Which GOP Rival Will Fire Trump?
In fact, Trump's xenophobic remarks already have at least one fan among his fellow contender. "I like Donald Trump," chirped Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. "I think he's terrific, I think he's brash, I think he speaks the truth." I think Cruz is desperate to move up in the polls, even if he has to tap into the same paranoid wing that feeds Trump's ego and poll numbers.
Announcements by Fox News and CNN that they will limit the first two major debates to candidates who rank in the top 10 in national polls has changed the feel of the Republican contest from a collegial "American Idol" to a cutthroat "Hunger Games."
Frankly, in a crowded field like the one currently jamming its way onto next year's Republican primary ballots, I am struck not so much that Trump is so high on the charts but that he is so low.
Trump only needed 12 percent in the latest CNN/ORC poll to come in second, behind Bush, who held the lead with 19. That means 88 percent preferred somebody besides Trump. That only sounds impressive in comparison to the rest of the crowded field's failure to break out of single digits.
A Suffolk University poll in New Hampshire shortly after their announcements also had Bush in first with 14 percent and Trump in second with 11 percent.
In Iowa, a CNN poll among likely caucus goers also showed Trump in second place with 10 percent. That ties with Dr. Ben Carson, but lags 8 points behind the early frontrunner, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.
In other words, it's early. The big questions that remain to be answered include how much and how many of the Grand Old Party's candidates are willing to follow the Trump route by pandering to the party's angry, paranoid extremes.
Or who on the debate stage will be the first to tell Trump in Chris Christy's fashion to "sit down and shut up!"
========
(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@tribune.com.)
(c) 2015 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
