Sky's the limit!
Following a weekend performance in which
he questioned whether senator and former P.O.W. John McCain was really a war hero because "he was captured," Donald Trump is surging in the latest
Washington Post/ABC News poll released Monday afternoon.
Donald Trump: 24%
Scott Walker: 13%
Jeb Bush: 12%
The
Washington Post reports that Trump "fell sharply on the one night that voters were surveyed following those comments," but the overall impact on Trump is dividing Washington analysts, who often sing from the same partisan song sheet.
Some pundits suggest Trump's comments won't hurt him much since so many of his right-wing supporters despise McCain after he was forced upon them as the 2008 party nominee by establishment Republicans. Others say that offending veterans and families who have lost loved ones who were serving their country will take a toll on his national standing.
But what is perhaps most fascinating about the latest developments is that Bush's star is falling as Trump's star rises. The conventional wisdom has been that Trump's success would hurt the other GOP candidates more because Bush's support among "moderates" would inoculate him. Not so much.
Equally as interesting: Trump has been slandering immigrants for weeks and it took the GOP candidates for-ev-er to call him out. But suddenly Trump says one negative thing about John McCain and nearly every Republican hopeful lunges at a microphone to denounce Trump. Um, where was the outrage a month ago?