Trump Continues to Lead After Debate

[GMDino]

This has to be a reality show and not an honest to goodness campaign...right?

http://onpolitics.usatoday.com/2015/09/25/donald-trump-bible-values-voter-summit/

Quote:Bible-toting Trump defends Christmas, slams Rubio


WASHINGTON – Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump brought his childhood Bible and his stump speech to a conservative Christian summit in Washington on Friday, where he sought to assure attendees that he is a faithful Christian who will fight for religious freedom if elected president.

Trump said progressives are fighting to eliminate Christmas and stores these days are erecting “Happy Holiday” displays rather than Christmas ones.

“I tell my wife, don’t go to those stores,” he said. “I want to see Christmas. You’re going to see it if I get elected.”

Trump also lashed out at one of his newest targets, Marco Rubio, calling the Florida senator a “clown.” That remark drew boos from the crowd. Trump also knocked Rubio as weak on immigration.

The billionaire businessman seized on news that House Speaker John Boehner is resigning next month and said the shift will bring about an “interesting period” for the country.

“We want to see the job being done properly,” he said. “We want people that are going to get it done.”

Trump suggested that Boehner and other members of the Republican establishment in Congress don’t have the courage to stand up and fight for what they want — regardless of whether it causes a government shutdown, something Trump said Americans would blame on President Obama, not on Republican lawmakers.

“These people, they’re babies, they’re babies,” Trump said.

Trump also dinged Hillary Clinton for using a teleprompter during campaign speeches: “What kind of speech is that? That’s not a speech,” he declared.

In what has become classic Trump, he ticked off poll numbers that showed him leading the GOP presidential field, bragged about his “tremendous” wealth that allows him to self-finance his campaign and touted his negotiation expertise — as chronicled in his best-selling book, The Art of the Deal.

The billionaire real estate mogul also reeled off policy objectives at the Value Voters Summit in a packed hotel ballroom. He slammed the Iran deal, Common Core education standards and mismanagement at the Department of Veterans Affairs, while promising he would build a wall to stop illegal immigration across the U.S.-Mexico border, and put his business acumen to work in the Oval Office.

“I will be the greatest jobs president God ever created,” he said.

The Values Voter Summit — whose primary sponsor is the Family Research Council’s legislative action committee — presents a prime opportunity for Trump and other GOP presidential candidates to connect with politically active Christians, who typically vote Republican. Trump, Ted Cruz, Rubio, Rick Santorum, Mike Huckabee and Bobby Jindal all seized the opportunity to address the summit.

Trump, thrice married and one-time pro-choice, had passed earlier this month on the invitation to speak at the summit, but on Wednesday, organizers said he would in fact attend. The reversal came as the billionaire real estate mogul has slipped – slightly – in polls following the second Republican presidential debate last week.

He still maintains front-runner status, including among evangelicals. In a CNN/ORC poll earlier this month, he led the field with 32 % support among white evangelical voters. Carson was second with 28%.

But he has had a bumpy run talking about religion during the campaign. He has said his favorite book is the Bible but declined to cite his favorite verse. In July, he drew criticism for saying he hasn’t asked God for forgiveness.

“If I do something wrong I just try to make it right,” he said. “When we go in church and when I drink my little wine, which is about the only wine I drink, and have my little cracker, I guess that’s a form of asking for forgiveness.”

In recent weeks, he has tried to make up for the missteps. In Iowa last weekend at the Faith and Freedom Coalition dinner, he waved his same childhood Bible. given to him by his “very religious” mother, and a picture from his own confirmation as a child. “because nobody believes this.”

“I’m Christian, I’m a Presbyterian, can you believe it?” he said.

Attendees at the summit in Washington Friday signaled that his devoutness wasn’t necessarily the yardstick they were using to measure Trump’s candidacy.

“He’s like the wooden spoon you put in the stew pot that stirred up all the bottom, because they were all just sitting there,” said Barbara Eller, who traveled from Vienna, Va., to attend the summit. And he came in, and whoo. so everybody got excited.”

Eller and her husband, Anthony, said they are seriously supporting Trump and aren’t just window shopping.

“He’s fresh. He’s a little rough on the edges –he’s not a politician,” Anthony Eller said. “That’s his good side, that’s his bad side.”

As Trump marched out of the hotel after his speech, he was trailed by a large group of people wanting to speak with him, get his autograph, or just to shake his hand. One woman positioned herself outside his shiny black SUV as he climbed inside.

“Mr. Trump!” she yelled. “God bless you! You changed everything!”

He wound down the window halfway, smiled and waved, as the vehicle wisked him away.

While the share of white Protestants and Catholics in the general electorate has slipped in recent presidential elections, the share of white evangelicals has stayed relatively the same and remains a powerful voting block composing 23 % of the electorate in 2012 and 2008 and 21% in 2004, according to the Pew Forum.