Is Trump the only one who can beat the Clinton War Room?
Trump represents a 200 pound middle finger pointed directly at Hillary Clinton and her attack dogs
Logically, Donald Trump should be the worst candidate against the Hillary machine.
He has a colorful history that would be an oppo-researcher’s dream. Like taking candy from a baby.
And his negatives are in the stratosphere. Gallup just released a survey showing that Trump’s negatives not only are high, they are of a historic nature:
At this point (two-week average through Jan. 27), 33% of Americans view Trump favorably and 60% unfavorably. It’s that 60% unfavorable figure that I can focus on here.
Hillary Clinton currently has a 52% unfavorable rating among all Americans, while Jeb Bush is at 45%, Chris Christie 38%, Ted Cruz 37%, Marco Rubio 33%, Bernie Sanders 31% and Ben Carson 30%. Trump’s 60% is clearly well above all of these. Putting his favorable and unfavorable ratings together yields a net favorable of -27 for Trump, far above the -10 for Clinton and for Bush, the next lowest among the major candidates….
Looking across all of these candidates’ unfavorable ratings outside of election years yields this conclusion: Only one of them, George W. Bush, ever had an unfavorable rating of 60% or higher. For Bush, his unpopularity crested in his final lame-duck year in office, with an unfavorable rating that hit 66% in April 2008.
In the RCP average Trump trails Hillary by 2.7% in a head-to-head match up, while Rubio is up 2.5% and Cruz is up 1.3%.
Yet, it seems that notwithstanding the Dem spin that they fear Rubio the most, the Clinton War Room is preparing for Trump, and is confounded.
Politico reports, How Clinton is plotting to go after Trump:
After months of laughing off Trump — and assuming his ascent would propel the Republican Party to a 1964-style wipeout — her campaign and its allies have begun to steer time and resources into framing lines of attack against the blustery billionaire, even if there’s still considerable confusion over how to attack 2016’s top-of-the-food-chain predator.
“There’s plenty of material out there,” said longtime Clinton confidant James Carville. “We just have to figure it all out.”
The attack will be led by David Brock’s various hideous operations, and the plan is to turn Trump into Mitt Romney through a “Bain” model — a heartless businessman who left shattered lives for his own greed, but not all Clinton warriors think it will work.
Not everyone agrees that Bain-style attacks will dent Trump: One former Obama campaign and White House adviser said that Romney was wounded by the attacks on his business practices because it contradicted his compassionate-conservative pitch to swing voters. “We nailed it because it nailed Mitt on his motivation: He wasn’t this nice guy he claimed to be,” the former staffer said. “Trump never claimed to be nice. … No, the way to attack him is on temperament — a guy like this just isn’t fit to be president.” ….
Trump has confused pundits, reporters, political professionals, his opponents, and not least Clinton and her army of operatives. “The truth is we are as puzzled by this as everybody else, and have no idea what the hell is going to happen with him,” the Clinton insider said. “[Democrats] knew what they were getting in 2008 with McCain; they knew early in 2012 they’d be getting Romney. You could plan for those guys. You can’t really plan for Trump yet because he’s so unpredictable.”
While Rubio and Cruz are the logical candidates to take on Hillary, they are more predictable and hence easier for the Clinton War Machine to deal with. Because he would fight just as dirty at they do:
But Trump’s rising appeal with white, working-class voters and his willingness to bring up the ugliest Clinton scandals of the 1990s have unnerved the former first family, according to people in their orbit.
A Clinton-Trump contest would feature two candidates with disapproval ratings traditionally deemed too high for national electoral success: Clinton’s disapprovals hover around the 50 percent range, while Trump’s have rocketed as high as 60 percent, an unprecedented number that should preclude the possibility of his winning a general election.
But attacking him is tougher than it seems, mainly because he is so comfortable throwing a sucker punch and the Clintons aren’t. And he’s already signaled that he would stop at nothing if he faces off against the former secretary of state and her husband….
When NBC’s Chuck Todd asked Trump how he would respond if the Clintons attacked him, he suggested he’d delve more deeply into their personal history.
“Well, I don’t want to say it’s a threat. But it is a threat,” he said on “Meet the Press.”
No matter what the RCP averages say at this early stage, Hillary will be tough to beat (assuming the email scandal doesn’t take her down). She, her hubby and cronies like John Podesta, James Carville and David Brock are as sleazy and nasty as they come. And they will have the full backing of the mainstream and left-wing media, regardless of who the Republican nominee is.
Trump represents a 200 pound middle finger pointed directly at Hillary Clinton and her attack dogs.
My head is telling me one thing on this, my gut is telling me something different.
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“Trump represents a 200 pound middle finger pointed directly at Hillary Clinton and her attack dogs.”
I think Trump represents a 200 pound middle finger pointed directly at EVERYONE in the establishment. And I begin to fear that we very well might have the presidential equivalent of Gov. Jesse “the Body” Ventura. God help us.
In his 2000 book, Trump resonated with praise for Jesse Ventura, ex-King of the Reform Party, having lost control of the Party to Pat Buchanan, who Trump excoriated in that same boo. Ventura was then in his first year as Governor of Minnesoooota. Ventura voted for Kerry, Nader, and is a social liberal. In my view, Ventura’s actions against the TSA are heroic. Ventura’s a mixed bag, but that’s the kind of thing more Great Americans should be. Unique and assertive! Unapologetic. A set of virtues Trump is not lacking in at all. Nor Mr. Cruz, ftm.
While Trump has many great American virtues, and Hillary is full of some of the worst American despicable behaviors: calumny, extortion, thuggery, grand bribery, Trump has two flaws that I find I can;t support him UNLESS he addresses them. One: his oft resort to mockery. Two: his disrespect for anyone, even widows and orphans, who get in his way. There’s a now empty parking lot outside his now rotting casino on the beachfront of AC to testify as to how he’ll treat a widow in the way of his grandiose developments. It used to be her home. Her house sat there, now torn away and paved over as well as the Romans destroyed and slated Carthage.
Legally offering an old lady hold-out more money than her property otherwise is worth, versus dead Americans and pay-for-play corruption are not moral equivalents.
That was a straw man so egregious as to be a lie, and you know it.
Professor Jacobson?
I would be very interested in hearing your views on something…
@AZEALIABANKS just announced hours ago she is endorsing Trump and now taking a “super interested” look at American Exceptionalism & the American Paradigm.
Way she tells it, America has to get wealthy again so she can demand slavery reparations.
Also, Professor, I firmly believe Marco Rubio will never win the primary race and the reason is very simple…
He is the establishment’s stand in for Jeb and enough people get that to reject him.
I perceive the national ideological pendulum was pushed so far to the left in the last 8 years the pendulum necessarily will swing hard right.
It will take years for its oscillations to dampen out.
This is not the year for moderates.
If Trump is destined to be the one… it beats having Hillary or Sanders for the next 4/8 years, is what I am hearing you say.
All of the recent, ~25 years or so, GOP candidates have been punching bags for the fury and malevolence of the Left. I have deep concerns about Donald “the Buck” Trump as do others, but at least he has shown he can and will hit back swiftly and with devastating effect.
GWB, McCain and Romeny didn’t attempt to fight the lying scum Democrats and lost a lot for the country. The current Republican controlled congress have surrender to the progressive fascists and are helping them destroy our country. We need someone who will fight this evil to the death if necessary. Trump very well could be that guy.
Gorsh…
Which Collectivist sack of shit will win…???
Please, just count me out of that “dichotomy”.
I have a MUCH better choice.
Cruz.
If Cruz were a viable choice I’d have signed up for Lawyers for Cruz instead of Lawyers for Trump. I wish he were, but he’s not.
I think Cruz is another self-promoting, grandstanding jerk who was an establishment bureaucrat for years until it suited his personal political needs to become an “outsider.” And now he calls on Iowans to “awaken the Body of Christ” by caucusing for him? No, thank you.
However, he is a conservative Republican, so I would vote for him if he gets the nomination. Trump is neither, and I would not – along with millions of other Republicans.
No one his stood up so consistently against the progressive fascist destruction of our country. He deals with them intelligently in a way that exposes their evil and foolish ways for the world to see. Watch the YouTube video to see how he handles code pinkers bent on the disruption of his speach/rally to see his amazing work. At times when the rest of the Senate has surrendered to our enemies he has stood alone against the tide of evil doing everything possible to keep his and the promises of the Republican Party. Furthermore he has the integrity to tell the truth such as when he rightly called McConnell a liar on the floor of the Senate. That took guts and integrity and that would make him a great president.
Professor: I will tell you the same thing I tell everyone else — trust your instincts. The “gut instinct” is a well-honed evolutionary tool that humans have relied on for survival. Therefore, initial inclinations are usually the correct ones.
McCain and Romney wimped out in choosing not to confront Obama. Trump is the only Republican candidate who can be trusted not to make that mistake against Clinton.
Trump will shred Hillary in the General election.
I don’t care how thick the little black election book the democrats have on Trump.
In this special time you need a special president and that person is Trump.
Trump2016
Trump is the only major candidate who loses to Hillary in a head to head. The reason for this is that he is the only one in the race with higher negatives than Hillary.
Will he do for the USA what he did for Trump Airlines, Trump Casino, Trump Magazine (3 times!), Trump Steak, Trump Vodka, etc.?
No thanks. Do some research – he’s not some business genius: most of his deals over the last 25 years either fell through, went bankrupt, or had to be sold to avoid bankruptcy. He mainly builds golf courses now, along with endorsements and reality TV.
If Trump had invested his inheritance in a mutual fund based on the S&P 500 instead of going on a 30+-year ego trip, he would be worth more than double what he is. Some genius!
Not only those facts, but he speaks on the level of a 4th grader. In a debate with either Hillary or Bernie, Trump will be reduced to a babbling fool on the national stage.
I am disgusted with the notion that after 8 years of an ill-bred, thin skinned, bombastic jerk, a national and international embarrassment posing as leader of the free world,Americans are poised to replace Obama with more of the same by electing Donald Trump.
I will write in my choice before voting for DJT who, in my estimation is little different from the unscrupulous HRC.
Clinton will have the most difficult time against Trump. She’s taken lots of money from him; he knows all her secrets; he doesn’t hide his former candidate power-broking or business manipulations; he isn’t pretending to be a “nice guy” (superficial “niceness” that is); he is self-funding his campaign and doesn’t have to such up to any donors or media.
She even went to his wedding! Which reason will she claim — that she was a personal friend and had no big problem with anything he did before, or that she was sucking up to him because he donated money to her? A loser choice either way. Many other examples.
Trump is in the position to bash both Clintons and Hillary’s “record” every which way from Sunday — and he will.
She’s not going to be the nominee. Probably Biden will.
Funny how you can’t find a liberal Democrat Trump never donated to, isn’t it?
Clinton was Senator from NY, Bill Clinton has his office in Manhatten, and Trump has to maneuver the bureaucracy of NYC in order to build anything there.
Trump never got hit hard by the Republicans.
He got hit, dishonestly, on his divorces by Megyn Kelly (which started the feud before the debate). Ivana Trump had to go out and quash the story. I’m not sure what Democrats can dig up here. In rhetoric world, the NY Post cover “best sex I ever had,” beats any divorce related claim they can throw at him.
He also got hit on Kelo, but joe average didn’t care.
A few press are investigating the litigation surrounding Trump’s management of his father’s estate. Evidently it dragged out for a while which caused a delay in family members receiving their inheritance. That story doesn’t matter unless somebody in Trump’s family is willing to go after him.
Trump’s been retweeting Twitter trolls from the 4 chan sewer. But, neither Hillary nor the media will go anywhere near that. They wisely don’t dare give those trolls a bigger voice.
Trump’s problem isn’t anything that Hillary does or will do. Trump’s problem is that he’ll need republican support and money to win the general election, but he cannot be seen as allied with the Republican Establishment.
Minor corrective: he doesn’t need Republican money or anyone else’s money to win the election. He’s also already proved that he can get way further than any of the other candidates while spending less.
“But attacking him is tougher than it seems, mainly because he is so comfortable throwing a sucker punch and the Clintons aren’t.”
– The world according to Glenn Thrush.
Thumper vs. Hillary would be a contest to see who’s the least shallow with most name recognition.
I prefer Cruz to Trump but either is a million times better than Hillarry and much better than Barney the Communist with the intellect of a 5 year old. You need to put thing in proportion and support your candidate in the primary and whoever wins the Republican nomination. The exception is if one of the RINOs wins the nomination somehow. They would be worse than Barney the communist.
From my close observations, Conrad, you hold the majority view.
Cruz or Trump, either one, is an order of magnitude better than the rest of the GOP Field and the DEM Field.
I think the only reason Sarah Palin openly endorsed Trump over Cruz was that she was privy to intel that Glenn Beck would announce his endorsement and stumping for Cruz.
That is to say, if she didn’t back Trump, it would disrupt the balance of power between them too soon.
Additionally, that they both need to rise to the top together to defeat the GOP Establishment.
Once that is assured, then… the battle against them both as the two top runners changes to only one or the other.
It is *exactly* *exactly* what I would do in her shoes.
Something which goes unsaid. There is a difference between Romney’s wealth and Trump’s wealth. Trump builds things. He actually produces things, casinos golf courses etc.
Trump is from Main Street not Wall Street. That insulates him somewhat from criticisms of his wealth.
Right. Another difference is that in 2012 Romney was being pushed and promoted by the Bush machine and GOP establishment.
Romney was also pushed by Ann Coulter, who is now pushing Trump (and still saying that Romney was “far and away the best candidate” in 2012).
By your own logic, it should be very wrong to support the candidate favored by someone who also favored Romney.
The establishment powers and media are not one person. By your reasoning, I should not support Cruz either, because so many of his supporters appear to have become rabid.
You missed the point, which is to call out one of the silly games that Trump fans often play.
Trump fans often try to declare some person’s opinions about Trump to be worthless because that person once supported an eeeevil “establishment” candidate. So when National Review published some thoughtful, fact-based criticism of Trump, the Trump fans jumped up and said “National Review endorsed Romney! ‘Nuf said!”
In other words: Anyone who ever endorsed Romney has to be totally wrong!
Ann Coulter still endorses Romney in retrospect. And she endorses Trump. Ann Coulter must be totally wrong about Trump.
Show, again, you are an idiot.
T-rump swam in the cess pool of New York City, Atlantic City, and the casino gambling “industry”.
He could not make a success of what are essentially money mints.
Romney…and people like him…are REAL entrepreneurs who SUPPORT REAL entrepreneurs in innovation, and in saving valuable businesses from collapse.
This claim of yours has as much credibility as the claim that it’s the Trump supporters here not the Cruz supporters who are foaming at the mouth with coarse language.
Rags,
You know it and I know it, but you and I also both know the low information voters never will get it. Just like they will never understand why illegal immigration and abuse of the visa programs suppress wages at all levels.
Romney created things also. He took companies that were near death and brought them back to life. Made them profitable and productive when they would have been shut down without him.
And the name of Romney is regularly used almost like a curse word by some Trump fans.
Wash your mouth with soap.
Romney was jammed down our throats.
Could you please just drop it?
Yesterday, I passed a TV with Trump on it. So I stopped for one minute to watch. He said he leads the polls in almost everything. He leads on immigration. He leads on foreign policy. He leads on the economy. There is one one topic he does not lead on. He comes in last place on that topic. Personality.
So. I read this, I’m listening to Rush talk about Trump and I realize something.
There was an adage about Nixon which seems to describe Trump well as well: he would rather be respected then liked.
ain’t gonna happen in your lifetime or the next.
OK. Maybe on X-Files where aliens alter brains to get people to vote against themselves.
Now, THERE’S a “false choice fallacy” rat thar…
He’s NEITHER respected of liked. He’s a flucking joke.
Maybe Trump should be Cruz’s VP, so Trump can be the attack dog.
Nya Ha Ha! Big Governmet DJ Tclump will do ANYTHING to win including selling you down the river:
“In an interview this morning on This Week, Donald Trump cited his desire to “help people” as the reason he favors government-funded universal health coverage. Unlike Ted Cruz, Trump said, “I have a heart.””
yeah, a black heart…
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/430549/trump-unlike-cruz-i-have-heart-ill-enact-universal-health-coverage?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Corner
G en what we have learned today about Hillary’s emails, my bet is that she won’t even be the nominee
Low info voters who are angry just seem to love Trump.
And brownshirts…
Trump or Hillary.
Call it.
People trying their best to sabotage Trumps run scream… Low information voters!
Ask Hillary about Low information voters.
I’m not disparaging low info voters in this case. Once upon a freshmen year in college, I was a low information voter too.
I doesn’t always mean you are lazy, sometimes you just don’t care about politics because you haven’t seen it impact you. “Hey wouldn’t it be cool to vote for the first female governor of Oregon!!!” To my credit I voted to lower Oregon’s property taxes that year… and a bunch of feel goody liberal clap trap at U of O went away.
1990 me would totally vote for Trump. 2016 me is totally backing Cruz.
What you call “sabotage” is more properly called “vetting the candidates.” It’s done in every presidential primary, but Trump fans for some reason believe that applying it to Trump is some kind of foul play.
The word “sabotage” suggests that you see this race as being all about Trump, so anything that doesn’t help him win the primary is “sabotage.”
This exemplifies, again, the tunnel vision of Trump-fandom. Pointing to Hillary’s LoFo voters is merely a diversion.
A lot of voters believe that a big middle finger is not the most important presidential attribute, or even a good one.
This morning I heard someone identifying herself as a Christian conservative voter since 1988 say that she and some of her Christian friends cannot vote for Trump.
Trump could extend both middle fingers to the Clinton war machine, but the ammo that’s easily available to use against him can still hurt. That ammo includes Trump’s warm praise for Hillary and her Democrat allies.
It wouldn’t be surprising, then, if many voters shrugged and said, “So what different at this point does it make?”
Hillary and her brother Donald are both from the dark side.
Trump: “Putin called me a genius. Says I am the strongest leader.”
*CROWD GOES BE….SERK*
Trump: “I’m not going to apologize when I’m called a genius by a 200 lb middle finger.”
Trump is leading because the voters have been betrayed by the RINOs who are helping the Obama achieve his goal of destroying our country. The voters want a president who will fight to the death to defeat the progressive fascists and drive a stake thru the heart of that evil movement
Trump has the ability to do what the voters want and he has the ability to defeat the progressive fascists. We watched in amazement how he has blown the bullshit produced by Hillary back into her face. A RINO wouldn’t have fought back against the faux charges of sexism by the one married to a molester and rapist and who help him avoid the consequences of his mistreatment of women.
You have presented NO reasons for confidence that Trump actually wants to “defeat the progressive fascists” any more than his rivals do. Considering his long history of actually favoring the “progressive fascists” and his very recent declaration of closeness to Schumer and chumminess with Reid and Pelosi, that’s a strange belief to hold.
Saying that “Trump has the ability to do what the voters want” leaves some questions unanswered:
1. Which voters? Are you aware that “the voters” want many different things?
2. How would he have more “ability” than any other candidate to do what you want (supposing that’s what he wants to do)? Do you expect him to issue orders outside the constitutional processes that the others would respect?
3. If your answer is that “he can’t be bought,” that’s pretty weak. He would still be weighing one group’s wishes over another’s, and he would still have favorites.
4. The notion that Trump is more purely and selflessly devoted to the good of the people or the country than anyone else is bizarre in view of his history of very aggressive self-promotion and self-enrichment.
In short: There is really no basis at all for the fantasy of Donald Trump as the Great White Knight who will nobly save us all from the scourge of politicians. And even comic-book superheroes usually have much better manners and character than Trump.
Tchump wants to keep America addicted to corn ethanol just like Hillary…
“Corn ethanol is worse for greenhouse gas emissions—and air quality—than conventional gasoline.”
http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/how-tom-vilsack-has-expanded-iowas-favorite-corporate-welfare-program-8471.html
Key question for Trump: “What made you change from being a big admirer of the Clintons to being their fiercest foe — aside from the fact that you decided you want to be president at the same time that Hillary is running?”
Key question for Radegunda:
Who Do You Support For President In This Election Cycle?
Oh for heaven’s sake. Please quit the creepystalker routine. You’re looking quite mad.
We can’t be sure that Trump is being honest about the policies he espouses. However, he has the ability to fight against the progressive fascists and win. The RINOs would surrender without a fight as McCain and Romney did. None of the other Republican candidates have shown anywhere near Trumps ability.
Mike Bloomberg won for Mayor NYC in just such an unsettled electoral environment. Odds are the King of Bermuda will do so again. While there are many fat ladies in our time, few are able to sing that Wagnerian immolation scene Brünnhilde’s soprano solo correctly.
If elected, Hillary will serve her time in Prison.
Her VP will be the beneficiary.
She will not live another 4 years. Period.
So, a vote for her… is a vote for whoever her VP is.