IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
By Ed Hoffman
Four months after Donald Trump entered the presidential race, he’s the undeniable Republican party frontrunner. No matter what he says (whether it’s insulting Carly Fiorina’s face last month or knocking Ben Carson’s chosen denomination of Christianity this week), he remains firmly in the lead. No matter what he doesn’t say (like what he would actually do as President), it doesn’t affect his rank. In fact, Trump can blame George W. Bush for 9/11 – a completely cowardly move – and still retain all of his grassroots support. It’s mind boggling, and at this point it’s a bit embarrassing because he continues to show very little substance.
That doesn’t mean I don’t agree with Trump on matters like illegal immigration, because I do. I also think his business acumen could be incredibly valuable to our nation’s economy (and I said so long before he announced he was running). But in the media, the insults overshadow any substantive message he had – and if he actually ended up becoming the Republican nominee, he would not be doing the party any favors.
Furthermore, I’ve noticed, all Trump talks about in his rallies is how much he’s leading in the polls. You would think conservative voters would tire of it, but apparently not. As Trump himself would say, “Can you believe it?” Only one national poll, a CBS/New York Times poll released this week, has Ben Carson ahead of Trump. Carson leads Trump by four points among likely Republican voters in that poll, though his lead is within the survey’s margin of error.
So Trump, who was already way overboard on the poll talk, is now doubling down – because God forbid anyone edge ahead of him by the smallest margin without him sounding off on it. As I write this, I see Trump has already tweeted about polls three times this morning. My guess is there will be more “poll tweets” this afternoon, and tomorrow it will start all over again. If any other candidate focused so heavily on his poll results, voters wouldn’t be willing to tolerate it for very long. If Democrat candidates did it, Republican voters would call it what it is: shallow. So why are they tolerating it from Donald Trump?
They say it’s because he says what he thinks. They say it’s because he tells it like it is. But the truth is, we have several candidates who say what they think and tell things like it is. One is Carly Fiorina, whose campaign has gone from wowing everyone to making everyone wonder what happened. After the last debate, Fiorina came in second in a CNN poll; now, the RealClearPolitics polling average has her in sixth place.
Maybe Carly should drop the classy persona, polished speeches and poignant answers to debate questions. Maybe she should start rabidly insulting each of her opponents, or blaming George W. Bush for 9/11 like a coward. It sure seems to be working for Donald Trump.
Ed Hoffman is host of The Main Event on AM590, which airs Saturday 9:30 AM- 10:30 AM and Sunday 4:00 PM- 5:00 PM. Follow him on Twitter @EdHoffman, and like him on Facebook by searching The Main Event 590.
