Nine ‘debates’ and two voter events later, what have we learned from the 2016 Republican campaign season? We’ve learned a lot, and none of it is pretty; none of the candidates are qualified to be the President of the United States.
Let’s go back to the beginning.
Ted Cruz was the first to announce his intentions on March 23, 2015. Not only was he the first to declare, he experienced the first awkward moments in the very early campaign season. His announcement was made at the Christian Liberty University. Students were told that attendance was mandatory, and if they did not attend they would be forced to pay a $10 fine. Some of the crowd wore “Stand with Rand” T-shirts.
Next came the other two TEA Party darlings; Rand Paul on April 7th, and Marco Rubio on April 23rd.
Everything appeared to be going well for the RNC until Donald Trump declared that he was a presidential candidate on June 16th. By the time of the first Republican ‘debate’ on August 6th, Trump had a huge lead in the polls, followed by former neurosurgeon Ben Carson. Now the RNC was not happy.
Together with FOX Noise President Roger Ailes, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus planned Trump’s downfall. Sometimes things don’t go as planned; in fact, this became a disaster.
From the very first question it was obvious to me, not to the media, that this was going to be an evening filled with personal attacks against Trump. Everything failed. The next day Trump’s poll numbers spiked.
All of the candidates moved into attack mode, with the exception of John Kasich and Marco Rubio. In the beginning Trump focused his attacks on Jeb Bush; he and Cruz appeared to be ‘soul mates’ made in hell.
The plan of the Republican establishment was to have Jeb Bush win the nomination. If he failed, their second choice was Marco Rubio. How’s that working out for you?
As the polls caused panic within the party, all the candidates, with the exception of Kasich, joined in the war against each other. Every debate became a school yard brawl, and not a single domestic issue was ever debated.
Finally, the ugliness led us to the Iowa Caucus. Trump had a slim lead, but lost to Ted Cruz and evangelicals. After the event Ben Carson and Donald Trump accused him of cheating with misleading mailers, and spreading a false rumor that Carson was resigning from his campaign. Rubio celebrated a third place victory. He acted as though he had just won the general election.
Saturday, February 6th New Hampshire held a debate before its primary. Marco Rubio was attacked by Chris Christie, claiming that he couldn’t speak without a memorized script. Rubio proved that he was right at the debate and in successive speeches as he continually repeated himself.
Trump crushed everyone in New Hampshire, followed by Kasich, Cruz, Bush, and Rubio a distant fifth.
Saturday is the South Carolina primary. Trump once again has a large lead in the polls, and the candidates continue to reveal desperation as the attacks have risen in both volume and number.
Only six out of the original 17 remain. But I question why there are more than three. Carson, Kasich, and Bush are far behind the other three. Bush is so fearful of a poor showing that he has included his family into his campaign events. Barbara Bush was somewhat of an asset. Now his brother, the worst president in America’s history, George W. Bush, is joining Jeb on the stage. Really? That is really going to the bottom of the barrel.
The latest composite of the polls in South Carolina continue to show Bush in fifth place; Trump is ahead of Jeb by a margin of 4-1.
Op-Ed
By James Turnage
Photo Courtesy of DonkeyHotey
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