First up, the winners and losers from last night’s debate, per The Hill as we head into Super Tuesday, in which Trump is named a winner
Trump’s performance on Thursday night would not have won him first place in a debating championship. But that hardly matters. The point of the exercise is to win elections — and, by that measure, the billionaire did all he needed to do.
This was a less volatile Trump than was seen at the GOP debate just before the Republican primary in South Carolina. Facing even fiercer attacks from Rubio and Cruz this time, he took some punches but was never put on the canvas, much less knocked out. (snip)
There were also signs of Trump turning his gaze toward a general election audience. He held fast to his view that Planned Parenthood does good work in some areas of women’s health; he asserted that he had the capacity to expand the GOP’s appeal; and he made a vigorous attack on the greed of health insurance companies.
Trump has swatted away all the attacks, just as he’s done almost all the time. The Hill also named Rubio a winner, mostly for his attacks on Trump while keeping a smile on his face.
Cruz, Carson, and Kasich were deemed losers. Cruz had an unmemorable night. Same with Kasich. Carson had a “meandering debate performance.” But, does it all matter?
(Politico) GOP political insiders have been slow to hop aboard the Donald Trump train. But after Trump’s victories in three of the four early-nominating states, Republicans now see him as the party’s most likely nominee in the general election.
That’s according to members of The POLITICO Caucus – a panel of operatives, strategists and activists in a number of states, including some new to the Caucus. (snip)
The vast majority of Republican insiders in the four new states, plus South Carolina, where Democrats will vote on Saturday to round out the month’s early primaries, pick Trump as the GOP’s most likely nominee. More than four-in-five Republicans surveyed this week said Trump has the best chance to win the nomination, with only Marco Rubio (17 percent) and John Kasich (2 percent) earning support from other respondents.
Of course, at the end of the day it is the voters who pick the candidate, but Trump seems to be on an arc to cross the finish line, especially if he does well on Super Tuesday.
“Momentum is incredible,†said a North Carolina Republican, who added that there would have to be “a black swan event somewhere to derail him.â€
I know plenty of Republicans who are big supporters of Trump. Many are rabid. Not as many are supporting the other contenders. No one seems to be supporting Kasich. I also know plenty of Independents as soft Democrats, some of whom are supporting Trump, some of whom are very concerned about Trump beating Hillary. Time will tell.
Crossed at Right Wing News.
Trump is the only one who says outloud that the Iraq war was a horrible mistake that destabilized the whole mideast
The Donald sounding more like a conservative.
If elected President he’ll declare war on the media that say bad things about him.
http://www.rawstory.com/2016/02/trump-cant-handle-media-criticism-so-now-hes-promising-to-disembowel-the-first-amendment/
The Donald sounding more like a leftist.
There. Fixed that for you.
Of course the idea that conservatives hate free speech is another lie you are trying to troll.
All one has to do is look at what happened last night and what is happening on campuses from leftists.
Not exactly. The President of the US using the full force of the Federal gov’t on a newspaper that criticizes him/her is different from college kids protesting.
Do you think Trump meant his comments?
Do you think the government should limit the kids’ protests?
Yes, exactly.
Let’s review what you wrote:
The key there is that you feel the comments were closer to that of a conservative. They are not.
Of course you missed the part where the college president of the college had tried to block the speech to begin with. This was a speech at a public college. His decision is as one from the government. Or did you miss that too?
Liberal college, liberal president of the college, and liberals all trying to shut down free speech.
And if you want to move into the realm of the federal government, remember this for Attorney General Loretta Lynch?
Leftists and Lynch tried to walk this back and failed miserably. The key point was and still remains that the speech to which Lynch was referring to is legal and protected by the First Amendment.
And if you want to talk about the power of the President, perhaps you may remember the direct assault on the First Amendment by Obama by using the IRS and the SEC to make rules on campaign contributions – rules that did not apply to unions.
You also may remember the Obama administration sending out questionnaires to media outlets on reporters, editors, how stories are chosen, etc. Media outlets that supported Obama all claimed the chilling effect on free speech the action had.
You also may remember this statement from Obama which certainly seems like a shot across the bow of the First Amendment:
And so if we’re going to change how John Boehner and Mitch McConnell think, we’re going to have to change how our body politic thinks, which means we’re going to have to change how the media reports on these issues and how people’s impressions of what it’s like to struggle in this economy looks like and how budgets connect to that.
Trump is wrong and his attack on free speech is wrong. But the attacks on free speech are characteristics of the left – not the right.
It is the left that is looking to shut down speech on campuses. It is the left that is looking to tell people who they can and cannot support.
Trump doesn’t like free speech any more than you do. How many times have you said and supported the idea that people that are opposed to the idea of AGW should be silenced?
Trump, Obama, Lynch, and colleges all have two things in common – they are all liberals and all hate the idea of free speech.