Donald Trump

[Dougie Do'ins]

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.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-35388292

[Jairzinho]

Trump v Sanders.

 

Book it. 

[Josef Svejk]

Great article here:

 

https://theconversation.com/woody-guthrie-old-man-trump-and-a-real-estate-empires-racist-foundations-53026

 

[neko]

Sanders hasn't got a hope of becoming the Democrat candidate.

 

 

Trump v Sanders.

 

Book it. 

 

que ?

[Jairzinho]

que ?

 

I don't think it'll happen but I'd like it to.

 

GGG v Iain Duncan Smith. Book it.

[Tyler Durden]

I don't think it'll happen but I'd like it to.

 

GGG v Iain Duncan Smith. Book it.

I'd give my left arm to see that

[Dougie Do'ins]

Gone to war with Fox News now.

Fox News cuts down Trump over Megyn Kelly debate boycott

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-35422552

[SasaS]

Trump v Sanders.

 

Book it. 

 

And why not? The public is clearly tired of a polished politician, on all sides. Hopefully it's the end of all these political advisers and PR media trainers. Farage, Corbyn, why not Trump. and Sanders? If Hillary Clinton wasn't a woman, Sanders would already be crushing her in polls.

[Jairzinho]

I hope you're right, but I just think the machine is too powerful in the States. 

[magicrat]

For the life of me I cant understand why one of the other Republican nominees doesn't just come forward and call the cunt out for what he is.

They are all going to come up short anyway the way its going so what have they lose apart form their integrity in paying lip service to him

Fucks sake just call him out for being a racist cunt, the son of racist cunt with some very inappropriate ideas on how to behave toward his daughter . Jesus he looks like hes just walked out of freak show which alone should set a few alarm bells ringing

I absolutely hate the guy and it genuinely worries me that he could end up as the next POTUS .

[Dougie Do'ins]

I hope you're right, but I just think the machine is too powerful in the States. 

The money machine.

[Jairzinho]

The money machine.

 

Yes, that's what I meant, Clinton is Goldman Sachs' choice. It's why she'll become the next president.

[SasaS]

To succeed current president Romney?

[Jairzinho]

The last election didn't have a left wing candidate.

 

Do you really think Bernie Sanders is going to become the Democratic candidate?

[SasaS]

Realistically, no, the stage was obviously set for Hillary and Sanders is benefitting from a cleared field, to go from joke / token to a serious opponent. But at the same time, the world is changing.

It would really be interesting if both parties produced candidates completely unpalatable to moderate voters, what would happen. Would people disgusted with Trump vote for a much more left wing candidate than they normally would, or would people end up voting for that buffoon to avoid Sanders? Money and Goldman notwithstanding.

[Jairzinho]

I'd like to think there are enough non retards in America that they'd vote for Sanders, but I have my doubts. 

 

Presumably, even though Trump appears to not give a slightest fuck about the mainstream media they'd back him over Sanders anyway. 

[zigackly]

For the life of me I cant understand why one of the other Republican nominees doesn't just come forward and call the cunt out for what he is.

They are all going to come up short anyway the way its going so what have they lose apart form their integrity in paying lip service to him

Fucks sake just call him out for being a racist cunt, the son of racist cunt with some very inappropriate ideas on how to behave toward his daughter . Jesus he looks like hes just walked out of freak show which alone should set a few alarm bells ringing

I absolutely hate the guy and it genuinely worries me that he could end up as the next POTUS .

 

His racism and sexism plays very well to a large slice of the Republican vote, so while they may not go there along with him, they are certainly not going to alienate potential voters by calling him out on it.

[Lee909]

[Boss]

Trump's going to win.

[Section_31]

His racism and sexism plays very well to a large slice of the Republican vote, so while they may not go there along with him, they are certainly not going to alienate potential voters by calling him out on it.

 

To be honest, I don't reckon a lot of the people who buzz off him share his views to that degree. I think Trump and Farage have both benefited from a backlash of people being fed up of 'political correctness'. Debate and comment has been shut down for so long, some of it justifiably and some of it not, on things like sexism, racism, immigration, equal opportunities etc etc, that they've provided a voice for people who feel like they've been unable to voice opinions. The outcome has been that now there is no middle ground or moderate voice, there will be three or four people all playing their opinions safe, and one extremist saying the exact opposite of what they do. It's the same here as it is there. 

[zigackly]

To be honest, I don't reckon a lot of the people who buzz off him share his views to that degree. I think Trump and Farage have both benefited from a backlash of people being fed up of 'political correctness'. Debate and comment has been shut down for so long, some of it justifiably and some of it not, on things like sexism, racism, immigration, equal opportunities etc etc, that they've provided a voice for people who feel like they've been unable to voice opinions. The outcome has been that now there is no middle ground or moderate voice, there will be three or four people all playing their opinions safe, and one extremist saying the exact opposite of what they do. It's the same here as it is there. 

 

I think that is fair comment, but it's undeniable that there's a streak of it right through the cold, blackened heart of the GOP support.

[Boss]

He's going to walk the Republican candidacy. He's miles ahead in the polls and in the live debate the other day he overshadowed them all with his no show. It's either going to be Hilary or Sanders running against him. If it's Sanders he doesn't stand a chance. America is a conservative country, any left wing politician that talks about progressive gun control measures is dead in the water, instantly.

 

Hilary is the only hope, but the email thing could ruin her.

[zigackly]

Bloomberg will apparently run if it's between Trump and Sanders, which might or might not throw a spanner in the works. He would definitely get more of the moderate vote than either.

[Section_31]

He's going to walk the Republican candidacy. He's miles ahead in the polls and in the live debate the other day he overshadowed them all with his no show. It's either going to be Hilary or Sanders running against him. If it's Sanders he doesn't stand a chance. America is a conservative country, any left wing politician that talks about progressive gun control measures is dead in the water, instantly.

 

Hilary is the only hope, but the email thing could ruin her.

 

It's fascinating to see how divided the country has become though, did you ever imagine in your lifetime a presidential campaign could come down to the country's only self confessed socialist and someone who's being compared to Hitler by Ann Frank's sister? 

[Jairzinho]

Looking like it'll be Clinton v Trump which the former will win comfortably. If it is Sanders v Trump I agree with Boss, I think the US would vote for an insane fascist before a Social Democrat.

 

Which, obviously, is batshit crazy.

 

Sanders is fighting on a platform to the right of 1950s Republicans. Fucking mad how far the political spectrum has been successfully shifted.