Fox News Poll: Donald Trump Takes Back Iowa with 11-Point Surge

AP Photo/Mary Altaffer

by MIKE FLYNN24 Jan 20164361

A new Fox News poll of Iowa shows Donald Trump surging to a strong 11-point lead in the caucuses taking place next week. With just one week until the first votes of the 2016 primary are cast, Trump leads second-place Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) 34-23 percent.

The last two Fox News polls of Iowa, conducted in early January and early December, has Ted Cruz with a slim lead over the GOP frontrunner. In the last two weeks, according to the poll, Trump has gained 11 points and Cruz has lost 4 points.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) remains in a distant third place with 12 percent, but he has lost 3 points since early January. No other candidate has support in the double digits.

The Fox poll has a fairly large 5-point margin of error, higher than its last two polls, but the underlying trend towards Trump is unmistakable. One major factor helping Trump is that Republican voters in general are warming to his candidacy.

In early January, almost one-third of Republicans, 31 percent, said they could not support Trump if he became the nominee. Today, that number is down to 20 percent.

This week, Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassleyappeared at a campaign rally for Donald Trump. He made it clear he wasn’t endorsing Trump and is, in fact, scheduled to appear with Sen. Marco Rubio this weekend, but his appearance is an explicit un-endorsement of Ted Cruz. Grassley has recently criticized his colleague Cruz for his opposition to ethanol and wind power subsidies.

Also this week, Iowa Governor Terry Branstad publicly stated that he hoped Cruz would lose the Iowa caucus, also because of his opposition to ethanol and wind power. As the nation’s top corn producer, the state has a vested interest in maintaining the federal mandate to include ethanol-blended gasoline in motor fuel. The state has also become a leading provider of federally subsidized wind power.

In addition, Sarah Palin endorsed Donald Trump in Iowa early in the week. Her endorsement came just as the Fox poll was starting interviews in the Hawkeye State. The Palin endorsement boosted Trump considerably among voters who identify as “very conservative” and “tea party.”

Among both voters, Cruz had been leading Trump in the last Fox poll. Trump now leads among “tea party voters” and is essentially tied with Cruz among “very conservative” voters. Cruz had held a slim lead among more mainstream “Republican” voters, a group Trump now leads by 9 points.

Trump, it seems, is benefiting from a political perfect storm just before Iowa casts its votes. Palin’s embrace of Trump and the state’s Republican establishment’s united opposition to Cruz has pushed Trump into a strong lead.

This unique combination, if it holds, could allow Trump to run the tables in states voting through the Spring and lock-in the nomination sooner than most would have expected.

That said, a week is a lifetime in politics, and a tea party-establishment coalition likely is tenuous. There is also a final GOP debate on Thursday, just 4 days before the caucus. Still, Iowa seems to be moving towards Trump.

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McCain Senior Staffer: Palin ‘One of America’s Most Astounding Morons’;

Endorsement ‘Just Classless’

AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin

by BREITBART NEWS20 Jan 20165300

A former McCain senior adviser blasted former Alaska governor Sarah Palin’s endorsement of GOP frontrunner Donald Trump as “just classless,” telling Politico’s Ben Schreckinger that McCain’s vice presidential running mate is “one of America’s most astounding morons.”

Schreckinger reports:

“It’s just classless,” said a former senior adviser to McCain of the endorsement, predicting it would backfire. “It’s undermining to a key Trump message which is one of competency. What Trump has said is that he’s going to hire the very best people and bring in men of Carl Icahn’s ilk … and he’s appearing with someone who’s viewed as one of America’s most astounding morons.”

Palin’s endorsement of Trump follows a public dispute between the New York real estate tycoon and the Arizona senator whoaccused Trump of “firing up the crazies” after Trump held a campaign rally in Phoenix with supporters who comprise McCain’s own constituents. Trump fired back by dismissing McCain’s status as a war hero and calling out McCain’s disparagement of thousands of Arizonans as “crazies.”

Palin electrified the GOP base after being tapped as McCain’s running mate in 2008. As shown in the documentary “The Undefeated” by Breitbart News Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon, Palin’s addition to the McCain ticket gave the lackluster McCain campaign their only lead in the polls against Barack Obama until the financial crisis conclusively brought any hope of a GOP victory to an end. McCain’s decision to “suspend” his campaignfollowing the financial meltdown sent his poll numbers into a nosedive that they never recovered from.

After the 2008 election, the GOP establishment consultants that comprised McCain’s senior campaign staff quickly turned on Palin, shifting the blame for the campaign’s failure on Palin rather than on the consultants who devised McCain’s strategy to deal with the financial crisis.

In spite of the behavior of McCain’s staffers, Palin has maintained her loyalty to her former running mate, who has sought her help in shoring up his conservative base in Arizona. Palin’s endorsement of McCain’s 2010 Senate re-election allowed him to stave off a conservative primary challenger.

McCain, who is up for re-election again this year, is facing another conservative primary challenger in former Arizona State Senator Kelli Ward, who in a poll last November was beating McCain among Republican voters by a 9-point margin.

As Breitbart’s Michelle Moons reported:

McCain’s actions calling conservatives “whacko birds” and “crazies” was called out among the PAC’s grievances against the over three-decade D.C. insider.

In January 2014 McCain’s own party in Arizona censured the Senator for excessive liberal voting including support for the “Gang of Eight” amnesty plan. At the time of the Arizona State Committeemen meeting censure of the Senator, six of the state’s fifteen county parties had censured McCain.

Palin has not yet endorsed anyone in the Arizona senate race this year.

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Meghan McCain: ‘Hard For Me To Watch’ Palin Endorse Trump

by JOHN NOLTE20 Jan 20162,652

Appearing on the Fox Business Network Wednesday, Meghan McCain, daughter of Senator Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), said that it was hard for her to watch former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin endorse Republican frontrunner Donald Trump. “It is hard for me to watch her endorse Donald Trump after what Donald Trump said about my father’s service,” she said.

McCain was referring to Trump’s feud with her father which resulted in Trump hitting back, “He’s not a war hero,” Trump said. “He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured.”

Meghan McCain also accused Palin for “pandering” in her support of Trump.

The Hill:

“I was shocked simply because I know of her relationship with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). She’s debatably responsible for his political career,” McCain said.

She also chided Palin for “pandering” and distancing herself from conservative values.

“I wish I just saw this a little less like pandering. And doing something that’s popular instead of sticking with your integrity and the kind of conservative beliefs that she has espoused for so long.”

This is a bizarre criticism from the same Meghan McCain who has spent the last 7 years doing everything but praise Palin for her “integrity.” In fact, were it not for herserial-betrayals of Palin to the delight of the mainstream media, Meghan McCain would probably not have a media career. During an appearance on MSNBC, McCain also smeared the late Andrew Breitbart as a reason she does not feel welcome in the Republican Party.

This, despite the fact he invited her to joinBreitbart News as a contributor.

Tell us again about the integrity.

 

Follow John Nolte on Twitter@NolteNC               

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GLENN BECK, You Do Not Understand Sarah Palin

AP Photo/Mary Altaffer

by JOEL B. POLLAK20 Jan 2016557

The conservative commentariat has imploded in dismay at Sarah Palin’s endorsement of Donald Trump in Iowa on Tuesday.

Fans of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Trump’s main rival in Iowa and beyond, were understandably dismayed.

But the reaction went far beyond that. Some said Palin betrayed her conservative principles by choosing a candidate whose conservatism is shallow at best. And some rehashed the personal attacks that have been a staple of the left.

In fact, Sarah Palin’s endorsement of Trump makes sense, and fits both her politics and her personality.

Yes, she has been the iconic symbol of conservatism and the Tea Party, whereas Trump seemed perfectly happy to go along with Obama and the Clintons until a few years ago.

But just as Palin has never let herself be defined by the Republican Party, she has never felt bound by ideological checklists, either. She is a conservative, but she is anti-establishment first.

Palin became the governor of Alaska in 2005 by running against the establishment of both parties. In 2014, in Wacko Birds: The Fall and Rise of the Tea Party, I noted:

Ironically, though she would soon become a conservative icon, Palin was billed as something of a political centrist. McCain introduced her to the country as “someone who reached across the aisle and asked Republicans, Democrats and independents to serve in government.” She was socially conservative, but had vetoed a bill that would have prevented same-sex partners from enjoying visitation rights in Alaskan hospitals. She was said to share something of McCain’s rebellious streak, and his willingness to confront his own party’s interests as she took on corruption and special interest groups.

In the Obama era, conservatism became the dominant anti-establishment theme of American politics, thanks partly to Palin. However, over time, Palin has found herself increasingly at odds with the conservative establishment itself, parts of which are anti-populist–happy to have her backing, but faintly embarrassed by her and repulsed by her supporters.

(Update: Ted Cruz has made his reputation as an anti-establishment politician, so it would not have been surprising had Palin supported him instead of Trump, simply on ideological grounds. Palin’s reasons for choosing Trump may be more personal than political. But the dismissive reaction of some Cruz supporters to Palin suggests a kind of elitism. Parts of the anti-establishment conservative movement turn out to be their own kind of establishment.)

It is now fashionable, even among some “true conservative” pundits, to bash Palin’s intellect and mock her speech. Trump’s supporters are often treated with the same disdain as Palin’s fans, as if not even their votes are wanted.

Surprisingly, Ross Douthat of the New York Times came closer to understanding the Palin endorsement than many conservatives outside the mainstream media bubble,tweeting: “Seriously, this is who Palin was meant to be. Her neocon + movement phases were opportunism/osmosis. This is closer to where she started.”

That is too harsh: her “opportunism” included resigning from the governorship and turning down several chances to run for office again. And Douthat may be implying, as others have said outright, that what Trump and Palin really have in common is just celebrity.

That would miss the convictions that motivate Palin, and that still attract millions of Americans to her. Regardless, the kernel of truth in Douthat’s tweet is that Palin was, and remains, the leader of a popular resistance to what American politics has become. It is a conservative resistance, but does not always conform to conservative politics.

It is unclear, as of this writing, that Palin’s endorsement will have a significant effect on the Iowa caucuses, where polls had been trending back in Trump’s direction.

What is remarkable is that just days after defending “New York values,” Trump brought Palin–so often the target of New York elites–on board. It confirmed that he intends to build a big coalition–the “big tent” of political lore.

How odd that some conservatives would still prefer to bar the clubhouse door.

 

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Cruz and Beck Join Forces at Waterloo to Campaign

Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images

by BREITBART NEWS19 Jan 20164456

Glenn Beck lit into former Alaska governor Sarah Palin after her endorsement today of GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump. The radio host then announced that he would be joining Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)this weekend for a campaign rally in Waterloo, Iowa.

Beck, who had a falling out with Palin a number of years ago that only became public last fall when he referred to her as a “clown” on his radio show, posted the following to his Facebook page today:

Sarah Palin.

Small Government, lower taxes, fewer regulations and the constitution?

Not any more.

Big government, bailouts, executive orders, not just abortion but partial birth abortion, nationalizing of banks, stimulus, pathway to citizenship.

All of these views were held by Donald Trump during this administration. Pathway to citizenship in 2013. Some as recently as last year.

What was the massive pivot point to make him change so fundamentally?

When Sarah and the tea party won a hard fought election and were under attack in 2010, DJT was giving money to Pelosi, Reid and Rahm.

I couldn’t disagree with her more but she has played the game now for years. Perhaps she knows more than those of us still on the outside.

Maybe the press was right about her but for all of the wrong reasons.

Shortly after posting this, Beck announcedon Facebook that he and his wife Tania would be joining Ted Cruz for a rally in Waterloo, Iowa, this weekend.

“Hope to see you there as I lend my support to help defend the constitution, a small government crusader and an authentic conservative Christian candidate,” Beck wrote in reference to Cruz.

Beck and Cruz had previously worked together for a border relief effort in 2014 to bring soccer balls, teddy bears, and other humanitarian aid to illegal immigrant children.

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