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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTrump may be 'impossible to take down,' top Republican pollster says
http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2015/08/inside_the_mind_of_the_trump_supporter.htmlALEXANDRIA, Va. A new focus group commissioned by GOP pollster Frank Luntz shows Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump is virtually invulnerable to attack by rival 2016 candidates and the media, leading Luntz to say that it is now "totally conceivable" that Trump will become the Republican Party's nominee for president.
"The Republican leadership needs to wake up and see that the grass roots has abandoned them," said Luntz, the head of Luntz Global, a top GOP polling and messaging consultancy.
"This is a different cat," Luntz added. "It's not like Ross Perot in 1992, where people were simply unhappy with the two major parties; they're choosing Trump affirmatively. Honestly, my legs are shaking looking at these numbers. All those people who think he's going to implode are wrong. He's not going away."
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Most notably, the intensity of the group's support for Trump was matched only by their dislike of establishment GOP candidates and politics as usual. At one point, a woman named Rhiannon explained her support of Trump by lamenting that "it appears that there's only one party." A whopping 25 of 29 participants in the focus group immediately and heartily agreed with her.
"Nobody is listening to us," echoed another supporter identified only as 'Suzanne.' " But) he's listening to us, he knows what we think and he's successful just like we want to be."
Normally, such a small group of voters might not be worthy of much attention 441 days ahead of the general election, but Luntz's polling acumen dates back more than 20 years: He correctly predicted that Perot's entry into the 1992 presidential race would deliver the White House to Bill Clinton. His research also initially dismissed Trump, leading the mogul to all but accuse him of trying to shake him down.
"I watch this guy do a really negative report on me, and the only reason he did it, in my opinion, is because I didn't want to hire him commercially," Trump said of Luntz in an interview with Business Insider shortly after the August 7th Fox News debate. "I think it's disgusting ... I think he uses his power at Fox to maybe to get work."
On Monday night, the group of mostly college-educated Trump supporters 17 women, 12 men was largely Republican, but also featured some Democrats and independents. What united them was a willingness to trust Trump whether or not they fully agreed with his policies, or in some cases, regardless of whether he even had articulated any. Twenty-three of the 29 participants said that they were more persuaded by his persona, while just six said it was Trump's policies that sold them on him.
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Renew Deal
(81,860 posts)CaliforniaPeggy
(149,627 posts)She would never support Trump.
PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)olddots
(10,237 posts)THEY SAVED HITLER'S BRAIN ...
CBGLuthier
(12,723 posts)Perhaps some of his fellow republicans can find the solution there.
Lorien
(31,935 posts)...listening to us..." er, no, he's not Suzanne. The only person who IS listening to the 99% is Bernie Sanders, but you probably don't even know about him because of the media blackout.
(And a struggling person voting for a billionaire because they want to be successful too is like a woman voting for a misogynist because she wants to share in his male privilege. Neither will ever happen).
LiberalElite
(14,691 posts)a slightly paraphrased quote of someone in Food Not Bombs -
"Nothing will ever change in this country until people stop identifying with the rich."
Recursion
(56,582 posts)He's obviously not as rich as he claims, but he's obviously still very rich, if not liquid.
If he can pull together a billion dollars or so (and that's conceivable) he could entirely self-fund his campaign and basically just be using the RNC for ballot access.
jmowreader
(50,559 posts)His Achilles Heel is how thin-skinned he is. If anyone hits him with any significant criticism - the number of government projects he did in his "renovation" phase, the illegals the Trump-branded hotels employ, his actual net worth, the wildlife laws he broke to get the animal that lives on his head, or that the dictionary definition of "loose cannon on deck" is a picture of Donald Trump - he will fold like a cheap card table.
merrily
(45,251 posts)The hard core nutters of the Republican party. I don't think Trump even has all of them. Media is making way too much of him, which is convenient for media to do.
Trump is not polling at over 50% of Republicans. He is merely the frontrunner in the clown van, which has close to 20 occupants at this point.
kelliekat44
(7,759 posts)or simply do as they are doing an pretend it doesn't exist and that Trump is a deserving candidate and suck up to him for the ratings he generates. Frankly, Mika and Joe should just quit their jobs and go work for the Trump campaign it would make them more honest.
merrily
(45,251 posts)of what is at stake for Americans in this primary.
No matter how cynical you become, it's never enough to keep up.
Lily Tomlin, with a to the late, great Jackpine Radical.
reformist2
(9,841 posts)spanone
(135,841 posts)Octafish
(55,745 posts)Rupert is just nice that way.
gratuitous
(82,849 posts)T Rump is hitting all the notes of the Republican message and then going an octave higher. The Republican who can get traction on him will have to refudiate racism, xenophobia, war-mongering, elitism, and many of the other planks the party is built on today. Not very likely; T Rump will have to beat himself, and his track record suggests that's just what will happen.
Maeve
(42,282 posts)Il Donald will bring himself down in time...and there is still time.
There is a vast amount of dirt in his background and it will come out if this goes beyond a summer fling, I have no doubt.
lpbk2713
(42,757 posts)It's not that Trump is such a strong contender.
It's that the GOP of 2015 has lost its attractiveness.
After all this time they are now a flash in the pan.
Gloria
(17,663 posts)so many states that it is truly horrible.
"Keeping it local" really has taken on a sinister meaning these days.....
hatrack
(59,587 posts)Luntz =