Has nothing to do with him, his campaign, or any endorsement thereof.
I'm just thinking of a man who throws his hat in the ring, puts up his own dough, believes he is doing the right thing (ego aside for the moment), trying to make a difference, and then he comes to find out the entire process is rigged.
Even if it is all a grand plan cooked up between him and the Clintons to destroy the Republicans chances as some suggest, and that's all well and good if that's what is this whole show; however, no one likes to lose even if you are trying to lose. Just something at odds with the rub of a being human is all.
Okay, after Trump's bad week in Iowa....
Trump's New Hampshire Card
He's doubling down, too:
"Trump shifts to more traditional campaign in final days before primary" by Jim O’Sullivan and James Pindell Globe Staff February 05, 2016
EXETER, N.H. — Polling suggests that Trump has reason to change his tack: A CNN/WMUR poll of likely New Hampshire primary voters released Thursday showed Senator Marco Rubio of Florida gaining on Trump and taking second place, even as Trump’s numbers held steady.
Time to punt.
Unless you want to phone it in.
Polls manage expectations and perceptions to provide the rigged narrative.
"Speaking of polls, none of the ones published immediately before the caucuses, including the Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics Iowa Poll, nailed the final result of the caucuses. This doesn’t mean the polls were less accurate. What it does indicate is there was a lot of voter movement and changes after the polling was finished, including more people deciding to participate. The Register poll and others showed the potential for large shares of caucus-goers to change their candidate preference and many did.
Then wouldn't Trump and Sanders benefit?
Is this really the fraudulent excuse they intend to foist upon us to defend the cho$en $elections of the oligarchy?
For the second cycle in a row, a virtual tie between the top two candidates focused the spotlight on the vote counting and reporting processes used by the state political parties. Four years ago, Republicans announced the wrong winner on caucus night before all precincts had reported.
Yeah, they said Romney and it turned out to be Santorum. They corrected it later, but the "momentum" had already been established for the Mitt$ter!
Democrats did not make that mistake this year, but also could not report final results until almost noon on Tuesday. That’s despite the parties’ partnership with Microsoft Corp. to create the mobile app used to record and report votes. It’s too early to evaluate the fallout, but it’s safe to say there will be some. Stay tuned!"
OMG, the CAT of FRAUD is OUT of the BAG!! No hacking worries there!
No wonder Rubio finished a surprisingly third with an inflated percentage!!
Lesson learned?
Also see: Was Donald Trump’s “Emergency Landing” A Final Warning to Exit the Race?
Odd that the Globe never mentioned that.
Trump, his voice hoarser than usual, unspooled his usual fare for his Exeter audience, discussing his hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue and the loss of American jobs overseas.
There is a subtle insult, but that is the usual fare the Globe unspools on a daily basis, and maybe it's a show, but the hoarser than usual voice shows an effort not really needed if its just a show.
I'm also told “vets like Trump,” but they also liked Ron Paul.
Trump then stopped by a property management company in a wooded office park a few miles down the road. Standing just inside the lobby, Trump spoke for about 10 minutes to a crowd of about 75 people who stood snapping pictures with their cellphones.
“We are going to win here, OK?” Trump declared.
Good luck, Don.
What do they got Diebold machines up there?
From there, he did what a traditional politician would: spend some time thanking volunteers at his campaign headquarters in Manchester, one of four offices his campaign has in the state.
In the main room, about 40 volunteers made phone calls on his behalf. Many of those callers were people who have temporarily moved to Manchester from out of state to help with the effort.
“This is the most amazing thing I have ever done in my life,” said James Radcliffe, 22, from Westport, Conn., who said he had been in New Hampshire for three weeks.
At the Manchester police station, Trump said he was starting a tradition by signing a brick on the outside wall with a permanent marker. He was formally introduced to many on the police force by Chief Nick Willard. Trump spoke to the crowded room for roughly five minutes and then took pictures with anyone there who wanted one.
Trump’s newly accessible style departs from a playbook he had used for months. He has called into TV shows rather than appearing in-studio, berated protesters at his rallies, and belittled rivals on the debate stage. He paid little heed to the political traditions of Iowa, where he placed a disappointing second place in Monday’s caucuses. He had similarly flouted New Hampshire’s conventions until Thursday.
Will it be too late?
There was still no drop-in at Lindy’s Diner, nor did he stand before unscreened voters and field questions for an intimate town-hall meeting — a ritual followed by the candidates who have chased him fruitlessly for months in polls.
But, with his Iowa finish denting his air of invincibility and more candidates staking greater importance on New Hampshire, Trump appears to be trying to up his game.
“I’m here. I have great energy. I love the place. I love the people,” Trump said of his schedule Thursday.
I believe him.
It doesn't mean anything, but I believe him.
Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, told reporters, “I think we take nothing for granted. We’re doing everything we can to try to talk to every voter possible. We’ve made a lot of phone calls, we’ve knocked on a lot of doors. And we’re going to do a lot of stops.”
Despite his new ardor for the campaign trail, Trump still significantly trails his challengers in the number of New Hampshire stops.
Yeah, Kasich and Christie have way more, according to New England Cable News.
Like his fellow chief executives, former Florida governor Bush continues to struggle in the polls as Rubio rises. The CNN/WMUR survey pegged Trump at 29 percent and Rubio, who finished third in the caucuses, at 18 percent. Senator Ted Cruz, Kasich, and Bush were all clustered in low double digits. Christie dropped 4 percentage points from a pre-Iowa poll, to 4 percent.
Of course, the poll does have a "relatively large margin of error."
--more--"
Let's go right down the ballot:
"In N.H., Marco Rubio stresses his ability to win in November" by James Pindell and Andrew Ryan Globe Staff February 04, 2016
STRATHAM, N.H. — Riding momentum from his better-than-expected third-place finish in Iowa, US Senator Marco Rubio has sharpened his focus on electability as he speaks to growing crowds from Manchester to the Lakes Region, Claremont to the Seacoast. The message to primary voters is succinct: He represents Republicans’ best shot to retake the White House.
Then God help us all.
“I am the conservative that can win,” the Floridian told voters Thursday in Portsmouth. “And if we win, we can turn this country around.”
He's not a "conservative," and both parties are heading in the wrong direction.
Rubio has long maintained he is best positioned to unite the Republican Party and defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Looks like she has already won the nomination. Someone better tell Sanders.
But since Iowa, the Republican field has narrowed and increasingly looks like a three-man contest.
Yeah, that was fast!
A WMUR/CNN New Hampshire poll released Thursday showed New York businessman Donald Trump holding steady at 29 percent and Rubio surging into second with 18 percent. US Senator Ted Cruz of Texas clung to third with 13 percent, followed by Governor John Kasich of Ohio (12 percent) and former governor Jeb Bush of Florida (10 percent).
On the stump, Rubio tries to convince voters he can serve as both an antidote to Trump’s antics and the bridge to unite a party divided by polarizing figures such as Cruz. His campaign believes electability will resonate.
“Rubio is the best positioned to beat the Democrats,” Rubio senior adviser Jim Merrill said. “It is a message that you are going to hear us stress a lot.”
Got it. Now shaddup.
The strategy carries risk at a time when voters in both parties are animated by anger with the establishment. Historically, the electability argument has triumphed in New Hampshire GOP primaries. This is anything but an ordinary election year, particularly for the GOP.
A Pew Research Center poll in July found that Republicans’ perception of their party had soured, dropping 18 percentage points since January. Independents also viewed the GOP less favorably than six months prior.
I suppose I'm in there somewhere.
Trump’s standing has eroded in some polls since his second-place showing in Iowa.
The vote counting software is being readied as I type.
As the New Hampshire primary nears, Republican voters such as Rick Bender are increasingly thinking about which candidate can win in November.
OMG!!!!
They ARE going to steal it from him!
More than any other candidate, Rubio hews closely to a script, repeating the same platitudes; the same heartwarming biographical notes; and the same jokes.
I know the feeling.
The consistency of the senator’s stump speech makes even subtle shifts stand out.
He drew about 200 other voters, including the father of four daughters.
“He has the ability to unite the two wings of the Republican Party,” said 55-year-old chemist named Van Mosher, who had been considering Cruz before settling on Rubio. “I am part of the Tea Party, but I work well with the establishment part of the party.”
Pffft!
On stage, Rubio worked through his regular recitation of President Obama’s transgressions: “unconstitutional” executive orders, “crazy” environmental regulations, “ridiculous” nuclear weapons deal with Iran, and the systematic weakening of America’s military might. Obama wants to fundamentally change America, Rubio said, because the president views the United States as an arrogant global power needing to be cut down to size.
He sure has a funny way of showing, starting wars in Libya, Syria, and Yemen while remaining in Afghanistan and Iraq when he promised to get us out.
America’s decline will continue, Rubio warned, under Clinton or her challenger for the Democratic nomination, US Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
“I give us the best chance to win and if you don’t believe me, ask a Democrat,” Rubio said. “Of all the Republicans in the race, they know that if I’m our nominee, they lose.”
Is that really the way you want to argue that point?
--more--"
Another compromised candidate open to blackmail.
"Seal Mexican border to stem flow of drugs, Cruz says" by David Scharfenberg Globe Staff February 04, 2016
HOOKSETT, N.H. — The event, at a Baptist church just outside Manchester, combined the high emotion of the heroin epidemic with the amens of a religious revival and the political jockeying of a New Hampshire primary season reaching its climax.
Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz, working to consolidate support among conservatives before the primary on Tuesday, took shots at a number of the right’s favorite targets.
The Obama administration, Sean Penn, Hollywood.
The heavy focus on addiction, particularly in New Hampshire, where the heroin crisis is so acute, has been one of the signal trends of the presidential race.
Tell the CIA to stop smuggling the stuff and the government to stop allowing banks to launder the loot.
And get after those gateway pharmaceuticals, too!
In January, the Addiction Policy Forum, which put on the Cruz event Thursday, drew GOP presidential candidates Jeb Bush, John Kasich, Chris Christie, and Carly Fiorina to an event in a ballroom at Southern New Hampshire University....
They had no answers, either.
Can't have answers to that kind of problem since it's not meant to be solved; it is simply meant to exist in perpetuity, allowing government to oppress at home and wage war abroad.
--more--"
So it's anger that leads to addiction, huh?
That explains my presence here for the last decade.
Another compromised candidate open to blackmail.
So who else is left?
John Kasich, who has mounted a John McCain-style slow-and-steady campaign, quietly presses his case
That leaves only one other choice:
"Barbara Bush campaigns for son Jeb in N.H." by Akilah Johnson Globe Staff February 05, 2016
DERRY, N.H. — Former first lady Barbara Bush made her way slowly into a middle school gymnasium with her son Jeb by her side.
Every seat in the room was filled and people stood crammed into corners, straining to see the matriarch of a political dynasty and one of its heirs.
I'm told the count was about 500.
Jeb Bush, who has been struggling to break out of a crowded Republican primary field, stood by affectionately as his 90-year-old mother spoke, noting when she was done: “Wow. Mom, my crowd sizes normally are not this large. I wonder why.”
He's a mama's boy?
In the final days of his campaign, Bush — trailing in the polls — has sought to connect with voters on a more personal level. It doesn’t get more personal than mom, and Barbara Bush remains popular — sometimes even when her sons are not.
“She’s like America’s grandmother,” said Charlie Black, a leading Republican strategist who served as an adviser to both Bush presidents. “She’s one of the most popular women in America.”
And H.W. is everyone's grandfather.
That's about the time you reach for an airsick bag.
Barbara Bush, given her age, is no longer going from polling place to polling place to shake the hands of supporters and say thank you on primary day, as she did for her husband in 1988. So her presence on the campaign will be more strategic, analysts say.
“She’ll pick her spots just because, again, at her age you can’t expect her to campaign all the time,” Black said.
Joe Corda and his wife, Jane, said Bush was on their short list of candidates but they had yet to make up their minds completely. Their hope was that Bush’s speech Thursday night would help solidify his support. Fans of the Bush family, they got the extra perk of hearing his mother speak.
“It’s not George, but we’ll take it,” Jane Corda of Londonderry said.
Uh-oh.
They want W.
Sorry, but I'm not feeling sorry for Jeb like I am for Trump.
Bush fully embraced his family’s legacy on Thursday night.
“Yeah, I’m part of the establishment because I’m Barbara Bush’s son. I embrace that each and every day. That doesn’t bother me a bit,” he said. “I’m proud of my dad. I’m proud of my brother. I’m proud of being a Bush.”
Okay!
BYE!
With his unique family position, Bush acknowledged that he has long had a “front-row seat” to the national and world stages.
“I know how to do this,” he said during a town hall meeting that lasted more than an hour. “It is not about trash talk.”
Barbara Bush became more accustomed to life in the public eye over the years.
Then she called her boy “the next president of the United States.”
Jeb Bush has staked much of his campaign on the first-in-the-nation-primary state, where he only recently broke out of single digits in some polls. After placing sixth in the Iowa caucuses, a poor finish in New Hampshire could spell the end of Bush’s campaign....
I would be happy with that result coming out of New Hampshire, regardless of how the top of the ticket plays out.
--more--"
Bush is taking today off. I'm not and that article made the front page in Bo$ton when mine out here led with Trump!
To top it all off, the insult of the day was regarding Trump’s hair.
That the best you got?
Better be careful; you might rile the bald vote.
How Trump could win but won't:
"Liberal independents in N.H. should vote Trump" by Nathaniel Rakich February 05, 2016
Say you’re one of the thousands of New Hampshire voters who want Hillary Clinton to be the next president. You could do the straightforward thing and cast your ballot for Clinton in next week’s primary. But if you’re a registered independent, you have a better option: Infiltrate enemy lines. Vote in the Republican primary. Hand victory to Donald Trump.
That's fine; however, I am often reminded of the old cliche "be careful what you wish for."
This kind of philosophy is also what gave us Reagan. That is who Democrats wanted to run against.
How did that work out?
Welcome to Operation Chaos 2.0.
Like most states, New Hampshire doesn’t restrict GOP primaries to registered Republicans. The 43 percent of Granite State voters who aren’t registered with a specific party can choose which primary to participate in on Tuesday.
Same here in Massachusetts. I can decide which ballot I want.
While Bernie Sanders leads in polls for the Democratic contest in New Hampshire, nationally, Clinton maintains a seemingly insurmountable advantage in polls and endorsements; your vote as a New Hampshire resident won’t change that.
Look, your vote is worthless up there and you are throwing it away if you vote Sanders. Wow!
But New Hampshirites of either party can make a difference in the Republican race.
Thought you had to be an independent based on what he wrote above.
Funny, because I usually choose that primary -- and yet this year I was thinking of asking for the Democrat ballot and voting Sanders.
The state is poised to decide whether a renegade like Trump is a serious threat to win the nomination or whether GOP voters will wise up and support someone more electable.
Look at the condescension toward us voters by the pre$$.
For unaffiliated but left-leaning voters, this is a golden opportunity to wreak havoc by helping the Republican nightmare scenario come true.
Look at the hubris!
Participation in the opposing party’s primary with the goal of taking it down from the inside has a long track record. In 2012, for instance, Democrats intervened in the Republican Missouri primary for a US Senate seat to boost “legitimate rape” crank Todd Akin, who famously went on to lose to Democrat Claire McCaskill.
With his litany of character flaws, Trump — like Akin on a larger scale — would be by far the easiest candidate for Democrats to beat in November. Further, as de facto leader of the Republican Party, his controversial statements would alienate millions of voters, damaging the party’s brand nationwide.
That's what has drawn millions to him, but never mind me.
Many Democrats might worry that Trump actually could be elected president. But his dismal 33 percent approval/58 percent disapproval rating makes that improbable. Besides, liberals actually have more common ground with Trump than more plausible alternatives like Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz.
WTF is this babble?!!
Trump supports Planned Parenthood, gay marriage, and affirmative action, and he opposed the Iraq War and Citizens United. Contrary to popular belief, Trump simply isn’t all that conservative — he just acts that way.
Trump opposed the Iraq war?
In New Hampshire and wherever else they can, liberal independents should vote Trump for now to guarantee a Clinton victory in the fall. Do anything else, and you’re not doing everything you can to help Democrats win.
That's what "conspiracy" blogs are saying!
--more--"
Maybe I will cast my vote out of sympathy this year.
NDUs:
New Globe poll shows Rubio closing in on Trump in N.H.
Marco Rubio is rising, Chris Christie is falling, and John Kasich and Jeb Bush are holding firm, a new Globe poll shows.
Looks like our governor backed the wrong horse, and Cruz has dropped all the way to 7% a la Huckabee, Santorum?
Some N.H. voters mull pick of party, not candidate
Globe is really pushing Kasich, huh?
Did I call the narrative or what?
