The latest CNN/ORC Poll (full pdf below) of South Carolina voters has been released.  Donald Trump remains at the front of the group with a significant lead (38% support), followed by Senator Ted Cruz (22%) and Senator Marco Rubio (14%).

In addition to the top-line results, candidate Trump leads on all the key current event issues amid the South Carolina electorate – with dominating leads in: • the economy, • ISIS, • Immigration and • the best chance to win the general election.

(Via CNN) Donald Trump holds a broad 16-point lead among those likely to vote in South Carolina’s Republican primary this Saturday, according to a new CNN/ORC Poll. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton tops Bernie Sanders by 18 points in the state’s Democratic primary, which will be held a week later. (more…)

Tip from Captain Obvious: In an election year when voters identify all the “go-along-to-get-along” politicians as part of the problem, chasing their endorsements is just, well, silly… but feel free to carry on.

The latest post-debate poll from South Carolina, conducted by PPPolling, shows Ted Cruz slipping backward to catch Marco Rubio; and a candidate field, behind Trump, mired in the mud.

Put another way –  The same inept politicians who ran for three election cycles promising change, yet did nothing except make things worse, are now standing next to even more inept presidential candidates and touting them as the solution for their own ineptitude.

The political gaslighting is no longer effective against an engaged electorate.

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The South Carolina debate is over, and for those of you who are following the nuance – now the endorsement game begins.

In order to understand what is currently going on, it helps to step back in time and remind yourself what the intents are behind the political curtain – The bigger ‘big picture’.

All the way back in February of ’14, the RNC rules committee decisions for the 2016 presidential race were constructed in Washington DC.  Almost every player in the 2015/2016 presidential election was either present (mostly splitters), or had a representative in attendance on their behalf.

Republican party officials, party consultants, party donor aggregators/bundlers, regional and state party insiders, political media representatives, all present. The entire GOPe political enterprise was participating in the RNC conference.  Within those discussions there were also multiple break-out sessions.

Within the most exclusive of those break-out sessions (invitation only) were the engineers, top-level lobbyists, K-Street and Wall Street financiers, the money people.   The GOPe road-map for the presidential race in 2016 was built. (more…)

Donald Trump discusses the state of the presidential race and current issues with candidate Ted Cruz lying.

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The 2016 election is the fight we’ve been waiting for…

A new CBS battleground tracking poll (full pdf below) released today shows the top three candidates continue to be Trump, Cruz and Rubio.  Jeb Bush and Dr. Ben Carson are far behind.

Jeb is hoping that bringing his brother, George W. Bush, into the state of South Carolina will provide him more benefit than bringing Mom, Barbara, into New Hampshire.  Although many voters in South Carolina are now asking “why can’t Jeb compete for the nomination on his own merits“?

It does seem oddly weak, and profoundly poor advice, for a presidential candidate to be unable to achieve support – and decide the best option is to rely on Mom, Dad and his brother as a crutch.  (more…)

The South Carolina debate moderator is CBS News political director John Dickerson.  He will be joined by CBS News White House correspondent Major Garrett, and The Wall Street Journal’s Kimberley Strassel.

The debate will air live on CBS from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. EST tonight. – Live Stream HERE

For those watching at home – feel free to join in with your thoughts on the debate below.

(more…)

2016 is the fight we’ve been waiting for…

The debate moderator is CBS News political director John Dickerson.  He will be joined by CBS News White House correspondent Major Garrett, and to provide the Rupert Murdoch influence, The Wall Street Journal’s Kimberley Strassel.  The debate will air live on CBS from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. EST tonight.

Fox News has already positioned their optics and narrative front-man John Roberts on the ground in/around Greenville.  The Roberts production team is one of the key follows for anyone interested in discovering where Fox News executives are directing the public’s attention.

South Carolina has been hosting the evangelical-dominated Faith and Values conference in advance of the debate tonight.  The audience has been carefully selected from conference attendees and professional republican party insiders.

Given the absolute need for young Marco Rubio to regain his viable candidate footing, every possible lean and party indulgence will be apportioned to provide maximum benefit.  Knowing also that Roberts production staff is on the ground at the venue, The Peace Center, we can remain confident Murdoch is leveraging furiously on behalf of his preferred candidate, Rubio. (more…)

A Southern Political Poll released today (full pdf below) conducted for the Augusta Chronicle and Fox5 is exceptionally interesting.  The poll data itself is deep, extensive, succinct and well presented.  Good sample size, low MOE and few assumptions.

The top line results, show remarkable consistency with the previous NBC/WSJ and Maris polls conducted in January.  With the exception of a modest bump for John Kasich, the latest polling shows almost no change – and most of the SC electorate have not only made up their mind, but their decision has been settled for quite a while:

A close review of the poll internals, shows some remarkable and consistent insights when contrast against ground reports, alternate polling and field data.  What many political junkies might find remarkable is the dominance of the Trump coalition.

After reviewing the poll data, the current decisions of the Trump campaign’s approach in South Carolina make VERY good sense.

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(Via CBS) The six remaining major GOP presidential candidates have all qualified for CBS News’ Republican debate in South Carolina on Saturday night, the network announced Friday.

Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, Ben Carson and John Kasich have been invited to participate in the debate at the Peace Center in Greenville.

Former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore, who had only previously participated in undercard debates, did not qualify for the main stage, and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Carly Fiorina dropped out of the 2016 race earlier this week. (more…)

It did not take long for the earlier predictions of the upcoming South Carolina debate to be confirmed.  According to a local media report the Peace Center in South Carolina, with an audience capacity of 1,900, will be attended by only the most exclusive party insiders and Republican donors.

[…]  Republican National Committee decided not to go with a lottery system. “If we had not had it at the Peace Center we probably would have had more people come, but the Peace Center is the venue that CBS chose,” said Chad Groover, chairman of the Greenville County Republican party.

Groover said supporters who work hard for the party will be rewarded tickets. People selected will fill the 1,900 seats that have been made available for the event, according to Groover.  Groover said the Republican National Committee gives a lot of tickets to supporters. He said more are then allocated for the state party to distribute among the county chairs.  […]  Groover said he gave tickets to supporters, including elected officials, who work hard for the party. (link)

As typical for the cocktail class, “work hard for the party” translates to opening checkbooks and demanding influence.

The New Hampshire debate audience was Old School Republicans who cheered Jeb Bush and jeered the ‘next-in-line-jumper’ Marco Rubio.  However, South Carolina has already shown their most preferential candidate in the North Charleston debate, where party insiders were majority Rubio supporters.  Expect Greenville to be more like the latter than former. (more…)