evangelical Republican caucus-goers.
But in the state that will kick off voting for presidential nomination with its Feb. 1 caucuses, they're both being bested by Donald Trump, the thrice-married celebrity billionaire.
Cruz jumped out ahead of Trump in Iowa polls last month, largely on the strength of evangelical voters he poached from Carson. But with voting just days away, the New York businessman has surged back into a competitive position in Iowa.
On Friday, Trump's campaign cut a radio ad that will begin playing in Iowa and South Carolina, another evangelical stronghold and early-voting state, featuring a portion of a speech by Jerry Falwell Jr., the president of the Liberty University, delivered to introduce Trump.
Falwell is named after his father, the late Reverend Jerry Falwell, who founded Liberty University, along with the politically powerful "Moral Majority" in the 1980s. Falwell Jr. showered Trump with praise -- though he stopped just short of an endorsement -- while introducing the billionaire.
"Donald Trump has stunned the political world by building an unlikely coalition that crosses all demographic boundaries of age, sex, race, religion and social classes and all party lines," Falwell said in the portion of the speech excerpted in the ad. "Donald Trump is a breath of fresh air."
Faith-based voters are traditionally an important component of the Iowa Republican caucus vote: In a Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register poll this month, 57 percent of likely Republican caucus-goers said they attend church at least once a week. In the December edition of the same poll, half of likely Republican caucus-goers identified themselves as "born again" or evangelical Christians.
Though Trump has begun to allude to his Presbyterian faith in speeches, he has not made religion a central part of his campaign in the same way some of his rivals have.
Cruz and Carson have each made direct appeals to pastors within the evangelical community, with Carson frequently speaking at evangelical churches during Sunday services -- events not advertised by his campaign staff. Cruz even launched an Iowa initiative in which he sought an endorsement from a pastor in each of Iowa's 99 counties, an evangelical version of a "Full Grassley."
Cruz frequently ends his campaign rallies urging his supporters not only to vote -- but to pray.
"Pray, lift up this country in prayer," Cruz told a crowd of a few hundred the day after the most recent debate at a rally in Columbia, South Carolina. "Spend one minute a day saying, 'Father God, please continue this awakening, this spirit of revival that is sweeping this country. Awaken the body of Christ that we might pull back from the abyss.'" He then recalled that former President Ronald Reagan was sworn into office with his hand resting "on Second Chronicles, 7:14."
Cruz, the son of a born-again Christian pastor, recited the passage verbatim from memory. And the stirred crowd nodded and murmured in approval.
Flash forward to earlier this week when Trump took to a podium at Liberty University. Students started an online meme poking fun at his attempt to quote "two Corinthians," more typically referred to as "Second Corinthians."
Trump's rough edges may be part of his appeal, said David Andersen, a political science professor at Iowa State University.
"A lot of people come to Iowa and try to be evangelical. Voters can see through that. Donald Trump doesn't care about being anything but himself," he said. "Donald Trump is winning over evangelicals by being honest and not faking that he's evangelical."
Two other Republicans, Rick Santorum, a former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee — who scored surprise wins in the 2012 and 2008 Republican Iowa caucuses, respectively, largely because of evangelical support - are also in the race again this year and seeking the same voters.
That crowded conversation has created an opening for Trump, Andersen said. "Evangelicals haven't coalesced behind any one candidate, and Trump has capitalized on this," he said.
Cruz and Carson, along with Huckabee and Santorum, frequently make their opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage key stump issues. Trump rarely, if ever, mentions abortion or gay marriage in his massive rallies, although he said that he is pro-life and supports traditional marriage in an interview with CNN this month.
Trump didn't mention either of the issues at his events at Liberty University and Oral Roberts University. And it may not have mattered much at the Oklahoma school, where Trump was introduced by former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.
The 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate and a conservative rock star whose latest book is a devotional, Palin praised Trump's power as representing the "fabric of of America [with it's] work ethic and dreams and drive and faith in the Almighty."
+5
OVERFLOW: The Trump rally drew an estimated 1,500 people in rural western Iowa
+5
LOYAL: Iowans braved sub-freezing temperatures on a Saturday morning to see their political hero
+5
SUPPORT: Iowa supporters rolled a mobile billboard in Sioux Center reading : 'Could God be for Trump?'
.
The Telegraph.
Why it's becoming easier every day to imagine Donald Trump being inaugurated
He has offended Muslims, women and Latinos, and now Sarah Palin is backing his presidency - but this won't stop the steady rise of support
They looked like refugees huddled in a cluster outside the “Surf Ballroom’ theatre in Clear Lake Iowa; wrapped in blankets or duvets, their faces obscured by balaclavas; eyes squinting into the bitter cold January day. Iowa, the first state to vote in the long and arduous presidential marathon, had hit its seasonal low of minus 29 centigrade.
I have never been so cold in my life and couldn’t imagine what it must have felt like to wait outside for hours. The letters in the billboard above the entrance barely did the crowd and their endurance justice. "Donald J Trump rally at 4pm. SOLD OUT!" Hundreds had braved hypothermia to see The Donald. And at 4 pm sharp he duly arrived in his convoy of SUVs with tinted windows.
Most of his entourage are bodyguards. His only campaign adviser is an impossibly gorgeous twenty-something called Hope, who looks as if she has been beamed in from the set of Sex in the City and onto the set of Fargo. The last time I spent quality time alone with The Donald was two years when he took umbrage with me for questioning him about his germ allergy –he hates shaking hands - or calling him thin skinned.
A vendor walks with buttons and hats for sale as attendees line up to attend a campaign rally for Donald Trump in Iowa.
I knew an interview was a long shot, but I asked Hope, could I at least get on his plane or bus? She looked at me through frozen eye lashes and said: “We don’t do bus.” Indeed Trump doesn’t like to linger. He insists on spending every night in one of his own beds, either in Manhattan or in Florida.
I have observed Trump as a correspondent in America for the BBC and Channel 4 for many years. Interviewing him at length, I would never have expected him to go as far, or to do as well as he is doing at the moment. Trump’s candidacy started as an unlikely joke. It is now being taken very seriously indeed especially by his rivals in the Republican party. It is this peculiar set of affairs which I am setting out to capture in my documentary to she shown on Tuesday – The Mad World of Donald Trump.
My observation is that Trump doesn’t actually much like ordinary people. But they love him. Joining a crowd of 6,000 crammed into a basket-ball stadium in balmy South Carolina, the first southern state to vote in the primaries, I shared an observation with Bobby Jo, a mother of four dressed in a velour leopard print tracksuit and heavy gold jewellery. “The last time I saw crowds this size and with this much blind passion for their candidate was for Barack Obama in 2008’.
Supporters displays placards as Donald Trump addresses a campaign rally at the South Point Resort and Casino, Las Vegas
Bobby Jo, not an Obama fan, didn’t know how to take this comparison, but beamed back at me nevertheless. The crowd that Trump attracts is almost exclusively white. Pollsters will tell you that they also tend to be working class and less well educated. I’m not sure whether that’s true but they all have one thing in common: a distrust bordering on hatred of mainstream politics, an allergy against the Washington elite and a profound feeling they have been ignored and neglected.
Everywhere we went we heard the same story: “Donald tells it like it is. He says the things that other politicians are afraid to say and he’s the real deal.”
It was only a matter of time before Trump got endorsed by Sarah Palin - the woman who also made the Republican establishment blanch when she was chosen by Senator John McCain as his running mate in 2008. Political exile has only made her voice shriller. Dusting herself down last week to descend on Ames, Iowa – the birthplace of John Wayne – she shrieked into the microphone: “Donald Trump is the commander in chief we need to kick some ISIS ASS.” The crowd lost it.
Palin is unlikely to scare swing voters off Trump, as she scared them off McCain. They are already terrified. But she may embolden those who want to stump for Trump. And this is where we get to the electoral nub of the matter: Donald Trump knows he will never swing the undecided. His strategy is to persuade every voter in a mobile home to peel themselves off their couch and make it to the polling booth. Millions of them don’t usually bother voting - Donald wants them to exercise their democratic rights. For him.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump shakes hands with former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.
And here we enter the weird world of contradictions embodied by Trump. He is the richest man ever to run for President, but he has spent less than virtually any other presidential candidate ever, just £2m so far. He is a billionaire bombas attracting votes from those Americans who can never hope to realise the American dream. He has been on both sides of just about every political issue from guns to gay marriage to Hillary, whose senate campaign he gave money to in 2000 and 2006.
He has offended Muslims, Latinos and women like no other candidate but everyone time Trump tramples on a red line of decency his support just grows. He has gone bankrupt four times but is hailed by his supporters as a business guru. He has been married tempestuously three times without apparently offending too many monogamous evangelical Christians. With so much baggage any other candidate would have imploded by now.
The fact that his support just grows speaks volumes about the sorry state of America's toxic politics, of which Trump is both a symptom and a beneficiary.
On the campaign trail in Las Vegas
AS a businessman he is able to short circuit much of the loathing reserved for professional politicians even though he didn’t exactly journey from rags to riches. When he left home, Trump was given at least 10 million dollars by his father and a credit line of forty million to set him up following his father’s footsteps in New York real estate.
He then lost a significant amount the early nineties having gorged himself on casinos in Atlantic City and sky scrapers in Manhattan, when property took a dive.
The editor of Forbes magazine, Randal Lane, told me that Trump had learnt his lesson. He now only owns 2 of the 17 New York sky scrapers that bear his name and makes most of his money from licensing his brand.
And for Trump it really is all about the brand and he sees his progression from real estate business to reality TV to presidential politics as its natural progression.
What really keeps Trump up at night is measuring its success. As the editor of Forbes, Randall Lane is in charge of drawing up America’s Rich List and he told me how he and his team of accountants spent three days huddled with Trump himself in his 5th Avenue offices arguing with Donald over how much he is really worth.
“We concluded it was 4.5 billion. Trump got angry and insisted it was 10 billion. That’s what he said he “felt” he was worth. For a guy trying to convince voters, many whom cannot even fathom his riches it puzzles me that he should insist on the extra billions. It’s not as if he needs them.” But Trump’s ego clearly does.
This obsession with the metrics of self-worth also translates to his rally speeches, which he kicks off by reading lists of opinion poll numbers as if briefing a committee of fundraisers. Eyes glaze over as this rambling string of non sequiturs which sound like a bad stand-up comedy routine - the crowd only really wake up when he is bellowing about building a wall to keep out the Mexicans or kick Isis’s ass. These, of course, are only the bits ever played on cable TV.
So can The Donald become The President? American history has produced wealthy populist insurgents like him before. William Randolph Hearst, the newspaper tycoon, Henry Ford, the car magnate, Charles Lindberg, the aviator - all thrived on a cocktail of political virginity, authenticity, anger and cash. They all failed and Trump may well end up doing so too. But he has already defied all expectations.
As Harry Hurt III, one of his biographers and most vocal critics, says, he is giving hoarse voice to a large segment of the country that feels snubbed by the elites. With his spiteful rhetoric he embodies a country that has spent the Obama years on a journey: from hope and change to fear and loathing. Add to this mix another terrorist attack like the San Bernadino mass shooting in November and it becomes much easier to imagine the inauguration of Donald J Trump on the balcony of the Capitol.
Why it's becoming easier every day to imagine Donald Trump being inaugurated
He has offended Muslims, women and Latinos, and now Sarah Palin is backing his presidency - but this won't stop the steady rise of support
They looked like refugees huddled in a cluster outside the “Surf Ballroom’ theatre in Clear Lake Iowa; wrapped in blankets or duvets, their faces obscured by balaclavas; eyes squinting into the bitter cold January day. Iowa, the first state to vote in the long and arduous presidential marathon, had hit its seasonal low of minus 29 centigrade.
I have never been so cold in my life and couldn’t imagine what it must have felt like to wait outside for hours. The letters in the billboard above the entrance barely did the crowd and their endurance justice. "Donald J Trump rally at 4pm. SOLD OUT!" Hundreds had braved hypothermia to see The Donald. And at 4 pm sharp he duly arrived in his convoy of SUVs with tinted windows.
Most of his entourage are bodyguards. His only campaign adviser is an impossibly gorgeous twenty-something called Hope, who looks as if she has been beamed in from the set of Sex in the City and onto the set of Fargo. The last time I spent quality time alone with The Donald was two years when he took umbrage with me for questioning him about his germ allergy –he hates shaking hands - or calling him thin skinned.
A vendor walks with buttons and hats for sale as attendees line up to attend a campaign rally for Donald Trump in Iowa.
I knew an interview was a long shot, but I asked Hope, could I at least get on his plane or bus? She looked at me through frozen eye lashes and said: “We don’t do bus.” Indeed Trump doesn’t like to linger. He insists on spending every night in one of his own beds, either in Manhattan or in Florida.
I have observed Trump as a correspondent in America for the BBC and Channel 4 for many years. Interviewing him at length, I would never have expected him to go as far, or to do as well as he is doing at the moment. Trump’s candidacy started as an unlikely joke. It is now being taken very seriously indeed especially by his rivals in the Republican party. It is this peculiar set of affairs which I am setting out to capture in my documentary to she shown on Tuesday – The Mad World of Donald Trump.
My observation is that Trump doesn’t actually much like ordinary people. But they love him. Joining a crowd of 6,000 crammed into a basket-ball stadium in balmy South Carolina, the first southern state to vote in the primaries, I shared an observation with Bobby Jo, a mother of four dressed in a velour leopard print tracksuit and heavy gold jewellery. “The last time I saw crowds this size and with this much blind passion for their candidate was for Barack Obama in 2008’.
Supporters displays placards as Donald Trump addresses a campaign rally at the South Point Resort and Casino, Las Vegas
Bobby Jo, not an Obama fan, didn’t know how to take this comparison, but beamed back at me nevertheless. The crowd that Trump attracts is almost exclusively white. Pollsters will tell you that they also tend to be working class and less well educated. I’m not sure whether that’s true but they all have one thing in common: a distrust bordering on hatred of mainstream politics, an allergy against the Washington elite and a profound feeling they have been ignored and neglected.
Everywhere we went we heard the same story: “Donald tells it like it is. He says the things that other politicians are afraid to say and he’s the real deal.”
It was only a matter of time before Trump got endorsed by Sarah Palin - the woman who also made the Republican establishment blanch when she was chosen by Senator John McCain as his running mate in 2008. Political exile has only made her voice shriller. Dusting herself down last week to descend on Ames, Iowa – the birthplace of John Wayne – she shrieked into the microphone: “Donald Trump is the commander in chief we need to kick some ISIS ASS.” The crowd lost it.
Palin is unlikely to scare swing voters off Trump, as she scared them off McCain. They are already terrified. But she may embolden those who want to stump for Trump. And this is where we get to the electoral nub of the matter: Donald Trump knows he will never swing the undecided. His strategy is to persuade every voter in a mobile home to peel themselves off their couch and make it to the polling booth. Millions of them don’t usually bother voting - Donald wants them to exercise their democratic rights. For him.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump shakes hands with former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.
And here we enter the weird world of contradictions embodied by Trump. He is the richest man ever to run for President, but he has spent less than virtually any other presidential candidate ever, just £2m so far. He is a billionaire bombas attracting votes from those Americans who can never hope to realise the American dream. He has been on both sides of just about every political issue from guns to gay marriage to Hillary, whose senate campaign he gave money to in 2000 and 2006.
He has offended Muslims, Latinos and women like no other candidate but everyone time Trump tramples on a red line of decency his support just grows. He has gone bankrupt four times but is hailed by his supporters as a business guru. He has been married tempestuously three times without apparently offending too many monogamous evangelical Christians. With so much baggage any other candidate would have imploded by now.
The fact that his support just grows speaks volumes about the sorry state of America's toxic politics, of which Trump is both a symptom and a beneficiary.
On the campaign trail in Las Vegas
AS a businessman he is able to short circuit much of the loathing reserved for professional politicians even though he didn’t exactly journey from rags to riches. When he left home, Trump was given at least 10 million dollars by his father and a credit line of forty million to set him up following his father’s footsteps in New York real estate.
He then lost a significant amount the early nineties having gorged himself on casinos in Atlantic City and sky scrapers in Manhattan, when property took a dive.
The editor of Forbes magazine, Randal Lane, told me that Trump had learnt his lesson. He now only owns 2 of the 17 New York sky scrapers that bear his name and makes most of his money from licensing his brand.
And for Trump it really is all about the brand and he sees his progression from real estate business to reality TV to presidential politics as its natural progression.
What really keeps Trump up at night is measuring its success. As the editor of Forbes, Randall Lane is in charge of drawing up America’s Rich List and he told me how he and his team of accountants spent three days huddled with Trump himself in his 5th Avenue offices arguing with Donald over how much he is really worth.
“We concluded it was 4.5 billion. Trump got angry and insisted it was 10 billion. That’s what he said he “felt” he was worth. For a guy trying to convince voters, many whom cannot even fathom his riches it puzzles me that he should insist on the extra billions. It’s not as if he needs them.” But Trump’s ego clearly does.
This obsession with the metrics of self-worth also translates to his rally speeches, which he kicks off by reading lists of opinion poll numbers as if briefing a committee of fundraisers. Eyes glaze over as this rambling string of non sequiturs which sound like a bad stand-up comedy routine - the crowd only really wake up when he is bellowing about building a wall to keep out the Mexicans or kick Isis’s ass. These, of course, are only the bits ever played on cable TV.
So can The Donald become The President? American history has produced wealthy populist insurgents like him before. William Randolph Hearst, the newspaper tycoon, Henry Ford, the car magnate, Charles Lindberg, the aviator - all thrived on a cocktail of political virginity, authenticity, anger and cash. They all failed and Trump may well end up doing so too. But he has already defied all expectations.
As Harry Hurt III, one of his biographers and most vocal critics, says, he is giving hoarse voice to a large segment of the country that feels snubbed by the elites. With his spiteful rhetoric he embodies a country that has spent the Obama years on a journey: from hope and change to fear and loathing. Add to this mix another terrorist attack like the San Bernadino mass shooting in November and it becomes much easier to imagine the inauguration of Donald J Trump on the balcony of the Capitol.
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BANG: Trump said Saturday morning that his supporters are so loyal that they wouldn't even abandon him even if he were to 'stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody'
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TWITTER FIGHT: Trump responded to Beck's endorsement of Cruz by dredging up a 2009 interview in which the radio host said Sen. John McCain would have made a worse president than Hillary Clinton
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HE HAS HIS OWN BACKERS: Trump drew legendary Iowa senator Chuck Grassley to speak at a Saturday rally, even as Cruz visited his home town 100 miles to the north to curry favor
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HIGH ROAD: By having high-profile surrogates on the road with him, Cruz can keep his promise hot to level ad hominem attacks on Trump
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RALLIES: Cruz attracted about 1,500 people to each of two campaign stops on Saturday
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BROMANCE: Radio host Glenn Beck (right) endorsed Sen. Ted Cruz (left) on Saturday, and attacked Donald Trump as a man with an 'ego of Biblical proportions'
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JAB: Tea party congressman Steve King of Iowa claimed Donald Trump would appoint his 'partial-birth-abortion-loving sister' to the Supreme Court if he were elected president
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CONTROVERSIAL: Maryanne Trump Barry (right, in 2008) is a federal appeals court judge who once struck down a New Jersey law banning so-called 'partial birth' abortions; Trump has said he would rule out appointing her to the bench and that he would only name pro-life justices
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The mainstream media, liberals and probably some GOP establishment types would rather you not see.
http://www.allenbwest.com/2016/01/v...iberals-worst-nightmare-and-shes-going-viral/
http://www.allenbwest.com/2016/01/v...iberals-worst-nightmare-and-shes-going-viral/
