Posted on 02/02/2016 8:57:16 AM PST by conservativejoy
Donald Trump does everything in a big way. Even losing. Not only did he lose to Ted Cruz in Iowa, but he came very close to a humiliating third place behind Marco Rubio. As recently as yesterday Donald Trump was saying he wanted to win in Iowa, and if he didn't, that it would all have been a big waste of time.
"Unless I win, I would consider this a big, fat, beautiful-and, by the way, a very expensive-waste of time," Trump said this weekend, speaking to supporters during a whirlwind tour of Iowa.
Well, I guess it was a big waste of time, then. But why exactly did Donald declare political bankruptcy in Iowa?
1) The Shamu-Seaworld effect. Trump had big crowds, the largest, at his rallies. What happened to all these people? Big crowds also used to go see Shamu the Killer Whale at SeaWorld. That didn't mean, however, that most people there wanted to see Shamu elected mayor of Orlando. They went there to be entertained. There was a recent estimate that only 8% of attendees at Trump rallies were planning to caucus for him.
2) Lazyness. Donald Trump was too lazy to campaign the traditional way, avoiding bus tours, small towns, and one on one meetings with voters. Instead he flew in on Trump Force One, spoke for an hour, and then flew home to his bed in New York. He felt he didn't have to follow the traditional rules of campaigning because he was Donald Trump. In a state where personal contact with the candidate is expected, Trump was wrong.
Not only was Trump lazy, but his supporters were lazy, perhaps taking a cue from their idol. On websites they would yell in all caps "TRUMP WILL WIN! TRUMP WILL WIN!" but they were so busy jamming down their caps lock key that many of them didn't even bother to vote. It was said that a record turnout would guarantee a Trump victory. There was a record turnout all right, but it was a record turnout for Ted Cruz.
3) A lack of ground game. Trump and his campaign manager, Corey "The Big Lebowski" Lewandowski never identified supporters. They never set up substantial phone banks. They never followed and tracked their followers. When reporters went to the field offices of all the campaigns, they were only excluded from the Trump offices, because there was nothing for them to see. Had Trump deigned to actually run a ground game, he might have won the caucuses. You have to wonder, if he is so lacking in political acumen to understand this, how lacking in political ability is he going be if he wins the White House?
4) Arrogance. Trump, so buoyed by the polls, wore his arrogance on his sleeve. He said Iowans were stupid if they didn't vote for them. He called Megyn Kelly a bimbo indirectly, and tried to be cute about it by saying "I would never call her a bimbo, but..." It wasn't cute at all, it was disgusting. He even said he could shoot people and not lose support. That's the language of a Kim Jong Un, not the President of the United States. And then Trump showed his disdain for the entire process by skipping the last debate. His arrogance was his undoing.
5) Attacking conservatives. Trump turned off a lot of conservatives (including Mark Levin, Rush, the National Review, and others) by attacking Ted Cruz from the left (for not supporting ethanol) and in vicious, personal terms, calling Ted Cruz a "Canadian anchor baby". There is a way to campaign against Ted Cruz but calling him a "maniac" for standing up to Mitch McConnell is not that way. Once it became clear that Trump was attacking Cruz from the left, he lost a lot of conservative support.
So who, then, are actual Trump supporters? They are a much smaller number of people than originally thought. Like Ron Paul supporters from 2012, they dominate chatrooms and online polls, but like vampires can't be seen in the light of day. They are followers of the cult of personality and turn on a dime as Trump commands: if one day Trump says he wants Megyn Kelly out of the debate, they agree; if the next he says he never demanded it, they engage in immediate 1984 groupthink, and say it never happened, just like Trump's liberal political past never happened or never mattered because he was liberal as a crony capitalist "businessman". Unfortunately, his followers, while devoted, are not large enough in numbers to get him elected President.
The fact that Donald Trump doesn't understand any of his missteps or the effect of his slash and burn rhetoric reflects a political autism that makes him unqualified to be president or even the GOP presidential nominee. (Abridged version originally published in American Thinker)
You live by the sword you die by the sword. Sometimes you win by the sword.
We will see.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3391853/posts
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/694560681090248704
Wow! All these dishonest headlines and stories.
Trump said it would be a waste of time if he didn’t win the genera, not Iowa.
I think Trumps persona is now carved in stone....even if he wants to soften, he cant
He will have to be Trump and live with the result (which I don’t think is a good thing)
Maybe he realized that Iowa isn't nearly as important as everybody makes it out to be.
All Iowa does it make people drop out.
Trump isn't a dumb or LAZY guy. If he didn't get on a bus and go to every small town in Iowa, there's a reason.
Funny thing is they can’t stand Cruz. <<
of course not!...He’s the only candidate to expose the soft underbelly of both parties......”THE CARTEL”
Trump's time is coming up in the next few primaries.
I agree, Beowulf9. I started off supporting Cruz, but will be totally gobsmacked if he gets much farther than Iowa.
He is hated by the establishment, not liked by his fellow senators, and may not be qualified because of his Canadian birth. So, I expect the long knives to come out from both sides of the aisle.
This certainly is an interesting election season! Rubio isn’t winning me over, and that leaves only Trump who has a chance to beat the Democrats. Time will tell.
I think Trump will win NH and SC and then go on to win big when the winner take all primaries start. Cruz can stay in the running with this Iowa win, could still take Texas, and has given himself, worst case, a better case for VP if Trump wins. It remains possible for him to catch fire and overtake Trump, but I don't see it happening outside of the unique situation in Iowa.
The main thing is to make sure that the establishment can't sneak Rubio in through the back door. Linda Graham might like that, but it would be disastrous for the rest of us.
Those are the most regularly shaped counties of a state that I have ever seen.
Yeh if that’s the worst he tweeted I’m not worried about it. He’s not blaming the voters so if he hits the media OK by me. He always does that. :-)
BTW Trump needs to forget Ted Cruz and start taking Rubio on. The GOPe and Fox News is going to be pimping Rubio night and day. My worst nightmare is Rubio as the nominee.
Also, NYers are notoriously left wing, as well as NJ and California. They might pick Trump because of his success in NY and loyalty, NJ often swings w/NY and California, who knows but Trump has got some of the latino vote.
In cherry picking a candidate who is very much got all the qualifications for a conservative the country will likely reject him as too far to the right.
Not elected means Hillary or Bernie. No thank you.
I don’t like Rubio at all but still, he’s better than those two and I think Fox has got it out for Trump and in for Rubio.
Conveniently forget Trump ran for POTUS in 2000?
For all that he did ‘wrong’ he didn’t lose yuge. Him and Cruz are still in front and let’s hope that they stay there ahead of Marco Amnesty Rubio.
mark for later
Everyone including Trump knew he had to run the tables because he has no chance at schlonging the convention delegates with his pouty dirty tactics.
Regardless of how NH turns out, NH is about as representative of America as is Newfoundland.
Trump will be folding up the circus halker tent real soon.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump
Well, he kind of disses voters on the first tweet here. He’s kind of grousing. Not helpful IMO.
Trump, no ground game and no advertising, yet he comes in Second in a State using a Caucus System that requires the participants to leave their Homes at a specified time to a Caucus location and argue for their Candidate.
Doesn’t sound too bad to me, especially since Trump is a first timer in the vicious game of Politics.
Just my $.02, your Mileage may vary.
Required Disclaimer: I’m a Cruz guy first, with Trump as my second choice. None of the others are a blip on the radar.
I think trump is hard to bet against. Seems to pick up independents, undecided, dems fleeing sinking ship. If trump trumps, I like Cruz in the senate playing the role of conscience
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