Red State Update

They Created Trump 2016. All the elected Republicans with heartburn over Donald Trump’s rise in the polls should really ponder their role in the creation of Trump 2016.

 

It’s not just New York Republicans who have greeted Trump with open arms. In his election bid in 2012, Mitt Romney gladly had Donald Trump take the stage with him for an endorsement. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) also accepted his endorsement and had a private meeting with him.

 

Numerous Republican groups have solicited Trump for money. Going back to 2010, Republicans were keen on paying a visit to Trump’s office in New York and cashing his checks. Trump has been the “big get” for Republican groups.

 

Jeb Bush as Jeb, Not George or Anti-George -

Today, Jeb Bush is going to start laying out what he stands for in terms of policy. He, more than any of the other Republican candidates, walks a delicate balance. He is anchored by his last name and his brother’s legacy. If he tilts too far one way, there is no maneuvering he can do to distance himself from claims that he is the second coming of his brother’s Administration. He’s already received criticism for hiring too many people connected to his brother.

 

If Jeb Bush tilts the other way, he risks headlines that declare him throwing his brother under the bus and repudiating his brother’s legacy. Those stories have a way of getting away from you.

 

Today, Jeb Bush intends to take the Jeb path — saying what he intends to do based on what he did in Florida. It is a softer way of saying he is not his brother. The political press is now filled with stories that George W. Bush viewed conservatism as whatever he declared it to be. In eight years, domestic spending kept increasing and if anyone complained they were labeled anti-war. In fact, the historic record now reflects that the war spending itself was not nearly as outrageous as the runaway domestic spending. Bush, with a Republican Congress, let the Republicans get away with anything domestically so long as the war was funded.

 

Today, Jeb Bush intends to signal that he is not a big spending Republican and has the record to prove it.

 

Donald Trump’s Big Mistake Wasn’t His Statement on John McCain. Donald Trump made a potentially fatal error yesterday in Iowa.

 

Contrary to what most people in the press and the establishment think, it was not insulting Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). Though he crossed a line with his McCain remark, that’s not what the average evangelical, base Republican voter was paying attention to.

 

In addition to his statement on McCain, Trump also said he had never asked for forgiveness from God for anything. He referred to communion as eating a cracker. In other words, Trump sounded very much not like a believer to the ears of the average evangelical.                                  

 

Netroots Nation 2015 as classy as one would expect When the Bethlem Royal Hospital stopped selling tickets for visitors to gawk at inflict minor torments on the mentally insane within its walls many thought the practice of using the insane as a form of entertainment had passed. But a time traveler from Georgian England would have found themselves quite at home in Phoenix this weekend for the annual meeting of Nutroots Netroots Nation. This event started in 2006 and is organized by the DailyKos website.

 

Hillary Clinton had the good sense to skip the event. Martin O’Malley and Bernie Sanders? Well, not so much.

                                                          

Blockbuster: Hillary turned down by NASA because she was a girl-One of the hallmarks of Hillary Clinton’s political life has been to manufacture relatives and events that could not have possibly happened and use them to make some imagined point about her qualifications. This is understandable. Hillary Clinton is the prime example of a woman who got to the top by sleeping with a successful man in the same symbiotic relationship that a remora has with a shark,

 

At various times Hillary Clinton has claimed to have been named after famous mountaineer, Sir Edmund Hillary (she was born in October 1947 and Sir Edmund made his first ever climb of a minor peak in New Zealand in January 1948), and to have been the grandchildren of immigrant textile workers (one grandfather was an immigrant from England) thereby giving her the ability to understand the plight of immigrants. Then there was her combat experience in Tuzla when she came under sniper fire.

 

Apologist for Islamic terrorism to lead Chattanooga investigation. Investigators are risking brain aneurysms trying to divine a motive for a 24-year-old Muslim immigrant named Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez, an immigrant who has made several unexplained visits to the Middle East recently and whose father managed to end up on the terror watch list, shot up an armed forces recruiting station and killed four US Marines. Leading the investigation is the US Attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee, a guy named Bill Killian.                                   

 

You Actually Are Better Than This, Donald Trump. Donald Trump needs to apologize to John McCain.

 

I do not care for John McCain as a Senator. I think he is far nastier to Republicans than Democrats. I think he ran a terrible race for President. I’m just not a fan of him as a politician. But John McCain was a war hero.

 

The assisted suicide of “Christianity" - Ask Americans their religion and you’ll get an earful — 50 individual answers in an ABCNEWS/Beliefnet poll, ranging from agnostics to Zen Buddhists. The vast majority, though, have something in common: Jesus Christ."

 

"Eighty-three percent of Americans identify themselves as Christians. Most of the rest, 13 percent, have no religion. That leaves just 4 percent as adherents of all non-Christian religions combined — Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and a smattering of individual mentions."

 

Trump supported path to citizenship, said Romney was “mean-spirited” on immigration I find it very interesting that Donald Trump has rocketed to the top of the polls, especially since he is doing it on the issue of immigration.

 

It appears those supporting Trump don’t know much about his history. Glenn Beck has been trying to get the truth out. On his show the other day, he played a clip of Trump endorsing a path to citizenship. Skip ahead to the 12 minute mark.

 

Minnesota Local Official Compares Army Pilots to 9/11 Hijackers The same day four U.S. Marines were killed in an act of radical Islamic terrorism in Tennessee, a St. Paul, Minnesota councilman decided to compare U.S. Army pilots to the al Qaeda hijackers of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. For some reason, the councilman’s comments went unnoticed – though not unquoted – by local media. Perhaps it is because Dave Thune, the official, has a colorful history.

 

The Army’s 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR) is conducting training in the Twin Cities this week. According to media reports, this is the second time in several years that the regiment has sent aircrews and UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters to train in the urban environment of the Twin Cities. Helicopters have been spotted flying between buildings in downtown areas and hugging the ground just above tree-top level over some residential areas.

 

Things still awful at the VA Receiving little to no coverage toward the end of the week was the fact that the Department of Veteran’s Affairs still 1) has no idea what it is doing 2) has no clue how many people have died waiting to receive care.                                                             

 

Erick Erickson Editor-in-Chief, RedState