Trump

A part of what turns some people off of Donald Trump are the same things that have led to his successes thus far. He has a lot of money but he's not accepting large-money contributions to his campaign and he is not so rich as to be able to outspend the entire apparatus of the Republican and Democrat parties, the big-money donors to both parties who fear an end to their control over the direction of the country, and all of the PACs that have been set up, not only in support of his opponents, but directly in opposition to him.

According to the Federal Election Commission, Ben Carson spent (57.5 million) more than any of the other Republican candidates. Cruz came next, spending 54.4 million. Bush spent 33.3 million, and Rubio spent 32.6 million. Next came Trump, at 25.2 million. Then there are all the others, such as Paul (12.0), Fiorina (11.7), Kasich (8.6), and Christie (7.9).

The Democrats outspent the Republicans by quite a bit, with Clinton spending 126.4 million, and Sanders 95.4 million.

Most of this money came from Trump himself, as he is self-financing his campaign.

You will remember that much of the advertising by the other candidates, from both parties, was anti-Trump advertising.

Then there are the PACs. There is, to the best of my knowledge, one pro-Trump PAC. The way that PACs are set up, the candidate is not supposed to have any control over them.

However, there are several anti-Trump PACs, most of them set up and largely funded by big-money Republican donors.

Plus, the media has been largely anti-Trump, often to the point of ridiculousness. Aside from the television and newspaper media, several talk radio shows, such as Mark Levin and Glenn Beck, have been devoted almost entirely to attacking Trump.

So Trump is running against the Republican and Democrat elite, the mainstream media, as well as his opponents in both parties and the PACs, and he's paying the bills himself.

Dollar for dollar, he wouldn't have a chance. The only thing that has kept him alive is that he knows how to play a hostile media.

In fact, I came across a breakdown on the amount of money spent on television coverage by the candidates, a couple of months ago, and Trump had spent considerably less than any of the others.

In order to get the media coverage that he couldn't afford to buy, he has had to be outrageous in some ways. By that, I don't mean to say that he has been saying things he doesn't believe, but that he has conducted his campaign in a vastly different way than we have seen before.

He capitalized on the anger that Republicans have for all of the people we have contributed to, voted for, and elected over the years, only to have them turn their backs on all of their promises.

He was able to do that, I think, because he shared in this anger. He supported Reagan, although he was a Democrat at the time that Reagan was elected. He later registered as a Republican, but unenrolled some time after George W. Bush was elected.

Now Bush was a very likable guy because he has that sort of personality, but he was not a conservative, and he didn't do any of the things he said he was going to do while he was campaigning.

The other thing that Trump has done is campaign as a genuine person, by not using a teleprompter or even prepared speeches. Because of this, he sometimes says the wrong things, he puts his foot in his mouth once in a while, and he doesn't come off as being slick.

Used to candidates who come in with speeches that have been written by professional speech writers, based on polling information, people might not consider Trump to seem presidential.

But we've been electing presidential people for quite a while now, and the results have been horrible.

For example, in Cruz's speech tonight, he very emphatically stated that on his first day in office, he would repeal every word of ObamaCare, and he would scrap the tax code and impose a flat tax.

He's not going to do anything of the sort. For one thing, if he's a strict constitutionalist, as he claims to be, he doesn't have the power to do any off that.

He doesn't plan to do any of that, and he probably won't even include that stuff in his general election campaign if he should somehow become the Republican nominee. Those are the kinds of lies that people are fed up with, yet there are many people who will always believe the next liar who comes along.

Probably, we'll be seeing a slightly less bombastic Trump over the next few weeks, and almost certainly we will see a less bombastic Trump in a general election. Still, he will likely be much different than we would see from a more traditional candidate.

A week or so ago, I posted a video of Trump testifying in front of a Senate or House committee several years back. If you watch that video, you would see a Trump who is very well spoken and professional.

The bombastic or outrageous Trump is the one that was necessary in order to separate him from the rest of the pack during his campaign.

Frequently, he has said or done things that would make me cringe. As a supporter, I would think, I wish he hadn't done that, or said that. However, the next few days always proves that it worked for him, so it seems that he knows what he is doing.

We all act differently in differing situations, and that doesn't mean that we're necessarily being phony in any of these situations.

I know that when I was meeting with the board of directors of a hospital that I wanted to get something from, as an EMS Director, I would act much different from the way that I would act if I were hanging around the station with my co-workers.

As a teacher, I acted differently than I did as a student.

I think we're seeing some of that with Trump. As president, I don't think we'd see him calling people liars. I think we'd see a more presidential Trump.

But I do believe he is being honest with us. Too often, he has stated positions that he knew weren't the ones that would be the most likely to garner votes. He doesn't seem to be looking for the politically correct answer to a question, but is rather giving us his opinion, or stating his position.

 

It looks to me like Trump is pretty much "driving the car" at this point. He just now singlehandedly shut down the next Republican debate !
The next debate was scheduled for Monday and was to be held in Salt Lake city; but it just so happens that Donald Trump is speaking at an important Pro-Israel conference (AIPAC) in Washington DC on next Monday.
There was only Kasich and Cruz left, and then Kasich decided that if Trump wasn't going to be there, he wasn't going either.
Ted Cruz couldn't very well have a one-person debate; and so Fox News (ha-ha, CrazyMegyn) had to cancel the whole affair.
It is entirely possible that we will not be having any more debates, at least until after the primary, especially if Fox News insists on bringing in Megyn Kelly each time.
I bet that they are not laughing now , since they will not be raking in all that money that the watching crowds always draw for the debate.
Maybe the news-media will decide that they should treat The Donald much better if they want him to cooperate with them ?