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Originally posted by a1abdj:

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It turns out Trump has been generous with veterans over the past decades–all it takes is a little more research than those with an ax to grind seem willing to do.

You're clearly mistaken. I have repeatedly heard that Trump only cares about Trump. If he in fact donated any money to any of these groups, it was only due to some ulterior motive.

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Originally posted by darthfuster:
I just read that Ron Reagan Jr said his dad was/would have been repulsed by Trump. I've got news for Ron Reagan Jr. R. Reagan Sr. would have been repulsed by what has happened to this nation since he passed....not to mention by his son Ron Reagan Jr. for being a Leftist hack.

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clearly mistaken. I have repeatedly heard that Trump only cares about Trump. If he in fact donated any money to any of these groups, it was only due to some ulterior motive.

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Originally posted by colomtn:
We can yak all we want, but the public wants a wall, wants to ban Muslims, wants Obamacare gone, and wants their country to be great again.
Don Surber

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Most political and media commentators have at this point installed Donald Trump as the GOP front-runner on the eve of the first actual voting set to begin on Monday in Iowa. But this narrative tends to obscure the fact that Trump is the most unpopular candidate of either party when the entire U.S. population is taken into account -- and that he has a higher unfavorable rating than any nominated candidate from either of the two major parties going back to the 1992 election when we began to track favorability using the current format.

At this point (two-week average through Jan. 27), 33% of Americans view Trump favorably and 60% unfavorably. It's that 60% unfavorable figure that I can focus on here.

Hillary Clinton currently has a 52% unfavorable rating among all Americans, while Jeb Bush is at 45%, Chris Christie 38%, Ted Cruz 37%, Marco Rubio 33%, Bernie Sanders 31% and Ben Carson 30%. Trump's 60% is clearly well above all of these. Putting his favorable and unfavorable ratings together yields a net favorable of -27 for Trump, far above the -10 for Clinton and for Bush, the next lowest among the major candidates.

I wanted to see how Trump's unfavorable played out in the context of previous elections, so I went back to look at the unfavorable ratings of the major-party candidates from 1992 through the current election. The bottom line is that Trump now has a higher unfavorable rating than any candidate at any time during all of these previous election cycles, and that conclusion takes into account the fact that unfavorable ratings tend to rise in the heat of a general election campaign as the barbs, negative ads and heightened partisanship are taken to their highest levels. Gallup routinely reports favorable ratings based on national adults, but some of the favorable ratings in the final months of an election year that I discuss below are based on registered voters.

Bill Clinton's highest unfavorable rating in the 1992 election was 49% (in April and July of that year). His opponent, George H.W. Bush, came closest to Trump's current unfavorable rating in October 1992, as Election Day approached and he received a 57% unfavorable rating in Gallup's tracking.

In 1996, Clinton's highest unfavorable was even lower, at 44%, while his opponent, Bob Dole, never rose above a 47% unfavorable.

The 2000 election, as now, was for an open seat, pitting the sitting Vice President Al Gore against Texas Gov. George W. Bush. Gore's highest unfavorable was 42% before the November voting, rising to one reading of 52% unfavorable in December 2000 as the disputed popular vote count in Florida continued. Bush was more popular; his unfavorable rating in 2000 never rose above 41% before the election, although, like Gore's, it edged up during the recount.

When Bush was running for re-election in 2004, his highest unfavorable was 47%, while John Kerry's highest was 45%. (Both men did receive higher unfavorable ratings later on; I'll return to Bush's story below.)

In 2008, Barack Obama maintained a very popular image, with an unfavorable rating maxing out at 37%, while John McCain also remained popular with a maximum unfavorable of 44%. And when running for re-election in 2012, Obama's unfavorable crept up to 48%, while his opponent, Mitt Romney, also maxed out at 48%.

Looking across all of these candidates' unfavorable ratings outside of election years yields this conclusion: Only one of them, George W. Bush, ever had an unfavorable rating of 60% or higher. For Bush, his unpopularity crested in his final lame-duck year in office, with an unfavorable rating that hit 66% in April 2008.

By comparison, Bill Clinton's highest unfavorable rating in Gallup's history of rating him has been 59% in March 2001 after he left office amid criticism of his pardons and issues relating to White House furniture. The highest unfavorable for his wife, Hillary, came in that same March 2001 poll -- at 53% -- a figure she has matched several times in the current campaign.

One candidate I haven't mentioned here is Ross Perot. The maverick third-party candidate's unfavorable rating did reach above 60% at points in both the 1992 and 1996 campaigns, no doubt because neither party had any loyalty toward him. Perot got 19% of the popular vote in 1992 and 8% in 1996.

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Originally posted by a1abdj:
I was fortunate enough to have a neighbor growing up that really had a positive influence in my life. He didn't have Trump money, but was a very successful entrepreneur. He was a well known member of the community and publicly supported many charities and causes. He was recognized by name countless times.

Anybody who knew this guy, and the things he did for people, would tell you how great he was. But that's not why he did what he did. He donated his time and his money because it was the right thing to do, and understood that doing that would sometimes cause the limelight to shine in his direction. It was a small price to pay for all of the great things he did completely anonymously.

One of his biggest causes were sick children. We have a major children's hospital in the area, which treats sick kids from all over the US. He did the regular participatory things. Donated the money to get his name on plaques, and recognized at charity dinners. He also had spies who worked at that hospital. When families were having trouble making their house payments because the parents had to take time off of work to care for their kids, those payments were mysteriously made current. When families couldn't afford reliable transportation, cars would show up in their driveways. Only the few trusted employees at the hospital that provided him with the necessary information knew he was the one behind it.

I know many wealthy people who do similar things, and you'll never know about it. It doesn't appear on their tax filings, or as an article in the newspaper. It just happens, and few know who or why. It's the right thing to do, and it's done. No fuss. No acknowledgement.

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Originally posted by chellim1:

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Originally posted by colomtn:
We can yak all we want, but the public wants a wall, wants to ban Muslims, wants Obamacare gone, and wants their country to be great again.
Don Surber

Yes... many here want Trump and appreciate what he has done to raise this issues to a higher level of national consciousness....
and many here appreciate those and want the same things but think another candidate (Ted Cruz) would bring about the same things, but within the constraints of the Constitution.

The problem with Trump, as I see it, is that he is a lot like Obama: anything to advance his will. That's tyranny.... a government in which all power belongs to one person.

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The problem with Trump, as I see it, is that he is a lot like Obama: anything to advance his will. That's tyranny.... a government in which all power belongs to one person.

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Originally posted by Iron bottom:
Give us the facts that show that Trump is behaving, may be behaving, or will be behaving like Obama, chellim. This is something, if true, that could be a game changer. I just haven't seen this behavior.

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Originally posted by a1abdj:

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It turns out Trump has been generous with veterans over the past decades–all it takes is a little more research than those with an ax to grind seem willing to do.

You're clearly mistaken. I have repeatedly heard that Trump only cares about Trump. If he in fact donated any money to any of these groups, it was only due to some ulterior motive.

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Originally posted by Gustofer:
You're trading one narcissist for another. That alone should give you pause.

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Originally posted by lastmanstanding:

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Originally posted by Iron bottom:
Give us the facts that show that Trump is behaving, may be behaving, or will be behaving like Obama, chellim. This is something, if true, that could be a game changer. I just haven't seen this behavior.

You could also look at this the other way and offer up proof that he won't. What we do know for sure is he has been solidly on both sides of the fence.

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Originally posted by Bigboreshooter:

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Originally posted by lastmanstanding:

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Originally posted by Iron bottom:
Give us the facts that show that Trump is behaving, may be behaving, or will be behaving like Obama, chellim. This is something, if true, that could be a game changer. I just haven't seen this behavior.

You could also look at this the other way and offer up proof that he won't. What we do know for sure is he has been solidly on both sides of the fence.

The ol' "proving a negative" dodge. Nice try.

Should we also have to "prove" that Trump won't murder little children with an ax? I mean, even though he's never shown a propensity for that, I guess it's something he might do.

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Well he never said that he would murder children with a ax all though he did say he could shoot someone on 5th ave.

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I'm at least recognizing the fact that he could govern either way based upon what he is saying now and what he has said in the past.