ABC Reporter John Santucci has provided the following statement released by candidate Donald Trump:


Putin may indeed relate to the populist strength exhibited by Donald Trump, and there’s good reason to consider Trump and Putin to be equitable adversaries. However, any praise from Putin toward Donald Trump is more specifically targeted to further ridicule president Stompy Feet.


In alignment with many Americans, Valdimir Putin also despises radical Islam and views Recep Erdogan (Turkey) as a complete snake.
(Via BBC) […] The Russian president brushed off concerns about Mr Trump’s controversial proposal to ban Muslims from the US.
He said Russia was ready to work with whoever was elected the next president.
2:00am, December 16th 2015, and yet another 2,000+ page bill emerges from the halls of congressional staff – this one an “Ominibus spending bill” with over $1.5 Trillion in expenditures, almost certain to add yet another thousand billion to the structural deficit.
Republicans control the House and the Senate.
Nothing good ever comes from congress at 2:00am.

Obama-Care came from the halls of the Senate at 1:36am on 12/23/09. More trillions, beyond trillions. The Democrats controlled the House and the Senate – we removed them.
For some insufferable reason it appears Speaker Paul Ryan and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the Republican leadership, think the U.S. electorate are unaware of the contents of this recent Omnibus spending. We’re not. (more…)
OANN has released a post debate poll of debate “Winners and Losers” (available here). Overall the majority saw Donald Trump as the biggest winner followed by Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. Results below:

The same polling showed the biggest loser to be Jeb Bush, Rand Paul and John Kasich respectively.
Having sat through both the under card debate and the prime-time debate I would disagree a bit with the polling on the losers. Lindsey Graham and George Pataki were the biggest losers of the first debate their unbridled, and often emotional, instability was on full display. (more…)
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump will hold a campaign rally at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport on Wednesday.
The noon local time event will be held in a private hangar on the airport property. Trump is advertising the event on his campaign website – which said doors will be opened at 10 a.m. – It is unclear how many people the location can accommodate. – Live stream Link and Alternate Live Stream Link
Alternate Live stream below
A perspective on Donald Trump from across the pond.

Please share your comments and perspectives in the comment section.
It is anticipated the CNN approach will be to frame everything around overt and covert attacks against the GOP frontrunner Donald Trump.
Toward that end it makes sense Chris Christie was placed in the prime-time debate as a GOPe/RNC tool. If the debate qualifications to allow Christie into the prime-time debate had not taken place there would only have been 7 candidates on the stage with Donald Trump. Both Christie and Rand Paul would have been bumped down. (more…)
The latest Public Policy Poll (full pdf below) shows a divergent narrative from the DMR poll of Iowa released two days ago. The PPP Poll shows Trump on top with Ted Cruz a close second – both double digits above third place Marco Rubio:

With Senator Rand Paul also in a race to keep his Kentucky Senate seat, he is in a precarious political position. Many anticipate a coming decision to stay in the race or exit in favor of spending additional time in his home state. (more…)
Whoopsie. An ABC/Washington Post Poll (full pdf below) shows Donald Trump with an all time high for their polling at 38%. Ted Cruz is now at 15%.
That’s a net increase of 34 points for Donald Trump since the race began, and a net increase of 7 points for the surging Ted “Maniac” Cruz.

Thinking positively Carly Fiorina has now surged to a position only 4 points behind Jeb Bush, and holds almost half of the support of Rand Paul and John Kasich. However, both Rick Santorum and George Pataki have now caught up to the listening audience of both Mark Levin and Rush Limbaugh. The race is heating up…