Donald Trump Winning Because Plenty Of Republicans Like Loudmouthed Dickheads

Donald Trump is at the very top of the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll, with 24 percent of Republican-leaning voters preferring the rubber-faced buttplug over the other primary candidates. His closest rivals, Scott Walker and Jeb! Bush, are virtually tied with 13 and 12 percent support (and a margin of error of 3 to 5 percentage points). And we know why this is. It is because Republican primary voters are A Idiot, as Sean Hannity astutely observed on his radio program Monday.

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After noting that McCain really started the trouble by calling Trump's supporters "crazies" -- a factually accurate assessment, we should add -- Hannity explained why Trump's dumb comments about McCain may not ultimately hurt him, at least not with the rabid didelphimorphs that make up the most fervent part of the Tea Party crowd:

John McCain is a pretty well-known RINO, I mean there's no disputing it -- he's been good on issues involving Iraq and the war and so on and so forth, but let's be honest here: he's wrong on a lot of issues. I don't think you can debate whether or not he's a war hero.

So really, it's not like Trump was going after anyone who was all that beloved to the crazies to begin with. Then Hannity explains what's really offensive: the way the media presented Trump's comments as somehow insulting to McCain, which they absolutely weren't, no siree.

I also think this game that the media plays, racing to every Republican presidential candidate, "Will you condemn Trump?" Well Trump's ahead in the polls, of course they're going to look for an opportunity to disagree with Donald Trump [...]

This is not as simple as what just happened on that stage on Saturday, or Trump not apologizing or doubling down on his comments, and explaining his comments. Now, I do think it is fair to point out that, in the beginning, he was interrupted by moderator Frank Luntz, and he did blurt out McCain was not a war hero. But a second later -- and Trump's people point this out accurately , and Sharyl Attkisson, who left CBS because of their pro-Democratic bias, pointed out the same thing... because he said it four times: "He is a war hero. He is a war hero. He was captured, he's a war hero." And so he said it four times.

FOUR AND A HALF TIMES, ALAN! So there you have it: Trump was actually acknowledging McCain's heroism, not denigrating the man. Apart from maybe the sarcastic tone, the suggestion --unstated! He never said it! -- that being considered a hero for being captured is kind of lame, and the "I like people that weren’t captured, okay?" part. It was merely a statement that he likes people who weren't captured, not that he likes them better than people who were captured, mind you. Did Trump actually use a comparative? He did not. Stop lying about Donald Trump.

And then Hannity was onto the really important point about Donald Trump: He was actually trying to help America's veterans by taking down that big phony RINO John McCain, because:

Nobody's been held accountable for the treatment of our vets at our Veterans Hospitals that are dying. Or the fact that they have inferior medical care. Or the fact that we treat them horribly. You know, now we have five dead Americans because of the Chattanooga story. Why aren't our military allowed to carry arms at recruiting stations? I think that would be a legitimate, hands-down, winning issue for Donald Trump!

Somebody really needs to ask that John McCain guy just how he gets to be called a hero when four brave Marines and a Navy guy, who almost counts as much as a Marine, were shot because of John McCain's callous disregard for the Veterans Administration hospitals. Besides, he did say McCain was a hero.

We'll see if that "correction" to the narrative sticks. If Fox pushes it enough, it probably will. Still, it's just possible that some of the shiny fake cheap tinsel on Donald Trump's reputation is falling away, to reveal the real fake cheap tinsel that lies beneath: That WaPo/ABC poll was conducted between Thursday and Sunday, and the Post notes what may be either a blip, or maybe the start of a trend:

Support for Trump fell sharply on the one night that voters were surveyed following those comments. Telephone interviewing for the poll began Thursday, and most calls were completed before the news about the remarks was widely reported.

Although the sample size for the final day was small, the decline was statistically significant. Still, it is difficult to predict what could happen to Trump’s support in the coming days and weeks as the controversy plays out.

Then again, this being Donald Trump, it's also entirely possible that in the next few days, he'll casually mention that he's always thought that Ronald Reagan was an overrated pussy who never should have talked with Gorbachev, because Donald Trump would have made a much better deal.

And then he'll visit the Tomb of the Unknowns and say, "Who are these guys? A bunch of nobodies. I prefer people I've heard something about."

[ WaPo / Media Matters ]