There are some polls that matter and some polls that don't. For instance, Donald Trump has somehow managed to sail to the top of Republican polls on a combination of market saturation, name recognition and clever strategy. You see, when you study your target demographics enough to understand how to get a momentary hike in interest - say, when you have a hit television show that needs a shot in the arm, or you're selling a dying casino to geriatric New Jersey residents - you do an excellent job executing those strategies in any arena, including politics.
Here is the hot, new theory as to why Donald Trump has been acting like such an ass lately:
Trump has no real roots in the Republican Party. He has been both a
registered Republican and a registered Democrat. He has made campaign
contributions to Republicans such as John McCain and George W. Bush and
to Democrats such as Hillary Clinton and Rahm Emanuel...So Trump, entertaining notions of running for the Republican nomination,
desperately needed an entrée to what he perceives as the heart and soul
of the party. And that entrée, Trump decided, was the scurrilous and
discredited "birther" attack against President Barack Obama...According to the hot, new theory, Trump does not really buy into the
nonsense of birtherism, and once he has established himself with
Republican regulars, he will abandon it, announcing that his
investigators could find no proof that Obama is not a natural-born
citizen of this country.
Now, if I were the RNC and the GOP, I'd be concerned that someone like Trump would be able to manipulate the less-inclined-to-research aspects of my base into massive number swings. If I were Obama, I'd be terrified that I'd met my celebrity match. After all, the most terrifying part of Obama's 2008 campaign for his own team revolved entirely around a McCain ad entitled "Celebrity," which pitted Obama's relevant experience against Paris Hilton's. It caused a - then momentary - drop in polls, unmatched in the rest of the campaign. The White House is picking Trump as its 2012 opponent.
It could do worse. It could do a lot better. Especially if their prize pig keeps treating reporters like they've stumbled onto his lawn on entirely the wrong day.
Guess he figures Texas is so far gone it doesn't much matter anymore. Although, technically speaking it didn't really matter much before to Obama's shot at 2012. Which makes it particularly weird that he'd bother giving an interview to a Texas local reporter. I mean, if he'd been totally amazeballs, I guess it would have paid off in a few votes more in Austin, but the probability of danger was high. He's got some terrible advisers.
Maybe it was just the space shuttles.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Tags: Barack Obama, Donald Trump
Basically, though, the Republican party doesn't have a candidate. Libs like Romney and Pawlenty can't get votes from the far right, Palin and the Tea Party can't get votes from the center, and, unless the country has gone completely nuts (and I have a feeling that it has), Trump can't get elected, but, as you note, knows how to use PR.
Also, as far as writing off Texas, the Democrats already have, and know that they have Illinois and California in the bag. The real battlegrounds are in places like Wisconsin and Indiana.
Nope. Not a one. They're a vacuum, and nature abhors a vacuum. Which I believe is what explains Trump.