Mitch Perry
Happy Monday to ‘y’all, the last Monday of summer (of Trump), and with the change of seasons, will we see a change in the running narrative of the GOP presidential race?
Well, Donald Trump remains the front-runner in the CNN/ORC poll released yesterday, the first major survey taken from last week’s debate. But The Donald is dropping in popularity, down eight percentage points from his pre-debate numbers, specifically (from 32 to 24 percent).
Ben Carson, who had been on a run of successfully repressing the darkest, craziest statements that marred the beginning of his campaign, is third at 14 percent in the new poll, but don’t expect him to go any further.
Carson went back to his old crazy ways yesterday when he declared that he couldn’t see himself ever backing a Muslim from running for president. Specifically, the good Doctor said that Islam is “incompatible with the Constitution.”
Breaking news, Dr. Carson. Article VI of the Constitution provided that “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.”
Moving on – Carly Fiorina and Marco Rubio have received the biggest boosts from their performances at the Reagan Library. Rubio adroitly played down his poll numbers yesterday, which makes sense, since he’s jumped up and down in the polls so often this year that he’s humbled enough to realize that it’s just one poll, and he might as well stay on message just in case future polls continue to show him with a meager 5 percent or so (the CNN poll has him at 11 percent, and in fourth place).
As big a a story as Fiorina’s rise in this new survey is the unbelievable fall of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who has tumbled to below 1 percent.
Yes, that’s right. Less than 1 percent.
Earlier this year I wrote that I thought that the GOP nominee would come from one of three candidates: Walker, Rubio or Jeb Bush.
Bush’s campaign itself is struggling big time, but nobody has been a bigger failure than Walker this year. He was one of the chosen few by the Koch Brothers to inherit some of that $800 million the brothers said they would spend on next year’s election. His successful takedown of the public sector unions in liberal Wisconsin was said to be the calling card that would turn on Republicans from coast-to-coast.
It’s not working out that way.
Super PAC money (whether it’s from the Kochs or others) will ensure that Walker isn’t going anywhere soon. But Rick Perry was doing better (slightly), and he read the tea leaves and bowed out a couple of weeks ago. I said a week ago on a local television station that it would be an incredible story if Bush won the nomination, considering he was down by over 20 points in the last CNN poll. I stand by that assertion. Walker? Well, coming back from a .5 % poll number to the nomination? Even in this most unusual year of politics, that’s ain’t gonna happen.
In other news…
David Jolly is one of not so many Republicans (outside of New York) supporting re-upping legislation for 9/11 first responders.
And Jeffrey Vinik may be the most popular man in Tampa, which made his Q&A session with Tampa Tiger Bay members so interesting last Friday.
