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Donald Trump Tag

Bill Kristol, Founder and Editor of that mainstay of the Republican Establishment, The Weekly Standard, has finally come to recognize Donald Trump's contribution to the Republican candidates as a group. Kristol is not a Trump supporter and has predicted his fall for months.  After Trump derided John McCain's heroism for merely being a POW for five-plus years, Kristol said, "he's dead to me."  In the same interview he opined, "I don't think he'll stay up in the polls, incidentally. Republican primary voters are pro-respect the military. And he showed disrespect for the military." In September, Kristol said on CNN, “I doubt I’d support Donald. I doubt I’d support the Democrat.” Instead, “I think I’d support getting someone good on the ballot as a third party candidate.”  In reporting Kristol's comments, Salon referred to him as a "notorious neocon" and a "neocon prince."

A new survey shows that Donald Trump has bipartisan appeal and that some Democratic voters would abandon Hillary to vote for him in a general election match-up. If you enjoy imagining nightmare scenarios for Democrats, you'll love this. James Warren of U.S. News and World Report has the story:
Trump Could Win It All So if Donald Trump proved the political universe wrong and won the Republican presidential nomination, he would be creamed by Hillary Clinton, correct? A new survey of likely voters might at least raise momentary dyspepsia for Democrats since it suggests why it wouldn't be a cakewalk. The survey by Washington-based Mercury Analytics is a combination online questionnaire and "dial-test" of Trump's first big campaign ad among 916 self-proclaimed "likely voters" (this video shows the ad and the dial test results). It took place primarily Wednesday and Thursday and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percent.

As we discussed last weekend, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders' is wooing supporters of Republican presidential contender, Donald Trump. Not uncommon in a general election, reaching across party lines to glad-hand during primary season should be bizarre. But in this particular election cycle, both Trump and Sanders' strongest support comes from two strikingly similar groups of disenchanted Americans. Back to last weekend's post exploring this phenomenon:
Sound impossible? Data suggests otherwise. Though Trump has successfully syphoned off some traditional Republican supporters, the majority of his support base is comprised of a very particular kind of Democrat.

Using Twitter, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto announced Friday that fugitive Drug Lord, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman was captured and in federal custody again.

In the wake of Donald Trump's call for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the U.S., the UK saw a huge response to a petition that calls for Trump to be banned from the UK.   While there is a petition against banning Trump, it has, so far, only 39,537 signatures. With 560,000 signatures on the petition for a ban, the UK parliament has tempered its initial stance and is now set to debate the Trump ban after all. The Guardian reports:
MPs are to debate calls for the US presidential candidate Donald Trump to be banned from the UK following his controversial comments about Muslims, after more than half a million people signed a petition.

Donald Trump has attracted a somewhat unorthodox foe -- Democratic presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders. Because the 2016 election cycle hasn't been bizarre enough, we now have a self-professed Democratic-socialist candidate actively attempting to woo supporters away from the Republican frontrunner during primary season.

Everyone knows Donald Trump is very active on Twitter but now it's official. Out of everyone running for president, Trump pretty much killed it on social media. Hadas Gold reported at Politico:
Trump dominated rivals on social media in 2015 In 2015, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump dominated his rivals on social media, causing news cycles to pivot on the click of a Tweet button — or even a Retweet button. That’s the consensus of nearly every social-media analytics firm and expert. What it may mean as the campaign unfolds into 2016 is less of a unanimous vote. One reason Trump seemed to run the board on social media: Unlike other candidates, whose feeds were carefully curated and run by staff, Trump tweeted, Facebooked and Instagrammed directly to followers, often seemingly off the top of his head.

I've been ill the past couple of day with a bad stomach flu, so I had a chance to vegitate in front of the TV. At least on Fox News in Scottsdale, where I am now, it's been nearly non-stop Jeb attack ads on Trump. Not technically Jeb, but the SuperPAC supporting Jeb: This ad epitomizes the inability of Jeb or his supporters to deal with Trump. The overwhelming image in my mind from the ad is of Trump mocking Jeb. See the featured image.

Donald Trump has a knack for finding the weakest spot in other candidates. Trump has eviscerated Jeb with the "low energy" line. It worked because it both fit Jeb's persona (if not reality) and also was something a lot of people were thinking but not saying. It was a weak spot for Jeb no one knew was coming. So too, Trump's zeroing in on Bill Clinton's serial abuse of women hits a weak spot for Hillary even more so than "low energy" hurt Jeb. Hillary is going all "War On Women" in her campaign. Yet her husband was the actual War on Women before Democrats reinvented the term. How do we know it's a sensitive spot for Hillary? Look at how the media is reacting. No one is saying Trump is wrong, but we get word games such as Clinton "allegedly" having an affair with Monica Lewinsky, a young intern under the control of the most powerful man in the United States:

One of the things that I find amusing about the Democrats' war on the Koch brothers is the fact that it seems to be based more in projection than in fact.  George Soros is notoriously behind and/or involved in a slew of progressive initiatives, websites, and assorted pot stirrings. It's usually a good idea to know what the opposition is thinking, so it's worth taking a look at the article he penned for The Guardian entitled "The terrorists and demagogues want us to be scared. We mustn't give in."   In it, Soros claims that terrorists have discovered that western, "open" societies have a key weakness that can be exploited:  a fear of death. Note how he singles out France's response to the Paris attacks as being particularly "irrational" (as we'll see, he's quite happy with America's president's non-response to terrorism.):
Open societies are always endangered. This is especially true of America and Europe today, as a result of the terrorist attacks in Paris and elsewhere, and the way that America and Europe, particularly France, have reacted to them.

The mainstream media is having a lot of fun reporting that Hillary is this year's Gallup "Most Admired Woman" for a "record 20th time." What they are leaving out, however, is that it appears that the long list of scandals and controversies that have plagued her since leaving her position as Secretary of State in early 2013 may be catching up with her (read LI's Hillary coverage here). When one looks more closely at the Gallup poll, it becomes clear that while still topping the list, Hillary has fallen quite sharply since December 2012. Take a look at the following:

Hillary Clinton is already playing the sexism card against Donald Trump but he responded quickly by implying that if she persists in that line of attack, he's going to start bringing up her husband's checkered past. And her treatment of the women. Robert Fowler reports at Opposing Views:
Donald Trump To Hillary Clinton: 'Be Careful' When Playing 'War On Women Card' Hitting back at Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton’s charge that he is a sexist, Donald Trump has responded with a vague threat, telling her to “be careful!” Trump sparked outrage during a Dec. 21 campaign rally when he mocked Clinton for using the restroom during the Dec. 19 Democratic debate, calling it “too disgusting.” The business mogul then used a slang term that many found to be a crude, derogatory slur against women, saying that President Barack Obama “schlonged” Clinton during the 2008 Democratic primary.

Presidential candidate Donald Trump once briefly owned the Miss Universe pageant, which he purchased after years of owning the Miss USA franchise and turning it around fiscally in his signature style. He sold it as he began seriously pursing the GOP nomination, and the subsequent contest turned out to be historic...for the controversies. In one of the most painful moments ever televised or shared via social media to an international audience, the host named the wrong contestant Miss Universe.