[nikos1121]

I'm excited and ready to roll. I felt a rat in Iowa, and I was right. Iowa may reflect a certain niche of values and perhaps a cross section of rural America, but it does NOT come close to picking a person who can run this country.

Donald Trump was told not to campaign there, but he insisted and garnered 24% of the vote. He did that with big rallies where he asked the people to come to him, and they did.

His opponent won the support of a variety of evangelical ministers and speakers who loathed Trump's big plane, his colorful language, the anger in his belly and his New York values among other things.

Trump did well, all things considered. He gave a Reaganesque speech that was congratulatory and far from a concession.

My friends, one week from now the results will be much different.

[Blood of Tyrants]

What I want to know is why every Trump rally is breaking news.

[conservative98]

The Trump Train rolls on. Trump will be on with Imus today at 10 AM Eastern. Find a station and listen.

http://www.iheart.com/live/77-wabc-5349/

[1217Chic]

Trump needs to start going after that Clinton and back off with Cruz and Rubio. I can’t wait to hear what Rush is going to say....so how was that cake????

[driftdiver]

So Trumps back to the “Iowans are stupid” position?

Maybe Trump lost in Iowa because Trump supporters are so dang hateful and negative?

[navymom1]

Question: think I heard somewhere that New Hampshire was the true state with the best track record of picking the nominee. Has anyone heard the same?

[mouse1]

Sounds like a bunch of rats in Iowa. I read that Carson is mad because Cruz campaign was telling caucus goers he was dropping out. I like Cruz and could live with Trump or Cruz as the nominee. If that happened, that’s terrible. Also, appears the dems had their own operation chaos with Rubio. Rubio won in the larger counties. Suspicious?? I think so. And now the media will fall in step with the GOPe and prop him up. As you saw last night, the 3rd place winner’s speech received the most attention. God help us!!

[major-pelham]

Busy in NH today - some info for my Dinner with Trump FRiends. The event is in an indoor lacrosse/soccer arena, take a right at the end of my street and there in a few minutes. I am not going, Trump doesn’t need to sell me on anything. Picture giant indoor playing fields (summer is very short here).

I just dropped my youngest at hockey at St. A’s (St. Anselm College, you’ve all seen it dozens of times). 18 wheelers every where setting up for debates and events.

It’s 52 degrees in the town Trump is speaking, falling as its just getting dark here. No freezing temps to drop enthusiasm, however. Cleared the answering machine of 22 messages today, all but one from pollsters. I just can’t disconnect the landline, I don’t know why.

Moving here from Boston when I met my wife, a NH girl, this is my 9th NH Presidential primary. I’m Voting for Trump when I hit the post key absentee and heading to Palm Beach. It will be total chaos here for 7 more days, the state is so tiny u can see it everywhere you go every time you go out. It’s a bit overwhelming for such a small, rural place.

I can’t tell you all what is going to happen obviously, but it’s not going to be anything like last night. Look for Rubio to take some votes from Trump again like in the Iowa suburbs. OTH, Pat Buchanan was always powerful here. Go Trump ! Go USA ! Enjoy your dinners !

[Freedom56v2]

Thanks for the post—btw, I had not known that Trump was advised not to go to Iowa...Eh I gotta say that I am personally glad he did so I could see him ;)

Yes, Iowa was an interesting race...seems only time preachers get involved in the political process as they are totally quiet on all kinds of issues that have affected our country. Cruz will now move from televangelist mode to Reagan incarnate....predictable.

Also interesting how Fox News (or should I say Faux) constantly pushed Rubio all weekend. Even Rush and to a large extent Sean. Interesting in last hour, Sean seemed to imply that eithier Trump or Cruz would get the nomination, and the two camps need to reconcile and come together.....just interesting coming from a network that is pushing Rubio....

Trump speech was very Reaganesque—classy. I hope he stays off Twitter though because tho I did not see the posts, some said they were a little whiny. Hope Trump gets energy from the crowd tonight and can move forward and win!!

[MayflowerMadam]

Thank you again, Nikos!

[TornadoAlley3]

Ann Coulter and Scott Brown at rally.

[CottonBall]

“Iowa may reflect a certain niche of values and perhaps a cross section of rural America, but it does NOT come close to picking a person who can run this country.”

Iowa never has. I said last week that winning Iowa is the kiss of death to a nonemcumbent.

[monkapotamus]

C-SPAN streaming now - with sound/his real music:

http://www.c-span.org/video/?404064-1/donald-trump-campaign-rally-milford-new-hampshire&live

[djstex]

Thanks for the post! I missed it all last night because of a long work night. But ready to move forward and
Gooooo TRUMP!

[trisham]

"On June 16th, when we started this journey, there were 17 candidates.
I was told by everybody, 'Do not go to Iowa. You could never finish even in the
top ten.' And I said, 'But I have friends in Iowa. I know a lot of people in Iowa.
I think they'll really like me. Let's give it a shot.' They said, 'Don't do
it.' I said, 'I have to do it.' And, we finished second,
and I want to tell you something,

I'm just honored, I'm really honored."

Donald Trump
Iowa 2/1/16

click the pic
donate to the most conservative online site!

[calisurfer]

I’m excited and ready to roll. I felt a rat in Iowa, and I was right. Iowa may reflect a certain niche of values and perhaps a cross section of rural America, but it does NOT come close to picking a person who can run this country.
Donald Trump was told not to campaign there, but he insisted and garnered 24% of the vote. He did that with big rallies where he asked the people to come to him, and they did.
_____________________________
Agreed. But Trump thought he could win anywhere. Problem is he really dirtied himself up in the process...his unfavorables are sky high. I’m a Trump supporter, but he really needs to stay on message. A New Hampshire win would at the least, take the sting away.

[BAW]

I watched the whole rally, and I’m with Donald Trump because I believe he can bring business sense/practical sense/conservative sense to Washington DC. He can fix what is broken!

Go Donald!!

[PA Engineer]

Thanks for the thread.

[Mozilla]

Amen. Iowa was not tailor made for Trump. It was the big state Trump was down in polls for weeks. He doesn’t need to have won Iowa.

[In_Iowa_not_from]

Unfortunately Trump didn’t win last night, but I think he did really well all things considered. At the caucus location I voted at last night, they ran out of new voter registrations and ballots. Apparently the turnout was unprecedented.

Cruz won that particular precinct overwhelmingly, but not surprising. The town is so Christian fundie, they don’t even have a bar! The local fundie church had their congregation there and presumably voted as a block (as they had for Huckabee and Santorum in previous years).

Aside from the religious fundamentalists, most of the regular voters were seniors - in their 70s and 80s (or older). Most of the new voters and dem/independent voters appeared to be the younger crowd 20s-60s, decidedly blue collar, not the church lady types that dominate the local republican party. From listening to them, probably the majority were Trump voters.

I’ve lived here about 15 years, and can say that as a whole, Iowa is NOT representative of the greater US. Iowa’s economy wasn’t affected by the Bush/Obama/Globalist incompetence (or was it perfidy?) as the rest of the country was. Also remember that Iowa has among the lowest unemployment rates in the country (and a comparatively low crime rate). So, a lot of the angst that Trump has tapped into elsewhere in the country isn’t prevalent here.

That being said, if you examine the returns from a county, city, or precinct level, then you could better extrapolate Trump’s potential in the rest of the country...

Webster county is the location of Fort Dodge, a rust belt type town with a large ‘urban youth’ drug and violent crime problem. Trump eeked out a win there. Just north is Humboldt county, which acts as a commuter suburb of Fort Dodge (i.e. white middle class). Trump did very well there— bodes well for rust belt states in the USA.

Dickinson County and Clay are home to the Lakes Region and Spencer. Trump scraped by a win in Clay, and won outright in Dickinson (location of Lake Okoboji, and where a lot of rich folks have their vacation homes). Dickinson is upper middle class, fiscal conservative country, not so much so/con— there’s a strip club there, night clubs, and lots of alcohol serving establishments(not something you find in the surrounding bible belt counties)— bodes well for the liberal NE (NY, MA, VT, etc).

The very rural and economically depressed county of Fremont went for Trump— 42.7%! The area has a lot of good, hard working, common sense conservatives. Bible thumpers don’t have much sway in this area— lots of bars and one strip club. It has a southern, red-neck feel to it. Lots of pro-2nd amendment folks here. Lots of poverty but very low crime rate. Should bode well for Trump’s performance in the South, West, etc.

Towns/areas that went for Cruz were the ones with both (a) heavy evangelical presence and (b) strong local economy and/or very low unemployment rate. Since these two characteristics are NOT representative of most of the country, the bottom line is that Cruz is a shoe-in for President of Iowa. Of the USA? Not likely.

[nutmeg]

My husband and I drove up from CT to attend this rally... more curiosity than anything. It was fun... Ann Coulter and Trump didn't disappoint. Very surprised that Scott Brown endorsed Trump. I assumed he'd go with a RINO.

I was extremely disappointed that Howie's live radio broadcast wasn't piped outside and into the venue (Sean Hannity used to do this years ago before his Freedom Concerts in NJ). So we got to watch a very skinny Howie and other unrecognizable people do a silent show. Howie interviewed Ann Coulter... I stood behind them, but couldn't hear a word. :-(

Quick question: Whatever happened to Sandy? Haven't heard her in more than a month. Is it VB, Steve and Grace now? (I don't know what any of them look like, so don't know if I saw them on Tuesday.)