Trump is taking a page from Ronald Reagan's campaign, by skipping the debate in Iowa: FLASHBACK: Ronald Reagan Skipped Last Debate Before IA Caucus – Went on to Win in Landslide http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/fla...before-ia-caucus-went-on-to-win-in-landslide/
Fox has been worse to Trump than any of the other networks. The neocons at Fox don't want anyone who won't follow the agenda. As for Ronald Reagan's win, it is true that he lost Iowa, but it's also true that Iowa doesn't matter that much, especially since we learned in 2012 that the delegates from caucus states can simply be replaced at the national convention.
Just watched the News and Chuck Todd of NBC (White House Correspondent) says Trump's decision to back out of the debate could prove to be a very shrewd move. He said the only thing people tend to remember about a debate is when someone does very poorly. By not being in it, he risks nothing. Trump says "Fox will try their best to make me look bad so why would I do that". Someone said he was a coward but, he's really being quite smart. Good for him for standing against that highly unfair practice. And besides, it put him in the headlines again…he knows exactly what he's doing. Well played
As it turns out, Fox had invited a Muslim activist who has been comparing Trump to Hitler to ask a question during the debate, and I think we can assume that she wasn't going to be asking Cruz about his wife's membership in the Council on Foreign Relations, or Jeb Bush about his economic plans. Likely, they were planning to follow up the National Review hit piece on Trump with an all-out attack on Trump just before the Iowa caucus.
That should be punishable by law. Maybe if Trump is President he'll make all that unfair media garbage illegal. They have way too much power. Trump is starting to grow on me again. Have you ever thought of what 4 years with Trump and the Media would be like? Would the media support their Commander-in-Chief or would they continue to make him out to be a clown like they do now?
My sentiments also. If you don't mind I'd like to share this well penned article on other online sites…not that I spend any time in the 2 places I have in mind but getting the word out is crucial…because some people just don't get it. And it amazes me that people prefer Hillary's "experience". Hitler had experience. Look at all the democrats that voted for Obama. Obama had 0 experience except a short calculated stint as a senator, similar to his calculated conversion from Muslim to Christianity just before campaigning. Btw, just an aside, I read Obama's (first) church's doctrine* where he attended and it was all about blacks…no mention of Christ. But that's between him and God. I digress. Topic is Trump. *(pastor was Jeremiah Wright of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago who has since left) Edit: I found the Doctrine and there were 11 statements made for Obama's (first) church doctrine and the first one says "commitment to God"….the other 10 are regarding blacks. Christ is never mentioned. Obama's (first) Church's doctrine link: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2089147/posts List of Obama's Muslim roots: http://www.conservapedia.com/Obama's_Religion
As anyone could see from the debate it was setup as a head hunting for Donald Trump even though he was not there. You could see it was a setup and he seen it to. As they were name calling he was trying to raise money for the vets. Good for Mr. Trump at least there is one delicate who is interested in helping Americans.
I don't have the link handy and don't feel like searching for it, but Time.com actually posted an article deriding Trump for his inexperience in politics, saying that he never even thought to let people know where they could caucus or to promote his campaign during last night's event. The fact that he spent the night raising money for a veteran's group without using his time stumping for his campaign was interpreted as inexperience by Time.com. He said it wasn't going to be a political event.
If "Time" truthfully thought about it, the event was sooo much NOT a political event that Huckabee and Santorum volunteered their appearance because it was reported to be an event to raise money for Veterans causes. Granted, it didn't hurt the pair politically to be seen there since the media has been touting their appearance all day long. And no, it certainly didn't hurt Trump either for indeed, the media has his name, good or bad, out there in full force and much more than all of the other candidates combined. The long and short of it is though, I doubt seriously if the Iowa caucus goers will have any difficulty finding out where they need to be without Trump drawing a map to show them. I'm doubly sure, that the folks from IOWA know where to go even better than Trump, from New York, does.
Short of a perp walk, pretty much any event featuring a candidate is going to be political in the sense that it gets them the attention that they need, and his leaving overt politics out of it did him even more good, and I'm sure that isn't lost on him. Skipping last night's debate was a brilliant move on his part in many ways. For one, it was clear that the folks at Fox intended to follow up the National Review hit issue with an all-out attack on Trump so, although he may have been able to handle himself well, he had everything to lose by showing up and nothing to gain. His need for exposure was far less than anyone else's, and he got the exposure anyhow. While only Fox News carried the candidate debate, most of the other networks, including C-Span, carried all or part of Trump's event.
I watched CNN interview Trump in his airplane and Trump said he wasn't trying to grab attention and it wasn't a political move. He said he just didn't want to attend the debate because of how he was treated by FOX and so he thought "Well, I'm here in Iowa, I don't want to just sit around doing nothing, so since the Veterans need help, I might as well raise funds for them, so in 12 hours we pulled it together". Trump went on to talk about who the speakers were going to be but the interviewer couldn't wait to divert the conversation to…abortion. What? This is no time for a discussion on abortion. So Trump says, "Look I'm Pro-Life" and then he changed the subject. Really, what more is there to say? But the interviewer wouldn't let go and the CNN criticized Trump for "dodging the important issues". Um, no, the important issue at the moment was the Veterans. Trump gets it. CNN is only focused on smearing. Trump is focused on helping America…and doing it. I like how he handled it. Meanwhile, I was trying to watch the debate but they kept interrupting the debate to cover Trump. I never could find a channel that covered just the debate.
I didn't watch the debate but saw a lot of it on news channels. The moderators were asking stupid questions trying to cause a stir in the undercard. I was really impressed with Carly Fiorina. She told them off. With Trump not there to pick on they really blasted Cruz and Rubio. It seems to me Fox moderators are trying to help the democrats. I am losing respect for Fox News. I don't think we'll find "fair and balanced" news anywhere.
I'm very disappointed in Fox also, Sheldon. I didn't watch the debate either...watched the Veterans event Trump hosted, and from what I read about the debate, the moderators at Fox were playing 'Gotcha" using video's showing the candidates saying different things at different times. I don't remember seeing any debates with the moderators playing video's trying to show the candidates in a bad way. I thought debates were for the voter's to find out how the candidates would work for us, to make out country better, not laying in wait to shoot the candidates down. Trump was smart to miss the carnage.
Once the field is whittled down to a couple of people, or perhaps in the general election, I'd like to see a true debate. One candidate, chosen at random, makes a half hour introductory statement. The other candidate gets one hour to make his case. The first candidate gets a half hour to rebut. That's the method that was used in the Lincoln-Douglas debate and I'd like to see that used. I am tired of the gotcha antics of the media. This might be made tolerable if it wasn't for the fact that they play favorites, allowing preferred candidates to speak on the issues they are strong with, while peppering candidates they dislike with gotcha questions or simply never allowing them to speak on the issues that they want to speak on.