Preparing for Debate, Republicans Test Themselves Against Donald Trump

[pampango]

Jeb Bush is spending hours in sessions from Florida to Maine preparing policy answers for Thursday’s first Republican debate — but he is also being mindful to avert any display of disdain for the man he will stand beside, Donald J. Trump, who has infuriated Mr. Bush by criticizing Mexican immigrants. (Mr. Bush is married to one.) Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin is crafting one-minute answers and 30-second rebuttals in case Mr. Trump or others continue attacking him as a flip-flopper on Common Core education standards and as a weak jobs creator, testing lines in mock debates with advisers playing Mr. Trump and other candidates.

Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and Ben Carson are determined not to let the debate on Fox News become about Mr. Trump, practicing to steer the conversation to national security, entitlement reform and health care — which might implicitly plant doubts about Mr. Trump’s knowledge on those issues.

Most of the Republicans are wary of taking on Mr. Trump because he seems impenetrable, yet they also do not want to look weak in the face of his attacks. The best they can hope for is that Mr. Trump will attack their biggest perceived opponent; one ally of Mr. Cruz, who is running hard in Iowa, said he would like nothing more than for Mr. Trump to continue criticizing the Wisconsin record of Mr. Walker in hopes of weakening him in Iowa.

“You only attack the king if you can kill him; otherwise you leave him alone, because the king will kill you,” said Frank Luntz, a Republican pollster. “So the candidates better have something good ready if they come after Trump. Or they might try to find a way, in their responses, to remind Trump of something that another candidate said that really bothered him.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/02/us/politics/republican-debate-donald-trump.html?google_editors_picks=true

[TlalocW]

1. It doesn't matter if their responses to Trump

Are reasonable or actually answer any of his attacks. All Trump has to do is reply back with, "You're an idiot," and his poll numbers will go up with republican voters, and republicans have no one but themselves to blame - they created this environment by pandering to the Tea Party, and it just so happens to be one that Trump can flourish in.

TlalocW

[Volaris]

2. Yep. They own this biatch, Lock, Stock, and Both Loaded Barrels. Only way out, is to ADMIT IT.

Which means, telling the idiots that vote for them, that they actually are idiots and fell for it (AGAIN).
which, of course, will make the idiots mad, and they will vote for Trump out of spite.

Then they will lose to whoever is the Democratic Party nominee.

i actually kind of like this game, let's keep playing=)

[Ichingcarpenter]

3. Trump knows how to play the media and the camera

His TV shows show he is not inept with his talking points. and presentation........ It will be a Rock'em Sock'em Robots type of debate and will get good ratings for fox.

Sort of like the film Idiocracy but with less intelligence.