is it really possible that Donald trump could be president????? [Part 3]

[Lweji]

Continuing the thread, and in reply to the two last posts of thread 2

Today 08:15 OhYouBadBadKitten

I don't think it is about Trump taking risks, its more that he is a narcisstic sociopath. He feels untouchable in what he says and has no regard for the consequences.

Today 06:53 fourmummy

To be fair, voters know that all political rhetoric mostly comes to nothing (rhetoric = argumentation and persuasion, elevated to an art from in Ancient Greece). Why do you imagine Labour want to introduce votes for 16 year olds? They know that people don't become "more conservative" as they get older-they become wiser to the political process and its lies rhetoric. So what's different with Trump? Why hasn't his unbelievably unlikeable public and private persona sunk him?

Answer=risk

He is not a ready-rolled, ready-prepped and ready-to-go politician (think Blair's son parachuted into a constituency; MIliband brothers, Clintons). These are not risking much because they were cast in the role when they were made. We know that this is the case with, certainly, Clinton (numerous interviews with aides attest to this; ditto for the others). Voters are doing a risk assessment of his risks and have decided that he is worth something. It's not as simple as suggesting that if someone votes for him then they must be racist or sexist, as I've seen journos assert. Voters are effectively doing a risk assessment and deciding that given the enormous costs both to him (energy, health, time away from family, reputation, financial, career, historical implications, ) and to his voters (risk of being viewed as sexist, racist, intolerant, asshole), the benefits must outweigh these costs. Very unwise to dismiss ordinary voters as simplistically sexist and racists, as many, many journalists have (shortsightedly) done. Even non-experts are very good at performing cost/benefit analyses

As I said I don't see anything of what he says as taking a risk. Because he is saying what many people want to hear.
As for personal cost, he is clearly someone who enjoys the power, the limelight, the adoration. All that is missing for him is the ultimate power, particularly as he sees other true billionaires taking central stage.
But he doesn't have the heart to be Gates.
So, he's going for the highest office, and on the back of American voters most primal fears.

But...
He's not averse to risk. He's built his empire on it. He's had four bankruptcies. Anyone should be worried about the way he manages risk.

You shouldn't be mystified because those insults worked and finished off "Little Marco" and "low energy" Bush.

"Bible high, puts it down and then he lies"

has the crowds rolling around at Trump rallies about Lyin' Ted.

Clinton's team are worried about what Trump will come up with for her.

"Clinton prepares for Trump’s insult machine, which has already turned her way"

www.washingtonpost.com/politics/clinton-prepares-for-trumps-insult-machine-which-has-already-turned-her-way/2016/04/03/8366764a-f50a-11e5-a3ce-f06b5ba21f33_story.html

It's mostly why a possible future President would want to be seen as mature as a 5 year old.
And why anyone would admire him for it. It could well be that he leads despite of it, not because. People are desperate for an outsider who promises the Earth.

'And why anyone would admire him for it.'

Because as the woman interviewed at CPAC who supported Trump said, we want someone who can fight, they (the Republican Establishment) have "forgotten how to fight". We want someone who can take it to the liars and the spinners and the teams of teenage wonks. That is why the crowds roar with laughter when Trump says

"Bible high, he puts it down and then he lies"

All the wonks advise Trump to be more "politically correct", all Clinton's advisers advise him not to attack and insult her, all the media tell him to act more "preidential", but Trump's campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, says the campaign runs on "Let Trump be Trump", because it is Trump that the Trump fans like and not some politically correct wonk.

"Exclusive!
Ted Cruz Cheating Scandal Explodes! Presidential Hopeful Named In Murdered D.C. Madam’s Black Book, Investigators Charge

New bombshell is set to rock the Wisconsin primary.
...
But Radar has learned The National ENQUIRER will this week report its findings of yet another exhaustive and investigative probe that will quote journalist detectives who claim the mystery candidate almost certainly “has to be Cruz.”

radaronline.com/celebrity-news/cheating-ted-cruz-sex-scandal-dc-madam-died/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=tedcruz

Is his definition of fighting calling names? I really thought it was a 5 year old's.

'Is his definition of fighting calling names? '

Mocking the great and the good, bursting their bubble of pomposity, deflating their great and good egos is part of how Trump fights for the people. That is why he insults the puppets and that is why the people laugh at the pomposity and hypocrisy of the puppets.

Can you imagine if a British politician came out with that childish crap? People could certainly be laughing, but they'd be laughing at him, not with him. And I suspect that may also be the case with at least a part of his American audience.

AugustaFinkNottle, I think if we had a British politician with half the courage and confidence of Trump, that politician would defeat our entire Oxbridge team of puppets. It would be no contest, but thete aren't many Trumps unfortunately.

Trump is not being brave. He has nothing much to lose but his time and a few million (which he may or may not get back in donations).

OTOH, there could be a MN party. We do like crazy insults. All it would take is a front person... :)

'He has nothing much to lose'

Don't kid yourself. The whole world elite and their paid for political class are against Trump. He's all in and he is going to win.

But, what does he have to lose?

I won't mention the main thing, but they are saying that if he loses, his business and contracts might be affected due to the revenge of the puppets.

But surely, he's so rich, popular and clever that they can barely touch him. He's a winner.

No, they are much more powerful than him and much richer, he claims he is worth about $10 billion, they say it is more like $4.5 billion, but together they have hundreds and hundreds of billions. He is smallfry compared to them, but his courage outmatches theirs.

An MN party < ponders >
We could threaten people with our loo brushes. Now that's scary.

Extraordinary that Trump - especially being a total amateur - hasn't bothered to hire a large professonal election team, like the other candidates have. Is that just ego, or mean with his money ?
Astonishing that as a one-man amateur show, he doesn't do very much worse.

Anyway, he seems to average around 10% behind either Clinton or Sanders, but still far too early to predict. First he has to become the GOP nominee.

'Anyway, he seems to average around 10% behind either Clinton or Sanders, but still far too early to predict.'

At about this time, Reagan was 24% behind Jimmy Carter and then Reagan went on to win in a landslide. If Trump beats the Republican elite and becomes the nominee, he will absolutely thrash Clinton because as he always says he "hasn't even started on her yet".

'Is that just ego, or mean with his money ?'

I think a bit of both. His judgement is excellent, he has a natural ability to know what the people feel which is why the New York Magazine journalist said

"no matter what your feelings about his beliefs or his qualifications to govern a country, [he is] one of the greatest political savants of the modern era."

But he is also very frugal, he doesn't like spending money, particularly his own. The puppets spend donor money, he is spending his own.

The puppets? Who are the puppets or is this another name for the elites or the establishment?

'Who are the puppets or is this another name for the elites or the establishment?'

No, the puppets are the "bought and paid for" political class, in the pockets of the elite and the Establishment.

As Trump regularly tweets

‏@realDonaldTrump

I wish good luck to all of the Republican candidates that traveled to California to beg for money etc. from the Koch Brothers. Puppets?

If Trump is nominated, it would be a difficult position for any Republican who is reasonably intelligent and moral, or indeed female. I don't see how anyone coming within this parameters could possibly vote for Trump.

I see so who are/is the establishment?

"It’s true: Despite the Megyn Kelly insults, the standing by his man accused of grabbing a female reporter, the mocking of the appearance of his top rival’s wife, Donald Trump is beating Ted Cruz among Republican women."

www.politico.com/story/2016/04/women-donald-trump-ted-cruz-wisconsin-221515

The Republican Establishment is scared of Trump, very, very scared because some of them may end up going to prison. That is why they have to stop Trump and are using their media to pretend that Trump is unpopular when he is by far the most popular Republican candidate and is the only candidate who can beat (in fact thrash) Hillary.

If Trump beats the Republican Establishment and makes it to be the nominee, then the Republican voters will all back Trump against Hillary except for the Republican elite who fear what Trump will do to them.

'I see so who are/is the establishment?'

The establishment are the cadre of people who run and influence the system for the elite, so they are made up of lots of different factions of servants e.g. media, political class, opinion formers, donors etc

What you have essentially got going on in America is a political revolution. As Mike Huckabee, former Governor of Arkansas, said "we are witnessing the overthrow of the government before our eyes" in a "peaceful revolution" by an outsider to the system and Establishment, Donald Trump, propelled by the people.

You can view the elite as akin to royalty in the Middle Ages, and the Establishment as their courtier servant class and the political class as one faction of the servants who do the bidding of the knighted donor class of Wall Street and corporate money types who seek favour and knighthoods from royalty.

Along comes Trump, a total outsider, who insults everyone and doesn't play by the rules, calls the political class "puppets" and exposes that they are all "bought and paid for" and "taken care of" by special interests. He refuses to hire their wonks and teenage whizzkids to advise him on policy so they have no way of controlling him because he runs his campaign essentially by himself.

"Trump has no pollsters, media coaches, or speechwriters. He ­focus-groups nothing. He buys few ads, and when he does, he likes to write them himself. He also writes his own tweets, his main vehicle for communicating with his supporters. And it was his idea to adopt Ronald Reagan’s slogan “Make America Great Again!”

“I’m the strategist,” Trump told me. Which would make him, no matter what your feelings about his beliefs or his qualifications to govern a country, one of the greatest political savants of the modern era.

The people already knew that the system was rigged against them and that is why they follow Trump. The entire Establishment and even world Establishment is in shock and panic because if the outsider Trump gets in, their entire worldwide game will be up.

Trump a political savant

If he does it all himself who wrote his hasty row back on his abortion comments?

'If he does it all himself who wrote his hasty row back on his abortion comments?'

He has a skeleton team who did that. As conservative pundit, Tucker Carlson, said on Fox, Trump has not given the abortion issue any thought because he is instinctively not pro life and used to be pro choice, he doesn't really believe the standard Republican position and therefore didn't know how to argue for it. But his skeleton team got him back on track on that issue in a way that would meet the requirements of the standard Republication position.

"Trump’s campaign employs a core team of about a dozen people; his campaign lists 94 people on the payroll nationwide, according to the latest Federal Election Commission filing (Hillary Clinton has 765)."