Posted on 01/26/2016 5:34:47 PM PST by Red Steel
Gov. Terry Branstad (R-Iowa) said in an interview released Tuesday that Donald Trump is changing the way presidential candidates seek the White House.
"We've never had anybody with quite the character of Donald Trump," he said on USA Today's "Capital Download."
"He has certainly rewritten the rulebook," Branstad told host Susan Page. "He has tremendous media presence. I think it’s a tribute to the interest people have in restoring America's greatness. They are very unhappy with the way things are going in Washington, D.C."
Branstad argued that the surge of Iowans supporting Trump recalls the rise of then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill) in his state in 2008.
"The turnout [Trump] gets at his events are beyond anything we’ve ever seen before, I guess, except for Barack Obama eight years ago on the Democratic side," he said.
"[Trump is] tapping into a lot of concern and a lot of people who feel the establishment has failed the country and we need new leadership," Branstad continued about the GOP presidential front-runner.
"I think the bigger turnout the better it is for him," he added of Trump's chances in Monday's Iowa caucuses. "I think it's going to exceed any turnout we've had before."
Branstad added that everyday Americans are not surprised by Trump's bombastic rhetoric given the billionaire's entertainment background.
"It's hard to be shocked by anything he says," he said, addressing Trump's recent remarks that he could shoot a random bystander and not lose voter support.
"People are so sick and tired of political correctness that they kind of accept Donald Trump as somebody who tells it like it is. They know there's a certain amount of hyperbole in everything he says."
Trump is locked in a fierce battle with Ted Cruz heading toward Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucuses on Feb. 1.
About 6 points separates the two rivals there, with Trump edging past Cruz in the latest RealClearPolitics average of polls.
Took the rule book, burned it, and shot the ashes.
No rules ....
5 days and a wake up and say goodbye to the Cruz campaign.
And everyone else is the status quo.
Politicians and their owners are pulling out every stop they can to derail him.
And like battered spouses who have finally decided to leave, no matter what the old abuser says is going to matter.
We’re done with the old ways that screwed us over for so long. It wouldn’t even have to be Trump, but he is in the right place at the right time.
It’s a peaceful revolution, and the politicians don’t get it.
I have been watching politics closely for almost 50 yrs and I have never seen anything like the Trump Tsunami. This is the only chance of changing the downward course of American history and Western Civilization because Trump is the only man who can mobilize the forces necessary to stand up against the Barbarian hordes from the Middle East and south of the border. Not to mention the Terror gangs in the cities currently recruited by the Democrats.
It will take a bitter fight and Trump, whatever his other failings may be, is a fighter.
As if they will come by the bus load from other states to vote.
Cruz wins IOWA, you can take that to the bank!
the Ethanol big govt crowd gives its opinion
It is a peaceful revolution, and the politicians don’t get it.
I was 72 last week and I have not seen anything like this, either. So, vote Trump.
Hilliarily will bus in losers for her from Chicago!
Unless his opponent is a little blonde newscaster.
Trump has been demonstrating that the media are nothing but whores. Why should fox and Megyn be exempt?
Amazing that people anywhere, even Iowa, ever supported a black Muslim criminal for president. All one had to do was look at BOs background to know this deeply disturbed little man belonged in a 6 by 6 cell.
Nice. Well stated.
Go Trump
Possible snowstorm hitting caucus night here in Iowa. Will have to see how that develops
That’s good news for Trump. We already know his supporters have braved the cold weather for hours.
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