Is this guy serious?

Could Republican
frontrunner Trump actually win?
Hes brash, outspoken and provocative and hes the leading GOP
candidate in polls. Experts doubt he can go the distance but he has
already changed the race

Donald Trump: At some point voters are going to say, is this a man whose finger I want on the button?
Photograph: Charles Rex Arbogast/AP

Tom McCarthy in New York-Sunday 19 July 2015

For two serene months after Donald Trump announced in March that he was
forming a presidential exploratory committee, he failed to register in
national political polls. People basically thought he was kidding.
Then something funny happened. Trump, the developer and reality TV star,
began hiring staffers in early voting states. He travelled to political rallies.
He held a campaign launch event. And his poll numbers began to climb.
Now Trump has climbed all the way to the top. In three of the last

four major national political surveys, Trump is the leader in the race for the
2016 Republican presidential nomination. A Fox News survey this week had
Trump ahead of the Wisconsin governor, Scott Walker, 18-15, with Jeb Bush
third. Thousands of enthusiastic citizens have been flocking to Trump
rallies, from Arizona to New Hampshire.
The effect of Trumps controversial weekend attack on 2008 presidential
candidate John McCain, over his time in captivity in Vietnam, remains to be
seen.
Speaking at a conservative event in Iowa Trump, who has been in a war of
words with the 2008 Republican nominee, jibed: Hes not a war hero. Hes
a war hero because he was captured? I like people who werent captured.
Response from Trumps 2016 rivals was swift and damning, with former
Texas governor Rick Perry leading calls for him to step down from the race.
On Sunday morning Trump showed no inclination to do so, answering a
question about whether he would apologise from ABC host Martha Raddatz:
No, not at all the press are covering me very, very unfairly.
Trump went on to redouble his attack on McCains work for veterans groups,
although he did not repeat his questioning of the senators status as a hero.

Object 1

Should Trump ride out the storm and he has flourished in the squalls he
has stirred up so far the question will have to be asked. Has American

politics collapsed? Has the Republican party lost its collective mind? Is the
Trump surge for real?
Veteran observers of US politics counsel calm, predicting that Trump will
dazzle for a bit and then fade. With 16 months to go until election day and
many voters doing everything they can to avoid political news, its too
early, analysts say, for polling numbers to mean much. In the turbulent
2012 Republican nominating race, they point out, the so-called lead was
passed among at least four non-competitive candidates before settling on
eventual victor Mitt Romney.
Rick Wilson, a veteran Republican political consultant, said Trump was
experiencing a celebrity political bubble.
This is a guy who obviously, on every axis, is not a serious candidate, but
who has touched a combination of factors hes got a lot of built-in name
ID and celebrity from being on television for 20-plus years, and being a
known public quantity for 20-plus years, Wilson told the Guardian. Hes
struck a few chords with the immigration stuff, and hes managed to
capture the most valuable asset in a campaign, which is the attention of the
press.
He is an entertainer. He is a showman. He is a clown in a fancy hat,
strutting the stage for a few minutes, and then the serious actors will come
on the stage in a little while.
While Trump may not have a chance of winning the Republican nomination,
however, party leaders have warned that he could disrupt the Republican
selection process. The potential problem, for the GOP, is that Trump has
gained in the polls by saying divisive things, particularly on the topic of
immigration.
[Mexico] are sending people that have lots of problems, and they are
bringing those problems to us, Trump said at his launch event. Theyre
bringing drugs. Theyre bringing crime. Theyre rapists Theyre sending
us the worst people.

The rhetorical bomb-throwing has activated a hard-right faction in the party

who are excited to hear their anti-immigration views broadcast and who
would embrace an intra-Republican war over immigration and other issues.
That war could threaten the GOP bid to make inroads with Hispanic and
Latino voters, and with other centrist voters. And such a failure could make
the road to the White House an uphill climb.
In an apparent attempt at damage control, the Republican national
committee chairman, Reince Priebus, called Trump last week to tell the
candidate to tone it down, NBC News reported. Trump denied the report
on Twitter.
Totally false reporting on my call with @Reince Priebus, Trump wrote. He
called me, 10 minutes, said I hit a nerve, doing well, end!
But other Republican leaders and candidates are joining the call for Trump
to zip it. McCain, who faces re-election next year, told the New Yorker this
week that a large rally Trump held in Phoenix, in which the candidate
appeared onstage with the father of a man who was killed by an
undocumented migrant, was very hurtful to me.
Because what he did was he fired up the crazies, McCain said.
Even before his remarks on Saturday, Trump responded characteristically.
The thousands of people that showed up for me in Phoenix were amazing
Americans. @SenJohnMcCain called them crazies must apologize!
Trumptweeted. @SenJohnMcCain should be defeated in the primaries.
Graduated last in his class at Annapolis dummy!
The former Texas governor and current White House hopeful Rick Perry, who
is lagging in the polls and could use some publicity, also squared off with
Trump.
I have a message for my fellow Republicans and the independents who will
be voting in the primary process: what Mr Trump is offering is not
conservatism, it is Trump-ism a toxic mix of demagoguery and nonsense,
Perry said.

Trump fired back: [Perry] doesnt understand what the word demagoguery
means He should be forced to take an IQ test before being allowed to
enter the GOP debate.

Donald J. Trump

@realDonaldTrump

.@GovernorPerry just gave a pollster quote on me. He doesn't understand what the
word demagoguery means.
4:48 PM - 16 Jul 2015
Donald J. Trump

@realDonaldTrump

.@GovernorPerry failed on the border. He should be forced to take an IQ test before

being allowed to enter the GOP debate.
4:49 PM - 16 Jul 2015
On Saturday, Perry released a strongly worded statement in answer to
Trumps attack on McCain, saying he should withdraw from the race
immediately.
Erstwhile frontrunner Jeb Bush has weighed in, too. I have a big
disagreement with Mr Trump about his tone and what hes saying because
its not accurate, Bush said on Thursday.
Trump, in turn, has lustily criticized the Bush political machine. Why do
people listen to clown @KarlRove on@FoxNews?
Trump tweetedWednesday. Spent $430M & lost all races a Bushy!
Senator Lindsey Graham, another weak-polling presidential candidate, has
said Trumps candidacy is a defining moment for the party and called on
Priebus to declare Trump persona non grata.

I think hes riding a wave of outlandish behaviour, Graham said of

Trump on NBC. Hes a wrecking ball when it comes to policy, and the way
hes engaging the public is hurting the Republican party.
Not every competing 2016 candidate is going after Trump, however. Ted
Cruz, the Texas senator, told NBC News he was a big fan of Donald Trump
and planned to meet with him.
Ted Cruz called me, Trump said in his version. And I dont know why Im
meeting him, to be honest, but I do have respect for him.
Cruz followed the same course on Saturday, decrying Republican on
Republican violence .
The entire drama appears headed for a very public denouement in early
August, when Trump is likely to appear onstage with the other candidates at
the first Republican primary debate. Trump cinched his right to appear in
the debates by hitting a campaign finance filing deadline on Wednesday
with the Federal Election Commission.
Trumps financial disclosure showed that he had raised $1.9m since
entering the race a month ago. That included a $1.8m loan from himself
but Trump also had about 60 individual donors.
In a statement in advance of his filing, Trump claimed he was worth TEN
BILLION DOLLARS, spelling the sum out in capital letters, and his
team complained that the financial disclosure document was not designed
for a man of Mr Trumps massive wealth.
This is a carnival seal, said Wilson. It balances a ball on its nose, and its
very clever at doing that. Its very clever at saying, Im so rich! Im so rich!
My fortune is huuuuge and doing the whole Donald Trump act. At
playing Donald Trump.
At some point voters are going to say, is this a man whose finger I want on
the button, is this a man who is actually going to go out and negotiate with

countries that dont like us on consequential things?

This isnt about badgering someone down on cost-per-square-foot. This is
about real, consequential, life-and-death, existential challenges to our
nation and others.
And at the end of the day, Donald Trump is not a person who is a serious
choice.
Posted by Thavam