Jon said:

I'll try to answer this all at once, though Selma and you have both hit on some of it, i think I can answer it with one sentence

If the GOP wanted to "respect life" and lower abortion it is very, very easy to do as has been shown all over the world, teach real sex ed and provide free birth control, since they will never do this we can see that it has nothing to do with life and everything to do with controlling sex

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This is the single most stunning poll number on Donald Trump I have seen

It's hard to overstate how remarkable it is that the number of Republicans who could see themselves backing a Trump nomination rose 42 — FORTY TWO — percentage points in 10 months. It's all the more remarkable when you consider that Trump was already totally known by the GOP electorate last spring, meaning that his gains since that time are almost entirely the result of him changing peoples' minds. And it's something else entirely when you consider how Trump got here — a mixture of bravado and anger sprinkled with a dose of controversial statements and seeming gaffes that would have felled lesser candidate many times over.

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It's hard to overstate how remarkable it is that the number of Republicans who could see themselves backing a Trump nomination rose 42 — FORTY TWO — percentage points in 10 months. It's all the more remarkable when you consider that Trump was already totally known by the GOP electorate last spring, meaning that his gains since that time are almost entirely the result of him changing peoples' minds. And it's something else entirely when you consider how Trump got here — a mixture of bravado and anger sprinkled with a dose of controversial statements and seeming gaffes that would have felled lesser candidate many times over.

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Bazza said:

This is the single most stunning poll number on Donald Trump I have seen

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Tide1986 said:

What do you think of Christie? He seems to combine some of the Trump bravado with actual experience in government.

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selmaborntidefan said:

Should I remind everyone the electorate that picks the nominees is not the same that votes in the general election?

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Bazza said:

This is the single most stunning poll number on Donald Trump I have seen

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Bazza said:

I like Christie second best among the Republican candidates.

But I'm just so sick of all politicians.....to me they are all liars and fakes and will say or do anything to get what they want, including getting elected. They're also extremely self-serving.

Car salesmen>politicians.

And that's bad!

I understand not everyone sees it the way I do but the majority of these politicians were "mere" lawyers before they converted to politician. To say a successful businessman can't do the same --- I disagree.

But yeah, I've always liked Christie in large part because of his bravado.

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Christie has won twice statewide in a blue state that last voted for a Republican presidential candidate in 1988. He correctly says no rival for the Republican nomination has been elected in a state so inhospitable to Republicans. In New Jersey, 48 percent of registered voters are unaffiliated with either the Democratic (32 percent) or Republican (20 percent) parties. Christie won re-election with 60 percent of the vote, including 57 percent of women, 51 percent of Hispanics and 21 percent of African-Americans.

Christie might benefit from Donald Trump’s caroms in this year’s political pinball machine. As Jeremy Carl of the Hoover Institution argues in National Review, Republicans cannot win with Trump or without his supporters. Christie could be an alternative alpha persona, but without the ignorance. (Check Trump on the nuclear triad.)

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As chairman of the Republican Governors Association in 2014, Christie campaigned frenetically, dispersing more than $100 million as 17 Republican governors were re-elected and seven new ones were elected. So far, only four governors have endorsed candidates: Alabama’s Robert Bentley supports Kasich, Arkansas’s Asa Hutchinson supports Huckabee, Maryland’s Larry Hogan and Maine’s Paul LePage support Christie.

So, 24 Republican governors, many of them indebted to Christie and all of them disposed to admire executives, have political muscles to flex.

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BamainBoston said:

Trump had the best numbers among democratic voters of any Republican candidate. It's not even close. He'll win far more swing votes than someone like Cruz.

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If there is a consistent refrain among former Democrats (and there are lots in the South), it echoes Ronald Reagan: They didn’t leave the Democratic party; the Democratic party left them. That means many things, but it does not mean that they’re small government, constitutional conservatives. It means that while they may have been attitudinally “Tea Party,” they were never on board with the core substance of the movement.

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Indeed, as the New York Times noted, a significant portion of Trump’s support comes from “a certain kind of Democrat,” and he currently stands ready to pull up to 20 percent of Democratic support from Hillary Clinton.

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The GOP underestimated Trump in part because it overestimated the conservatism of its own southern, rural northern, and Midwestern base. It underestimated the extent to which many of its voters hadn’t so much embraced the corporate conservatism of the Chamber of Commerce or the constitutional conservatism of the Tea Party as much as they had rejected the extremism of the increasingly shrill and politically correct Left. And, yes, the size of this population calls into question the very process of building a national Republican electoral majority, but it also threatens Democrats who seem intent on drumming every blue-collar white male straight out of the party.

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Tide1986 said:

Howard Kurtz recently interviewed Christie and some of it was shown on Media Buzz this morning. I like how Christie responded to questions about flip flopping on abortion and gun control. Regarding abortion, he said he changed his mind about abortion when he saw a 12-week ultrasound of his own unborn child back in 1995. He also said his thoughts on gun control changed as he realized how ineffective New Jersey's laws are. I was impressed by his thoughts and how he presented himself in the interview. I like how he speaks plainly about matters.

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GrayTide said:

Baz, we both used the phrase "to be clear", guess we channeled our inner KrAzY.
:biggrin:

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“I’m tired of the chaos between Democrats and Republicans and want to give somebody a try who I think can make a difference,” said Wade of Trump.

The 51-year-old has already switched his affiliation from Democrat to Republican and even attended a Trump campaign event in Las Vegas. He has told his three older children to get involved in the elections, although he did not say whether he wanted them to vote for Trump.

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Many 'lost' voters say they have found their candidate in Trump

About one in 10 Americans who plan to cast a vote this election will do so for the first time in years, if ever, and Trump holds a decided edge with them, according to polling by Reuters/Ipsos. (tmsnrt.rs/1SgeLvi)

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PAGING A PIRANHA

Tucson, Arizona, resident Renay Cunningham, 56, said she had never paid much attention to politics in the past. She plans to cast her first ever vote for Trump after hearing his proposed policies to curb illegal immigration, which include building a giant wall on the southern border and making Mexico pay for it.
“We need a piranha in there, and he’s definitely a piranha,” she said.

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Ronald Thomas, a 49-year-old truck driver and Navy veteran in North Carolina, said he, too, has never voted in a presidential contest. His girlfriend would push him to vote but he would always say "Yeah, but the right one ain’t come along yet,’” Thomas said.

Trump is that man. His willingness to take on the government has set him apart as someone who would "actually look out for the people," said Thomas. Now he wants to know how to register so that he can vote for the billionaire.
And there’s Vince DiSylvester, a retired maintenance worker in Missouri, who, at 73, said has never cast a ballot for president. But Trump has inspired him to rethink that.
"He's a businessman, he knows business, he knows how to get things done," he said. "And he tells it like it is. If you don't like it - well, too bad."

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ValuJet said:

"Yeah but the right one ain't come along yet."

I've heard conservatives have stayed on the sidelines for the last few elections (perhaps as far as Bush 41) because no one represented their interest. I wonder how many like this gentleman make up this "silent majority" we've been hearing about for decades?

One thing my dad drilled into me was the right to vote and the fact that it's my civic duty to vote. With rare exception, I always have since my first election as an 18 year old.

So while I don't like the fact people get elected to important offices when only 10% shows up to vote, I do like the fact that the apathetic among us are getting energized/motivated to bring about a change that we always hear about.

Whether it's Trump or someone else.

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BamainBoston said:

Trump had the best numbers among democratic voters of any Republican candidate. It's not even close. He'll win far more swing votes than someone like Cruz.

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