Tonight, President Obama will deliver a speech in which he will, depending upon whom you ask, detail his own budget proposal, or provide a sketchy outline rift with generalities, mixed messages, and of course a scary concept to “I am every man" Republicans; profundities. Which will it be? Well, because future-telling is beyond my pay grade, I will wait until a later date to pursue that debate…or not.
In the interim, there is a matter I want to spend a few minutes with this week. A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released yesterday indicates Donald Trump tied Mike Huckabee for the lead when Republicans were asked who they support for the GOP Presidential Nomination. It is important to say, “It’s early.” Another obvious caveat is Donald Trump injects an enormous name recognition factor into the conversation. Having noted those points, here are the poll results in there entirety:
Huckabee 19%
Trump 19%
Palin 12%
Gingrich 11%
Romney 11%
Paul 7%
Bachmann 5%
Daniels 3%
Pawlenty 2%
Santorum 2%
Barbour * (Less than 1%)
Someone else (vol.) 3%
None/ No one (vol.) 4%
No opinion 1%
Both The Donald and Huckabee garnered 19% of the votes, while Sarah Palin captured 12%, Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney, collected 11% each. That adds up to 72%, or slightly less than three-quarters of the 824 people polled. No other candidate mentioned cracked double-figure polling. In fact, the sum of the totals for Someone else, None/No one, and No opinion exceeded every other named candidate’s share of the votes.
Though mentioned above, it should be repeated, it is very early. Candidates are still in the process of forming Exploratory Committees, and few if any have formally announced their intentions (to run), though Tim Pawlenty came close to doing so yesterday on CNN, in a conversation with Piers Morgan.
Those facts notwithstanding, it is interesting that the two highest polling candidates have embraced the Birther Movement (though Mr. Huckabee has been known to denounce that point of view) ideology, which holds that President Obama was not “Born in the USA
Did I say it is early? The temptation is to say the results of this recent CNN Poll provide incontrovertible evidence that regardless of the calendar, we are fully immersed in the Silly Season. It is enticing to believe we will wake up in a month or two or three and the zaniness will have subsided; replaced by adults responding to survey questions instead of their kindergarteners, and a sense of sobriety will rule, once again. Hold on to that thought!
It is an absolute truth that polls and surveys taken today may be inconsequential, in relation to actual 2012 results. Consider that at this time in 2007, the Polls, most Republicans, virtually all Democrats who were not running, and conventional wisdom, to be sure, held that Hillary Clinton would be the Democratic Party’s nominee for President. So, “it is early, really!”
I have addressed the Birther debate in an earlier blog, and so, will not revisit it again, per se, in this post. However, it is worth noting that CNN reported yesterday that Mr. Trump said he has hired a team of investigators to go to Hawaii
- McCain researchers – Totally incompetent
- State of
- CIA, FBI, Secret Service – Government workers
- Other Democratic candidates – Losers
- Other Republican candidates – Duped
- New York Times, Washington Post, other media – Co-opted
Yes, this is clearly a job for The Donald, or at least his minions. If this view point is the outlook necessary to score with Republican voters, we are in for quite a 2012 Campaign Season. But let’s face it, this scurrilous tack, while a low blow, is nothing new. In the 2008 Campaign, Senator Obama’s opponents embraced a variety of substitutes for issues, including:
There were others of course, but the list above is more than adequate to make the point. Although most of his opponents claim Mr. Obama is weak on the issues, it is incredibly fascinating why so many of them prefer to trade these proxies for issues, rather than choosing to debate the issues themselves. It is almost as though they have conceded they cannot win a head-to-head battle focused on the issues they all claim really matter to Americans. Hmmm!
Be all that as it may; it is almost surreal to confront the current reality: “The Donald Trumps the Field!” That, sadly, pretty much says it all. To wit, I’m done; holla back!
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