RUSH: Donald Trump is dominating the Republican field in New Hampshire. This is from The Politico: “Donald Trump commands the field in New Hampshire, according to the results of a Bloomberg Politics/St. Anselm College poll of Republican voters in the state released Wednesday morning. Trump earned 24 percent compared to 17 percent for Ben Carson.” You know, Carly Fiorina, what happened here? Carly Fiorina, after everybody skyrockets into second place or third place depending on the poll, and then after you didn’t hear anything about her. I mean, there was some negative publicity about her time at Hewlett-Packard and lucent and so forth, but man, it’s like she’s become invisible. She did eke out in a couple of polls a position in double digits. She’s back down now to six, seven, 8%, back down into single digits.
The Politico says that this New Hampshire poll “represents a blow to Bush, whose favorability rating in the state dropped to its lowest level in almost a year of polling despite a big ad buy from the Right to Rise super PAC supporting him. About 57 percent said they had a favorable view of the former governor, down from 59 percent in May and 61 percent last November.”
So Jeb is losing ground in the all-important state of New Hampshire. “Asked a series of questions about the perceived shortcoming of the candidates in the field, 53 percent said they were less supportive of Bush because of his advocacy of a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.”
Companion story from the AP: “Trump’s Republican Critics Pushing for GOP-Backed Takedown — Don’t expect Democrats to take down Donald Trump. If the GOP’s baffled establishment wants to dismiss their party’s billionaire presidential front-runner, it appears they’ll have to do it themselves.” Right, ’cause there aren’t any Democrats attacking Trump, except constantly. What is this, they’re gonna have to take him down themselves? Democrats all over the place are attacking Trump. There are a lot of people attacking Trump.
You know what’s amazing to me? When is the last time — seriously now, folks. I’m just throwing an observation of mine out there to you. When is the last time you remember a political party working so hard to bring down its own front-runner? Now, there have been times where parties have tried to take out other candidates — (interruption) Well, when? When’s the last time? (interruption). Was Reagan ever the front-runner in ’76 that they tried to take down? I know they tried to prevent Reagan from becoming the front-runner and at the ’76 convention in Kansas City, I was there, we all know what happened.
I mean, there’s no doubt that the Republican didn’t want any part of Reagan in ’76 and they bit the bullet in 1980. But have you ever seen, I mean, Trump is a far and away front-runner. Have you ever, in your life, do you recall a party, either one or name your pick of some oddball party, try to take down their own front run? Never seen anything like this before, have you?
Luis Gutierrez, Democrat, Illinois, big proponent of amnesty. Big, big, big Obama supporter. Is launching an effort to force Saturday Night Live to cancel Donald Trump’s appearance. This is in the Chicago Sun-Times. “Representative Luis Gutierrez, Democrat, Illinois, a national crusader for immigrant reform, launched a drive yesterday to dump Trump from his November 7th Saturday Night Live hosting gig. ‘Having Trump headline Saturday Night Live is a level of endorsement that says to America that every hateful and racist thing Trump has said since he launched his campaign is acceptable and no big deal,’ Gutierrez said in a letter to Stephen Burke, CEO of NBC Universal, and to Brian Roberts, the CEO of Comcast.”
So having Hillary on, no, that wasn’t any big deal. And no, that wasn’t an endorsement of Hillary. No, no, no. What an admission. And, by the way, Luis Gutierrez is not the only one trying to get Trump taken off Saturday Night Live. There are two or three other groups, all Hispanic in nature, Latino, are doing their best to take Trump out.
ABC News: “Donald Trump Leads in Expectations, Shows Strength on Attributes.” It’s just another poll, and it just shows that Trump is gaining in strength, depth, and durability. Now, what I’m looking for? What did I do with this? There is a huge story. I thought I had it in the Stack. I’m gonna have to find it in a different Stack. You know our old friend Mike Murphy, the consultant? Mike Murphy is running… He’s either running the Jeb campaign or Jeb Super PAC, one of the two. Murphy… There’s a story either about Murphy…
I think it’s the Politico (I know I had it right here) in which he just launches into Trump, just launches and made the case that Jeb’s gonna be the nominee. It’s just a matter of time. They’re sitting right where they want to sit. They’re right where they want to be. They’ve got all this money. They haven’t spent nearly what they’ve got. They’re gonna be ready to unload this money once it gets down to real voting time starting in February, and Trump isn’t gonna have a chance, and the American people aren’t gonna want Trump.
Trump’s a phony baloney, plastic banana, good-time rock ‘n’ roller. Jeb’s the only guy with any chance, any hope for the Republican Party. I mean, it really is the inside-the-Beltway consultants class and the establishment just launching a giant salvo fight back, and I’m gonna find that. I thought I had it in the Stack. I’m sorry. I got a lot of stacks here. And I have sound bites along these lines. Brit Hume, also an establishment voice on Fox News. In fact, grab that one. What would this be? That’s right. Audio sound bite 15. This had to be tough for Brit Hume to say, but this was Megyn Kelly’s show. You know, let me take the break. We’re getting up close to the break time. Let me find that Murphy piece. We’ll get to that sound bite we get back here. Don’t go away.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: This is Brit Hume. This was last night in The Kelly File with Megyn Kelly. She said, “What do you make of the Byron York piece today suggesting the Republican establishment is preparing for war against Trump, saying, ‘If we have to take him down, we will. The negative ads will start and we’ll go after him in Iowa. We’ll go after him in New Hampshire. We’re not letting this man get the GOP nomination.'” That’s what. I mean, I’ve never, ever seen a political party try to take down its front-runner.
I mean, not like this. And I don’t care what you think of Trump, but he is the front-runner, and you would think the Republicans want to win. Now, they were this vicious about Reagan; they just never said it. (interruption) No, no, that’s true. In 1976, 1980, Republican establishment was just as opposed to Reagan as they are to talk radio or whatever manifestation of conservatism today. They just didn’t say it publicly, like they’re now saying it about Trump, and I’ve got this Murphy piece here which ran in The Politico. Anyway, here is Brit Hume’s reply…
HUME: It’s become clear — because it’s getting late, Megyn — that his lead has persisted so long, you’re looking at the kind of percentage of the vote that in a place like Iowa or perhaps New Hampshire could be the winning percentage. So you posit Donald Trump having won Iowa and New Hampshire — and/or New Hampshire — and going into South Carolina where he has a lot of support. You’re looking at somebody who’s got a tremendous head of steam and might become impossible to stop, uhh, with a disaffected, uhh, Republican electorate. So his nomination now becomes something that everybody has to say is possible.
RUSH: That’s new ground. Brit Hume is a voice of the establishment thinking in Washington. So now they’re coming to grips, “Hey, this might really be happening.” They expected Trump to have dropped out by now or to have made a gaffe that would force him out. They’re still hoping for that. Many of them are still hoping that there’s some giant gaffe, something so embarrassing that not even his lunatic supporters would tolerate. In fact, do you know what the latest parlor game is among inside-the-Beltway establishment journalists?
They are beginning to… You may see these pretty soon. They are commissioning stories, man-on-the-street stories, going out and finding Trump supporters at a Trump rally and asking them one question: “What would it take for you to stop supporting Donald Trump?” You will begin to see some of these stories. (interruption) I have no idea what the answers are gonna be. I haven’t seen one yet. I’m postulating here that this is going to be part of the effort. They’re gonna dispatch and commission these stories, and the stories are gonna serve as research as well as, quote/unquote, “journalism.”
“What would Trump have to do? What would have to happen to get you to drop your support for Donald Trump?” Because the establishment has about pulled all of its hair out. I mean, they’re about run out of options here. Now they’re talking about throwing all this money at Trump starting in the Hawkeye Cauci, then moving into New Hampshire. By the way, Trump is drawing even bigger crowds than the mainstream media is reporting. And Trump has developed a trick that he uses with the media before his appearances begin designed to get them to actually show how big his crowds are. They’re underselling and understating his crowds, in some cases about as much as half.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Politico. Bush ally Mike Murphy. He is the man in charge of the Jeb Bush super PAC. He granted an interview to Bloomberg Politics. It was published yesterday. The name of the super PAC, by the way, is Right to Rise USA. Mike Murphy, a traditional inside-the-Beltway Republican establishment consultant. He has represented John McCain. He has represented and run the campaigns of Arnold Schwarzenegger and of Mitt Romney. Just FYI.
In this interview with Bloomberg Politics, Mike Murphy said “the prospect of a Trump presidency as one of a ‘false zombie front-runner.'” Mike Murphy says of Donald Trump, “HeÂ’s dead politically. He’ll never be president of the United States, ever. By definition I don’t think you can be a front-runner if you’re totally unelectable. I think there’s there an a priori logic problem in that.” It says here that Senator Ted Cruz “stands to gain the most from a potential Trump collapse,” but Murphy said, “Nope, nope, nope, that’s a ‘minority lane’ of voters.”
No, the only viable candidate the Republican Party has is Jeb Bush. And as Jeb’s campaign manager de facto, Murphy says we’re right where we want to be. We’re being overlooked. Everybody is thinking we’re blown out, have no chance. Trump’s a false zombie. Nobody’s gonna vote for this guy for president. It isn’t gonna happen. We’re gonna be in there to pick up the mess, and we’re gonna start when they start counting votes in February in Iowa. It’s much more in depth than that, and it is pointed.
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