It's happening! IT'S HAPPENING! Oh my gawd this is so much fun!!!! Trump is finally starting to implode. Took long enough, geez, yeah... but FINALLY it's happening.
Well, Trump is about as resilient as a cockroach when it came to the polls, but finally several Iowa polls are seeing Trump slip. It's not a phony "Oh, he's ahead, but he's in the low double digit lead instead of the high double digit lead" slip.... it's a genuine slip. Trump is behind, firmly behind, in not one but TWO recent Iowa polls. And Trump doesn't like that.
With two new polls showing Carson surging ahead of Trump in Iowa, Trump has begun lashing out with the same tactics he has used effectively against former Florida governor Jeb Bush earlier this year – saying that Carson lacks the energy and negotiating smarts to be president and that he is too soft on immigration. “Carson is lower energy than Bush,” Trump declared during a Jacksonville, Florida rally on Saturday. “I don’t understand what’s going on.”
Carson immediately retorted in Iowa that “My energy levels are perfectly fine,” noting that he often spent as many as 15 to 20 hours in the operating room during his career as a nationally renowned surgeon. In an obvious reference to Trump’s showboating, combative political style, Carson added that “jumping up and down and screaming” doesn’t qualify one to be president.
I hate Ben Carson but even I have to admit, that's a sick burn against the Donald.
What's causing the slip? Well, people might just be getting tired of Trump. Plus Bush has been drastically slipping in the polls and those former supporters are not going to the Donald. These voters are Establishment Repubs with a capital E. They're mostly drifting towards Rubio at this point with a few more religious voters favoring Carson. Cruz has decided he's no longer in love with the Donald. Even Bush landed a few good blows by calling Trump, truthfully, dangerous for national security. Those remarks, combined with Trump's mistake for telling the truth about George W. Bush bearing partial responsibility for 9/11 have hurt Trump drastically. Also, Trump basically has a ceiling of 25% of Republican primary voters. Anything above that is soft support, open for poaching by Carson, Fiorino, or even Rubio.
And so far Carson's soft-spoken, rambling racism and religious extremism has been nibbling away at Trump's poll numbers. The usual Romney v. Santorum dichotomy we had in 2012 is once more manifesting itself in Rubio/Bush v. Trump/Carson. Trump and Carson have divided the hard-right fake-Christian voters down the center. On the other side Bush is dying and Rubio is quietly biding his time until Bush (and Christie, Pataki, Graham, and all those other jokers) drop out and bestow him with roughly the other 50% of the GOP electorate. That would win Rubio the nomination for sure, especially if Trump insists on staying in the race holding on to his miserable 25% with his sweaty hands.
Certainly Trump is not going down without a fight, and it is oh-so-amusing for us Democrats. For the agony aunts out there on the comment thread ("How can you laugh at the current chaotic state of the body politic???!!!?!")... stow it. This shit is funny. Don't worry, we'll get our boring, well-spoken GOP candidate (probably Rubio) and boring, well-spoken Democratic candidate (Clinton. Duh.) facing off in mature, adult fashion for the presidential debates in due fashion.
In the meantime, sit back and enjoy the show. Let's watch Trump pile on his mistakes after taking a hit for the 9/11 remarks. First, let's have him solidify Carson's base by yelling at the genteel, racist doctor while Carson plays the adult and remains above the fray. First, see Trump attack the veracity of the polls he previously worshipped. Then, see Trump attack Carson's Christianity (ooo, yeah THAT'S going to go down well with the whole "Keep Christ in Chrismas," "Yew are rapin' mah relijuhn when yew say 'Happy Holidays,'" crowd) and see Dr. Ben "A Muslim can never be president" Carson act butt-hurt and demand an apology from Trump concerning "insulting my faith." For the record, Carson has not apologized for HIS insulting the faith of the world's Muslims.
Taste the sweet salt of the Donald's tears as he tries to save his campaign from the beginning of the end.
At another point in his Saturday speech, Trump even appeared to take a jab at Carson's faith while discussing the Iowa polls. Carson attends a Seventh-day Adventist church, which Trump suggested was less mainstream than his own Presbyterian one.
"I get these two polls — and remember, I don't believe them, I don't believe them — in Iowa. And I love Iowa. And look, I don't have to say it: I'm Presbyterian," he said. "I'm Presbyterian. Boy, that's down the middle of the road folks, in all fairness. I mean, Seventh-day Adventist, I don't know about. I just don't know about."
The next day on ABC's "This Week," Trump insisted he was not criticizing Carson's faith and would not apologize for his comment....
"Ben is extremely weak, as you know, on illegal immigration and you can't have that now. We have to have a country of borders. We need strength in our country. And you can't be weak on illegal immigration," Trump said.... "Ben Carson has never created a job in his life (well, maybe a nurse.)"