[In the Drunk Tank]

Originally Posted by Vicky.

Is there actually a possibility this guy might win? Just..I'm not up to date on American politics at all but I always thought he was viewed as a kinda joke. Like how the BNP and such are seen over here. But from the recent stories and such, he actually seems popular?

He's now very likely to be the Republican nomination and would probably run Hilary close. Couple of good articles from the last couple of days:

His strengths – down-home appeal, life experience and real-world commercial success (this is the US) – all underline that which Clinton lacks. They also serve as a reminder of why her campaign for the Democratic candidacy eight years ago ultimately failed. Barack Obama had what it took to inspire voters; she, for all her formidable achievements, did not.

...

Trump has demonstrated that he can switch register, practically overnight, from outrageous to gracious, even reasonable. He has his own success story to tell that many Americans will find attractive. He can get things done, real things. And he has already shown – his spat with Pope Francis being a prime example – that moral criticism may not stick. And if he has personal baggage – well, so does Clinton, too.

The nominations will not be fixed until the party conventions in July. But even at this early stage it is worth noting that the US of the European mind tends to be a more generous, less rugged, and more outward-looking place than much of it is. When Trump speaks of building a wall with Mexico, he promises a reality that partially exists; there is an 18ft-high metal fence for a third of the length of the border. And when he condemns the Iraq War, proposes talks with Vladimir Putin or ridicules Obama’s ability to handle Congress, he undermines Clinton’s positions in ways that voters across the spectrum will understand.

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/...-a6907906.html

Yes, Trump’s appeal is largely that of the outsider. He’s the voice of countless ordinary Americans who are sick to the back teeth with political correctness, who detest Washington and its dysfunctional ways, who feel the country is going down the drain. “All talk, no action, never gets done,” are Trump’s watchwords.

...

But there’s more to Trump than that. Skilfully, he plays lip-service to canons of Republican orthodoxy. Guns are good, illegal immigrants and abortion are very bad and Obamacare must go. Like every good Republican, he’s put forward a completely unaffordable programme of tax cuts. Look a little more closely, however, and Trump may be the most centrist frontrunner the party has had in decades.

Cruz and Rubio assail him as a Democrat in disguise, pointing to his former praise for a single payer health system, the kind words he once had for that arch-demon Hillary Clinton and his support for many of the activities of the Planned Parenthood organisation, vilified by the party because it helps women get abortions.

Then there’s Trump’s show of evenhandedness in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – reiterated in Thursday’s debate – and his denunciation of the 2003 invasion of Iraq: the world he says, would be a safer place if the likes of Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi were still in power. Cruz and Rubio are spot-on. Trump is in many respects a traitor to his party (assuming of course he truly belonged to it in the first place). Alas for his rivals, apostasy pays off.

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/...-a6900296.html