TRUMP'S EARLY CAMPAIGN IS AT A PIVOT POINT CATALYZED BY HIS PERSONAL COUNTER-ATTACK ON JOHN MC CAIN --- THIS FLAP IS A TEST OF TRUMP'S STAYING POWER
MOST REPORTS OF DONALD TRUMP'S INTERVIEW ON "THE O'REILLY FACTOR" HAD MR. TRUMP WALKING BACK HIS COMMENTS ABOUT JOHN MC CAIN --- INSTEAD I'LL SAY THAT TRUMP PRETTY MUCH STOOD HIS GROUND AND EXECUTED A BRILLIANT PIVOT ON WHAT, A VERY HOSTILE TO TRUMP, FOX CALLS ITS "MOST WATCHED" CABLE NEWS PROGRAM
IN A DOWN TO EARTH TAKE ON ALL THIS --- THE NEW YORK TIMES SAYS THAT EVEN TRUMP'S CRITICS NOTE THAT --- AS A RESULT OF TRUMP, VETERANS' ISSUES HAVE NOT HAD THIS MUCH ATTENTION IN YEARS
There has been a lot of parsing and analyzing what Donald Trump did or didn't say to Bill O'Reilly last night. Most of it is pure BS. I'll use the WSJ version as a typical one, because I don't like the phony headline the Fox folks put on their own skewed report of the O'Reilly show. [BTW, it doesn't matter much because Rupert Murdoch has put the word out, ala Wlliam Randolph Hearst, John Foster Kane and Gale Wynand (Hmmm! sounds familiar), to take down Trump whatever it takes.]
WALL STREET JOURNAL GIVES TRUMP-O'REILLY INTERVIEW TYPICAL TREATMENT
According to the Wall Street Journal's Rebecca Ballhaus, "Presidential candidate Donald Trump said he respects Sen. John McCain and insisted that he didn’t malign the Arizona Republican’s war record — but said that if there was a “misunderstanding” over his words, he would take them back.... 'I have respect for Sen. McCain. I used to like him a lot. I supported him. I raised a lot of money for his campaign against President Obama and certainly if there was a misunderstanding, I would totally take that back,' Mr. Trump told Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly on Monday night.... The latest remarks come after a tumultuous weekend for Mr. Trump, who has surged to the top of the splintered GOP presidential field but has alienated a good portion of the party, first with comments about immigrants a few weeks ago, and then the comments about Mr. McCain...." ( See "Trump Takes Step Toward Making Peace With GOP" by Rebecca Ballhaus, 7/20/15 - 11:30 PM EDT, The Wall Street Journal[http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2015/07/20/donald-trump-takes-step-toward-making-peace-with-gop/]).The WSJ article also pointed out that "... Mr. Trump’s comments Monday came following the release of a Washington Post/ABC News poll showing the real estate mogul with a double-digit lead over the rest of the GOP field nationally. The poll found Mr. Trump with 24% support among Republican primary voters, compared to 13% for Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and 12% for former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush...."
MAYBE, THE NY TIMES HAS STUMBLED ONTO SOMETHING ABOUT THE TRUMP PHENOMENON --- LOOK AT WHAT'S HAPPENED TO THE WHOLE VETERANS ISSUE IN THE LAST FEW DAYS
An interesting counterpoint to all of this Trump-McCain brouhaha appears in the NY Times coverage of the Trump-O'REilly-McCain segment on "The Factor" (See "Veterans’ Groups Take Their Shots at Donald Trump as He Backs Off a Bit on McCain" by Jeremy W. Peters, 7/20/15, NY Times/ Politics[http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/21/us/politics/veterans-groups-take-their-shots-at-trump-as-he-backs-off-a-bit-on-mccain.html?_r=0]).In spite of its very negative sounding title, this particular Times' article concluded with the following:
"... Even some of Mr. Trump’s allies said that they would not quibble with Mr. McCain’s record. 'Don’t get me wrong, I think John McCain is strong on veterans’ issues,' said Joel Arends, chairman of Veterans for a Strong America, which defended Mr. Trump over the weekend in a statement that his campaign issued in a news release.... 'The problem is not John McCain’s record. The problem is how do we run government and is government going to be responsive to men and women who’ve laid their lives on the line for this country,' Mr. Arends said, adding that he believed Mr. Trump had hit a nerve by identifying the inefficiencies and breakdowns in veterans’ services.... Some advocates said they were hoping that the glare of media attention that Mr. Trump has turned on them would be of benefit. 'I’ve gotten more media calls today than I probably have in the last 11 years,' Mr. Rieckhoff [head of a veterans group that criticized Trump] said. 'But this is a bigger conversation than whether or not Trump said something stupid.' ”
6 comments:
People are tired of mccain, bush and the new york times. Trump is different and the polls show him ahead of bush 2 to 1.
This is the "Lets Not Forget The Super delegates" edition. Meaning, if things stay the way they are now its an open convention. And then its:
"President Romney. The Time Is Now"
For 35 years McCain has been preaching vote for me Im a war hero. Now we see the other side of that story.
But even top Democrats like the current and former Secretaries Of State John Kerry and Hillary Clinton said that nobody should doubt that John McCain is a great American hero.
UPDATE: THE "IT LOOKS LIKE TRUMP'S STAR AIN'T FALLIN' VERY FAR" EDITION
CONTROVERSY CAUSES DIP FOR CANDIDATE TRUMP --- BUT, NEWSMAX REPORTS THAT MOST OF TRUMP'S SUPPORT IS STICKIN' WITH THEIR GUY
IPSOS TRACKING POLL SHOWS TRUMP STAYING NEAR THE TOP OF THE PILE -- ABOUT EVEN WITH BUSH
BREITBART NEWS CITES ANOTHER POLL --- REPORTS THAT TRUMP'S NUMBERS CONTINUE TO RISE AND HIS SUPPORTERS WERE NOT NEGATIVELY AFFECTED BY THE MC CAIN FLAP
According to a late Tuesday article in Newsmax, "... [i]n the five weeks since Donald Trump became a Republican presidential candidate, he has insulted Mexican immigrants, rival White House contenders and Arizona Senator John McCain, his party's 2008 presidential nominee.... That's just the way his staunchest supporters like it.... Pundits say the real estate mogul, 69, may have overplayed his hand this weekend when he said McCain was not a war hero despite enduring four years of torture in a Hanoi prison as a Navy fighter pilot during the Vietnam War.... The feud appears not to have bothered some voters who have made Trump a surprise front-runner among the 16 candidates vying for the Republican Party nomination in the November 2016 election.... Only two of 17 Trump supporters interviewed by Reuters said they would switch their support to another candidate. The rest said they were standing by him.... " (See "Trump Supporters Stand by Their Man in Presidential Race" 7/21/15, Newsmax/ Thomson-Reuters [http://www.newsmax.com/Headline/trump-supporters-stand-behind/2015/07/21/id/658278/]).
The Newsmax report indicated, "[A] Reuters/Ipsos tracking poll shows [Trump's] nearest rival, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, closing the gap among Republicans.... The tracking poll on Tuesday found Trump winning the support of 17 percent of Republicans, effectively tied for the lead with Bush at 18 percent. Trump led Bush by eight percentage points a week ago...."
Most of Donald Trumps supporters said that Trump's shoot-from-the-hip rhetoric is his most appealing quality; and that it is a refreshing contrast to what they see as an overly cautious speaking style by other politicians.
MEANWHILE BREITBART NEWS REPORTED ON A DIFFERENT POLL THAT SHOWED NO DROP IN TRUMP'S NUMBERS AS A RESULT OF TRUMP"S REMARKS ABOUT MC CAIN
The Breitbart story went like this: "In a poll conducted from July 17th to July 20th, support for GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump hasn’t taken a hit despite Trump’s comments about Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) on Saturday, July 18th, while attending the Family Leadership Summit in Iowa.... A recent Morning Consult poll reveals Trump leads all of the GOP contenders, with 22 percent of the vote. This places Trump seven percentage points ahead of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who held 15 percent of the vote. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker came in third place with 12 percent of the vote.... " (See "POLL: DONALD TRUMP STILL ON THE RISE, NO HIT FROM JOHN MCCAIN ATTACK" by Alex Swoyer, 7/21/15, Breitbat News [http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/07/21/poll-donald-trump-still-on-the-rise-no-hit-from-john-mccain-attack/]).
UPDATE: THE "TRUMP HANGS TOUGH IN POST-WEEKEND POLLING" EDITION
THE FOLKS AT PUBLIC POLICY POLLING HAVE SOME >>> REAL HAPPY TALK <<< FOR TRUMP AND HIS PEEPS
PPP FINDS TRUMP STILL WITH A CLEAR LEAD OVER THE REST OF THE GOP FIELD --- ALSO FINDS TRUMP SUFFERED SOME NEGATIVE IMPACT FROM THE JOHN MC CAIN COMMENTS
PPP's newest national poll shows, "... that Donald Trump is likely facing at least some fallout from his comments about John McCain over the weekend. Nevertheless we do find him narrowly leading the national field in our survey, which went into the field on Monday. Trump gets 19% to 17% for Scott Walker, 12% for Jeb Bush, 10% for Ben Carson and Marco Rubio, 8% for Mike Huckabee, 4% each for Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina, and Rand Paul, 3% each for Chris Christie and John Kasich, 1% for Bobby Jindal, Rick Perry, and Rick Santorum, and less than 1% each for Jim Gilmore, Lindsey Graham, and George Pataki...." (See "Trump Still Leads GOP Field But Descent May Be Beginning" 7/22/15, Public Policy Polling [http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2015/07/trump-still-leads-gop-field-but-descent-may-be-beginning.html]).
According to the folks at PPP, "... Trump's lead comes despite the fact that only 22% of Republicans agree with the comments he made about John McCain over the weekend compared to 50% who disagree. Despite his overall lead there are some signs that Trump's comments may have hurt him. For one thing his favorability rating is back down in the 40s, at 48/39. Although it's not a perfect comparison, our state polls in Virginia (58/32) and North Carolina (55/32) over the previous two weeks had found him with numbers in the mid to upper 50's. And although it's an even more imperfect comparison to compare numbers with other polling organizations, Trump's 2 point advantage is a lot less than the 11 point one had in an ABC/Washington Post poll conducted largely before Trump's comments about McCain...."
In addition the Public Policy Poll showed Trump doing well across the GOP electorate; here are the particulars: Trump leads among voters who describe themselves as 'very conservative' with 20% to 17% for Walker and 16% for Carson. Also Trump also has the advantage with moderates, getting 22% to 19% for Bush and 13% for Rubio.
Trump leads both among primary voters who say their biggest concern is having a candidate who is most conservative on the issues. -- On that score, Trump gets 20% to 16% for Walker, 12% for Huckabee, and 11% for Carson). And with primary voters who say their biggest concern is winning in the general election Trump gets 19% to 16% for Walker, 14% for Bush, 13% for Rubio, and 10% for Carson.
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