Trumpageddon Rumbles Forward

(Chuck Muth) – DISCLAIMER:  I am a consultant to the super-PAC supporting Dr. Ben Carson for president.  That said and in mind…

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Once again, Donald Trump has tapped into an emotional issue for many voters that the other candidates have missed completely.  Only this time, it really has nothing to do with the presidential campaign.

For many of us, the NFL has gone way overboard in “sissifying” professional football over the last two seasons.   And darned if Trump didn’t pick up on that in his remarks at a campaign rally in Reno on Sunday.

“You used to see these tackles, and it was incredible to watch,” Trump told the crowd.  “Now they tackle – ‘Oh, head-on-head collision, 15 yards’.  The whole game is all screwed up.  You say, ‘Wow, what a tackle.’  Bing.  Flag.  Football’s become soft.”

He added, “Who wants to watch these crummy games?  The outcome of games has been changed by what used to be phenomenal, phenomenal stuff.”

Trump then went on to compare how football in the NFL has become soft to how the United States has become soft in foreign policy and dealing with international terrorism.  Many a football fan will readily identify with the comparison.

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I keep reading conservative columnists, bloggers and organizations arguing/bemoaning that Donald Trump isn’t a true conservative.  But here’s the point these folks are missing; a point taught to me over two decades ago by political strategist extraordinaire, Joe Gaylord…

Most voters are NOT ideological.

So they don’t care if Trump is a true conservative or not. And they get to vote, just like true conservatives.

And that’s not so much a problem as a reality.  Deal with it.

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To further this discussion that Trump’s popularity is not ideological, consider this tweet from a Reno Gazette-Journal reporter who was at Trump’s Reno rally on Sunday…

Trump: “I become prez ‘we’re going to kick the shit out of ISIS.’ Crowd goes wild.”

His language may be coarse, but it’s plain-spoken and easily understood.  It’s not the kind of mush-mouth/fork-tongued language voters have learned to hate from politicians.  It hits a nerve, even for hardened conservatives.

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Hey, remember that Muslim woman “flight attendant” who was at the Trump rally in South Carolina last week and was escorted out supposedly for “silently protesting” Trump’s position on Syrian refugees being brought to the United States?

Guess what?  Her full story isn’t what the mainstream media made it out to be.  Go figure.

Breitbart has “the rest of the story.”  Click here.

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Chalk up another moral victory for Trump.

After complaining about the unfairness of allowing the New Hampshire Union Leader newspaper – which has been slamming Trump on its front page – to co-host the Republican presidential candidate debate with ABC News on February 6^th, ABC announced this weekend that the partnership has been “severed” and the Union Leader will not be involved in the debate after all.

Fooled ‘em again, Josey.

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I tweeted last week that while Trump is slightly behind Ted Cruz in Iowa right now in some polls, it’s still possible for him to win there – despite the fact that it’s a caucus state with a strong social conservative tilt in the GOP primary electorate.  And if he does, it’s hard to see how you stop him in all the primary states that follow, especially non-“Bible Belt” states.

Well, Trump himself seems to have come to the same conclusion, telling folks at his rally in Reno on Sunday that if he wins in Iowa, he thinks he’ll run the table.

I think what he thinks might just be right.