Trump (Page 15)

Taking my own personal biases out of the picture Iowa has always been a little "different" when it comes to voting.  I'd say they've had an evangelical slant with Huckabee and Santorum winning in 2008/20012 respectively.

I just saw this a little bit ago and thought it was interesting how pretty much every news cycle has Cruz winning the race now, but nationally Trump is 41% and Cruz is 14%.  umm

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/12/poll-trump-new-high-216741

I think they're meaningful for the primaries at this point, but I will agree that head to head hypotheticals are pretty weak at this stage in the game.  My only point in bringing them up is that everyone says Trump is unelectable but he polls as well or better than any of the other candidates at this point.  If Hillary were up by 20 points on the Republican field we would certainly be hearing about it.  

Between Hillary and a Poll I would vote for a pole.

Yeah, I seriously don't understand the caucus stuff.  I know it's a mechanism within the party, but it seems so much simpler (and more fair) to just have a vote of registered republicans and whoever gets the most votes wins.  But hey, what do i know.  lol

I also agree that Trump needs to convert his polls into votes in order to win.  I got to experience it first hand at the Town Hall I went to because they were essentially recruiting people to caucus for Trump very heavy at the whole event (before and after).  There were pretty long lines of people signing up to caucus, so I guess that's converting them but like I said I don't really understand the whole caucus system.
Ted Cruz was in Iowa as well this weekend and I wanted to go see him, but my wife had other plans.  I had a buddy that went to see him and the contrast was stunning from a simple crowd participation rate.  Trump had over 2000 people at his Town Hall event and typically has between 4000-5000 at his regular speaking events.  With Cruz, he had maybe 100 people in the room.  The good news is my buddy got to take a picture with him, but I think it makes it a lot harder to convert voters.

I read an article the other day about how the traditional method to get people to caucus is you hire a team to go out and build your caucus and they essentially recruit other people.  Trump is doing the mass approach by converting people at his events.  I have no clue whats better, but I found it interesting.

As for Trump in Iowa overall, he could win or lose Iowa for sure and obviously that in and of itself doesn't mean much.  Huckabee (2008) and Santorum (2012) are great examples of that.  As for the other states, I haven't seen virtually anywhere that Trump isn't crushing the field with HUGE (said with Trump voice) support.  If he wins Iowa he'll very likely run the table everywhere else.  If he loses Iowa, he will still likely run the table or possibly lose another state or two.

With the national lead he's got it's really hard for me to see a path to victory for anyone else.  Cruz is the only hope for those that don't like Trump, and as has been mentioned above most Trump haters hate Cruz even more.

Looking forward to the debate tonight.

Tonight, Donald Trump, through his complete failure in this debate, showed that it's now time for serious people to take up the matter of being President of the United States. 

Donald is finished......thanks for the laughs.

Just out of curiosity what makes you say this?  Everything I'm reading in conservative land is touting it as his best debate performance to date.  lol

Bush is definitely toast, Rubio is a pandering mess (i can't stand that guy).  It's down to Cruz and Trump and the only place in the nation that's remotely interested in Cruz is Iowa.

The way they've been making out and touching each other so far I'm fairly confident (just my gut) that it will be a Trump/Cruz ticket. 

*edit even the CNN commentators for the most part thought he did good.  

There's a ton of chatter on conservative forums suggesting that he has one of two approaches (or both).  He's simply playing nice and complimenting him all the way in the expectation that he'll have a fall in the polls for whatever reason.  There's no question Cruz has positioned himself to pick up the majority of Trumps supporters if he goes off the rails and suggests banning muslims or something like that (oh wait, nvm).  
The other is just as you suggested to go in as VEEP for 4 to 8 years and then ride the coat tails from there.  Obviously that only works if things go well.

Yuuuuuuuge! Donald Trump’s Best GOP Debate Yet

The big joke is if he'll actually move to the White House.  It would be quite a step down for him.

Right or wrong, I think he'll try to run it like a business which is what many of us (myself included) feel needs to happen.  The million dollar question is how that will actually work out because as a CEO you obviously say lets make this happen and it does, whereas there's this pesky congress thing in the way of wholesale changes.
There's no question he'll have some challenges due to the entire congress being bought and paid for by corporate interests but if anyone can overcome that hurdle it will be Trump.  I could see him coming on at 7:00 PM and exposing whose pulling the strings of congressmen/women and blocking his proposals.

The guy can't answer a question.  The nuclear triad answer was great comedy......but it's really just a good example of what I see with the guy. 

This is what I hear over and over....

Reporter or commentator (or anyone) - "Mr Trump, can you explain how you will prevent Muslim terrorists from entering our country?"

Trump - "believe you me this is going to get done.  I am tough on this stuff.  They're not coming in here, believe it, watch and see".

That's stupidity.  I know it plays well with emotional people, but I'm not emotional.  If you have an idea you better be able to tell me how you plan to get it done.  I want answers and solutions, not sound bites that play to emotional people.  I don't like many of the policies of the current administration, but I'm not voting for some guy who is just playing to a bunch of pissed off people.......that just leads to more stupid crap.

Hah, that was a non issue in the debate.  Even the other candidates didn't try to seize upon it because I would guess all but maybe one or two of them knew what it was.  lol

That was just one example......he does it constantly.  I know who his audience is, and I get it, but it doesn't mean you can run a country just because you can get a bunch of pissed off people behind you.  I thought he was horrible last night......just not a serious candidate.

But don't worry, Tony.....if it comes down to Hillary or Trump.....you know.

I agree.  I read the transcript of the debate.  Trump spoke for over 13 minutes and said nothing.  At least, Cruz, Rubio, and Paul managed to engage in an actual debate of substance.

Exactly.  Hell, even Florino, or Evenflo, or whatever her name is, doesn't have a problem with giving an answer that states what her methods to get X done would be.  All you get from Trump is, "I'm on this, I'm tough on this.......believe me when I say I'm going to get the best minds on this....I'm Trump, this is what I do, it's why I'm leading the polls...and to hell with some Muslims".  LMAO

No matter who the president is, I feel that they're equally incompetent and running the various departments.  Trump isn't a lawyer so he's clueless or the Department of Justice, he's not a military general so he can't lead the defense department, etc.  So, the important part is who they put on their cabinets to actually lead the various departments and then more importantly hold them accountable.

There's no question that if somebody built a $4B hospital that should have cost $200M there will be a bloodbath of people getting fired in a Trump administration. With typical politicians they appoint their buddies and reward stupidity like that because it rewards their donors.

I agree completely, but Obama showed this type of political campaign works.  Even people that wouldn't normally support him can interpret what he's going to do themselves and still love him.  Versus nailing down a specific policy that will do X Y or Z and then you alienate the people who don't like X or Z.

I would like to have more specifics myself but it doesn't bother me that much.  The candidates that have put out their specifics kind of turn me off because I don't agree with their specifics.  (see paragraph above)  lol