Rush hit on part of it, but not all of it.
Rush surmised that Trump thinks he's edging closer to getting rid of his rivals: and since South Carolina is an open primary, he's reaching out to disaffected Dems to get them to cross the aisle, just for this primary, so he can goose his results.
Rush wasn't sure whether it was for a knockout blow against the other candidates, by setting an air of inevitable momentum, *or* as a hedge against high Cruz numbers which are due to Cruz-related PAC ground efforts.
But *I* think there's another couple of things, which even Rush hasn't picked up on.
First -- note that the debate *was* right before South Carolina. But it also, and you'd have to be blind as a bat to not know this going in, had an audience packed with partisan GOP-e donors. Who booed all the usual suspects, and cheered for Bush and Rubio.
So, Trump decides to make the anti-Bush remarks, and the Planned Parenthood remarks, in front of an audience of packed partisans: that way, he can defuse the booing, and blame it on GOP-e plants: exactly the opposite of the astroturf groundswell *against* Trump, the GOP-e was trying to start.
But that leaves the question, why make those remarks at all?
I think the answer is, Trump is a master promoter. Not the "any publicity is good publicity"...but rather, he has a rare opportunity in *time*. Hillary and Sanders are going after each other instead of anyone from the GOP. Many of the other GOP candidates are fighting for second place. So Trump starts establishing the *memes* -- quotes right in the open, in broad daylight, that *he* has given to all kinds of politicians, and that he hated the Iraq War, and that Planned Parenthood does good things for women, not just he abortions.
What does that get him?
Battlespace preparation. The libs can't start their patented "wild-eyed redneck right-winger fanatic" and "war on women"...when *Medea Benjamin* has praised trump for trashing Bush. And by praising the "health care" part of Planned Parenthood -- he's taken the leftist propaganda literally, at face value: and this insulates him from "Bible-thumper fanatic" charges from the unthinking, low-information left. In the meantime, he can point to what he said about "not the abortions" and insist that Planned Parenthood tone them down.
He's thinking several moves ahead in terms of strategy, and positioning later on in the campaign: which most other candidates are not doing...
He *may* be lying: but most of the other GOP candidates are *definitely* lying. If the base, the dispirited conservatives who have watched the DC party and the elites cave over and over, feel their chances are "slim" (Trump) and none (anyone else), they'll choose slim.
But Trump is now setting out mindspace for the rest of the electorate.
By golly, that’s a pretty rational analysis.
Chances are though, it's a lot easier to explain: Trump got riled by the booing and let the mask slip.
VERY good analysis. Thank you.
| There's knowledge beneath them there grey whiskers :- ) Much appreciate the fine analysis: sounds very rational and wise. Distancing himself from the Bush administration right now is a double whammy. He diffuses the attacks that W will make in SC and -- as you said -- he prepares for the general. The Art of the Deal style cunning is written all over his moves at the last debate. And another thing we learned in from the debate is that Cruz is not the Championship Debater he advertises himself to be. People are now familiar with his smooth talking and tactics of accusing the moderators. Trump took Cruz down a couple pegs. Also the moderator Dickerson was masterful in calling Cruz out for misrepresenting the facts on Justice Kennedy. |
“He’s thinking several moves ahead in terms of strategy, and positioning later on in the campaign: which most other candidates are not doing...”
I have to agree with you here. Trump sees something I did not. The “conservative base” has a lot of soft underbelly that can be easily rented with cheap talk and repetitive sounds bites. If he can win the Republican nomination with 35-45 percent of the primary voters he will immediately move left to pick up some moderate vote, and grab some share of the New York City values crowd which probably understands Trump-the-entertainer better than any other voting block.
Trump is not as dumb as he sounds.
Excellent post
And you know . . . it really was not difficult to understand. Maybe the problem we have here amongst a few contributors of this thread other than their joy of expressing their hate is their lack of comprehension.
Exactly and well said!
The media is trying to tell us Trump is crazy but he's playing chess again. He's up by double digits pretty much everywhere and the media tells us he's 'stalled'. Nope, he is now taking steps towards the General election.
Trump is looking ahead. The other candidates really are still fighting for second place.
bkmk