Donald Trump falls 12 percentage points in one week

I'm still calling Rubio as the nominee. Seems inevitable at this point. Rubio vs Clinton is the most likely outcome barring a small miracle or candidate death.

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This is fairly good news, if it's for the right reasons. Maybe people are starting to take a more serious look at some of the folks who may end up actually being our next president.

SoldierOfTheKing said:

He's still leading by 16 points.

The Republican establishment is nearing full-blown panic about Donald Trump.

The demise of Trump’s candidacy has been predicted by centrist Republicans and the media alike virtually since the day it began. But there is no empirical evidence at all to suggest it is happening...

Adding that “months ago, we all discounted Trump as a candidate,” Bonjean now acknowledged that it seems “safe to assume that he is going to continue with this strong momentum right into Iowa.”

The Iowa caucuses are set for Feb. 1, a little over two months away. Voters tend to pay less attention to politics over the holiday season than at other times, a trend that makes dramatic shifts in the race less likely during that period.

Only one more televised debate will take place before the end of the year, on Dec. 15 in Las Vegas. Beyond that, there will be only one more such clash, in January, four days before the caucuses.

“The media has twisted and turned through a number of different positions where they tried to explain that it was just a fad — the summer of Trump,” said Craig Robinson, a former political director of the Republican Party of Iowa. “Well, it’s lasted all fall. There is a realization that you are not going to wake up tomorrow and he’s going to vanish.”

Robinson, who is not affiliated with any candidate, was scathing toward those GOP centrists who assert that Trump will be unable to translate his polling support into votes because of a weak ground game.

“That is the wishful thinking of the establishment,” he said. “That is what they tell themselves so they can sleep at night. The truth is, Trump has one of the better ground operations in Iowa. Will he turn out every single person who shows up at his rallies? No. But if he turns out a fraction, he will roll over the field.”

GOP in panic over Trump

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Do you feel the GOP worries about Trump are a good thing or a bad thing? Having a split party would not bode well in my opinion.

Belk said:

Do you feel the GOP worries about Trump are a good thing or a bad thing? Having a split party would not bode well in my opinion.

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The GOP is financially dependent on business interests that are not culturally conservative or even necessarily free market. That, in a nutshell, is why the GOP is ineffective at opposing the Left's agenda. That's not going to change until the party's voting base separates itself from the donors. Trump's campaign is doing just that - Trump is playing full onto the base while giving the donors the finger. Trump has enough money that he doesn't need the donors, who are in danger of reduced to political irrelevancy, generals without an army, as it were. I think that it's something that needs to happen even if it causes a schism in the party.

I posted a link to this article in another thread, but I'll link to it here because I think it illustrates where the GOP would be if Trump hadn't shown up to redefine the terms of the debate:

Donald Trump, Ben Carson and the hijacking of the 2016 GOP primaries: Republican voters have only themselves to blame

Stanfordella said:

http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2015/11/donald-trump-poll-falls

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Good.