Poll: Trump surges to big lead in GOP presidential race -- The Washington Post

[bsteadman]

Poll: Trump surges to big lead in GOP presidential race

The Washington Post
Dan Balz and Peyton M. Craighill
7/20/2015

Excerpt:

Businessman Donald Trump surged into the lead for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, with almost twice the support of his closest rival, just as he ignited a new controversy after making disparaging remarks about Sen. John McCain’s Vietnam War service, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Support for Trump fell sharply on the one night that voters were surveyed following those comments. Telephone interviewing for the poll began Thursday, and most calls were completed before the news about the remarks was widely reported.

Although the sample size for the final day was small, the decline was statistically significant. Still, it is difficult to predict what could happen to Trump’s support in the coming days and weeks as the controversy plays out.

Even with the drop in support on the final night of the survey, Trump was the favorite of 24 percent of registered Republicans and Republican-leaning independents. That is the highest percentage and biggest lead recorded by any GOP candidate this year in Post-ABC News polls and marks a sixfold increase in his support since late May, shortly before he formally joined the race.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who announced his candidacy a week ago, is in second place, at 13 percent, followed by former Florida governor Jeb Bush, at 12 percent. Walker’s support is strongest among those who describe themselves as “very conservative.”
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View the complete article, including photos, at:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politi...20d_story.html

[bsteadman]

Trump Teachable Moment: How Come Liberals Can Savage McCain's Service?

Rush Limbaugh / RushLimbaugh.com
7/20/2015

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: No, no, no, Trump can survive this. Trump is surviving this. You know, this is a great, great teachable moment here, this whole thing with Trump and McCain. But it's not the most important thing happening out there today. Now, you wouldn't know it by looking at the Drive-By Media. If you're looking at the Drive-By Media, you think the only thing happening is Trump-McCain.

I just got my audio sound bite roster. You know how many audio sound bites I have today? I've got 18. Sixteen of them are about Trump. I have 18 audio sound bites, 16 are about Trump.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Now the McCain situation. You know, the McCain situation is interesting to me for a whole lot of reasons. There's a conventional wisdom out there, and this is generally how it goes. Public figure, slash, candidate, slash, political figure, makes politically incorrect statement that offends somebody.

The Washington establishment and media react in outrage. The media then replays whatever the offensive comment was over and over and over, news stories never ending about the outrageous statement that the public figure made. And then the establishment gets together with the media, and they all demand that the public figure immediately apologize, beg forgiveness, and either withdraw from whatever the public figure is seeking to accomplish, or to stay in properly chagrined and rendered irrelevant.

That conventional wisdom plays out practically every time this circumstance happens. And the reason it does is because people make the mistake of assuming one thing, and that is this. They make the mistake of assuming that the collective outrage of the Washington establishment and the media is reflective of American public opinion. That's an automatic conclusion that everybody draws.

So let's use Trump as an example. By the way, I'm no apologist for Trump, but I've looked at this. Sharyl Attkisson has written a great analysis ( https://sharylattkisson.com/fact-che...d-john-mccain/ ) of this, and it is a fact that Trump did not say what he's being reputed to have said. He said it one time, he was answering a question, and he said that McCain's not a hero, captured, and he changed and said four different times he is a hero, he is a war hero. McCain is a war hero. He said that four times.

The Washington Post, for example, did not report that at all, never reported that Trump said it once, much less four times. Anyway, see, the facts don't really matter in a circumstance like this. That's another thing. What actually was said by the offending party and the context in which it was said are purposely blurred, lied about, or ignored. Much like my ill-fated attempt at commentary on the ESPN Sunday NFL pregame show. I mean, that was a classic illustration of this. Take something that wasn't said, pretend it was said, blow it way out of proportion, attach a meaning to it that was never intended, blah, blah, blah.

Anyway, so Trump says what he says about McCain following McCain's insult of Trump's voters, or supporters, calling them crazies, people in his own state. This ticked Trump off. He doesn't want to think that people support him on immigration or anything else are a bunch of crazy wackos, and McCain characterized them as that. And nobody suggested McCain apologize to the American people. Nobody suggested McCain apologize for that characterization of American citizens, "crazies."

So the convention wisdom erupts into full bloom. The media, the Washington establishment, conservative and liberal both, immediately demand that Trump apologize. And then they add that Trump can't survive this, that we were all just waiting for this to happen. We knew it was gonna happen. We knew it was gonna happen 'cause Trump steps in it all the time. So now all these people are saying, "We knew it was gonna happen. We knew it was too good to be true. We knew Trump didn't have what it really took to run a campaign. We knew he was gonna say something totally embarrassing. He embarrassed himself and everybody that supports him. He's gonna have to apologize, and have to withdraw."

Except one thing hasn't happened. Trump hasn't apologized. Not only has Trump not apologized, he has doubled down and he has to added to his original criticism of McCain. He's calling McCain a bad guy. McCain's a lousy politician. McCain talks a lot but doesn't do anything, Trump says. The VA is a mess. Illegal immigration's a mess. Everything we hear McCain say he supports or cares about, it's all going to hell. He's a bad guy. He's not a good politician. I'm trying to save America. I'm not gonna apologize. This is Trump.

Well, now the architects of conventional wisdom don't know what to do, because by this time they've gotten their scalp. By this time, the guilty party has apologized, is begging for forgiveness. And Trump is not. Now, remember, there's a common assumption made every time one of these things happened. You know, I myself have stepped in it a couple times, folks, and each time -- oh, yes, I have. I've stepped in it a couple times. And each time, the point is that each time I did the Drive-Bys thought they had me, right? I mean, I can go through: Michael J. Fox, Sandra Fluke, whatever it was, they thought that they had finally gotten rid of me.

But they didn't. They didn't even come close. They never have come close. They're still telling lies about advertisers lost. They're still telling lies about every aspect of these incidents where they thought they had me. Why were they wrong? Because they made the assumption that the whole country was outraged at me as they were. And that's the key here with this Trump thing. This is the fascinating thing to me. This is something we're gonna learn.

When the reaction of outrage over Trump's comments came, Washington establishment, Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives, the media, accompanying it is the assumption that the American people, a majority of the American people also find what Trump said unpalatable, unforgivable, unacceptable. That's one of the things that makes these work, is the assumption that the media is simply reflecting public opinion. But we never really know.

Now, in my case we know that the media is not reflecting public opinion, and I've said it countless times, folks. You know, I have survived all these controversial moments because of you, because you hang in there, because you know the drill. You understand this technique that the left and weak-kneed Republicans use to destroy people that they find objectionable or too effective, their opposition. You hung in there. You always have. That's why I owe you more than I ever will be able to repay you.

You have stayed tuned in. You have remained loud, admitted members of this audience and defied the conventional wisdom. Well, we're gonna find out now if Trump has made a similar connection to his voters. The polling data on this is gonna be fascinating in a week or two, or less, maybe, because, remember, the real key to this is this automatic assumption that everybody's outraged; that everybody wants Trump gone; that everybody finds this objectionable; that everybody thinks it's over the top; that everybody thinks Trump has gone too far. And that assumption is always erroneous, I think. But nobody stops to think about it.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Now, we do have some really early polling data out of Iowa, Monmouth College, that shows that Trump has not been hit yet. Scott Walker's still in first place at 22%. Trump is next at 13. It's not showing any damage to Trump on this, but it's early. I just want to see what happens here, because, again, the conventional wisdom is that Trump is finished with voters. That's what the media's trying to convey. When they claim they are outraged, and the establishment claims they are, they're really saying the American people are.

That's the thing that's always gotten me is this presumption that the media speaks for a majority of the American people. I know for a fact that's not true. A majority of the American people don't trust the media. A majority of the American people consider the media a problem. And, yet, here is this automatic assumption every time something like this happens. It's pretty much the case in every story they report. There's this presumption... Now, let's take gay marriage. Let's take a story in Indiana with that little pizza shop that got shut down.

There's a presumption reporting it that the entire population thinks that that little pizza shop ought to go away. And it's part of the reporting. It's just as though this is what's normal, as though this is what is. By the same token, massive nationwide support for gay marriage. Anybody who doesn't is a kook, a minority so visible you can't even see 'em. That's how small they are. So, I want to see what happens here, 'cause they're doing everything they can to destroy Trump by acting like he's destroyed himself with voters.

Conventional wisdom is that Trump is finished with voters.

That is what presumes this new political reality, and I don't think it's the case. But it won't take long to find out. .............................................

View the complete article (transcript), including photos, at:

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/20...cain_s_service