Mitch Perry
Welcome to the first working day of Daylight Saving Time, a/k/a the crankiest Monday morning of the year.
Welcome to the return of true humidity to the Sunshine State, and welcome back to Donald Trump, who brings his campaign to Tampa this afternoon for a “town hall” event at the Convention Center. Note that it’s not a rally. Theoretically, in a town hall, the public gets to ask questions. I’ve not seen that happen in the four previous Trump events on the trail, so we’ll see what looks like.
Activists protesting against the Manhattan real estate mogul will be convening at 10:30 a.m. at MacDill Park along the Riverwalk.
While the nation considers what to make of Trump, voters in the remaining Republican Party primaries and caucuses still have the power to deny him the nomination, starting Tuesday in Florida.
There’s no indication, though, that with a four-man field anyone can top the 35 to 40 percent he consistently generates among the GOP electorate.
There are many party figures who believe Trump is bad for the party, none more eloquent than South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who spoke to 400 Pinellas County Republicans at their Lincoln Day Dinner in St. Petersburg on Saturday night.
“I know Donald Trump,” she said. “I’ve met him. He’s been a supporter of mine. But his judgment is off. You don’t divide people against each other in this country. You don’t divide by race, or religion or anything. We need someone to bring us together. We’ve got terrorists that will divide enough of this world, that we need to be united in this country.”
As I wrote in my original piece, only when she mentioned foreign terrorists did the audience emotionally react.
True, Haley was there pitching on behalf of Marco Rubio, who certainly didn’t have all the love in the room. But the lack of response to Haley’s denunciation of Trump shows that the people in that room are divided, if maybe not more pro-Trump than any other candidate still standing.
So how will Rubio do tomorrow night? The polls aren’t encouraging. Rubio blanketed the Tampa Bay area on Saturday with four separate stops in Pinellas, Hillsborough and Polk counties. His appearance in Tampa was notable for the simple fact he’s probably been in this city less than a handful of times in the five years he’s been representing Florida in the U.S. Senate.
And …
Barack Obama‘s approval numbers are up — is it in reaction to what the next commander in chief might look like?
