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Real Estate Mogul Donald Trump emphatically says President Barack Obama has replaced Jimmy Carter “as the worst president in the history of this country.”  

Trump also told Fox News’ Sean Hannity Thursday that polls show he is either tied or can beat Obama in 2012 — and the Newsmax poll was “the best of all.”

Hannity observed that recent surveys have Trump at the top of the pack of potential Republican candidates, and the ongoing Newsmax poll — which says when Trump faces off against the best and the brightest GOP contenders for 2012, he takes 57 percent of the vote — has him a clear winner.

“That was the best of all,” Trump said of the Newsmax poll, noting that in a CNN poll, “I'm in first place with Gov. [Mike] Huckabee, who is a good guy, by the way . . . really is a terrific guy.

“You know, you are supposed to compete against people you see — I do much better when I don't like the people,” he said. “But I happen to like him — and I like a couple of the other candidates.”

Hannity noted that White House senior adviser David Plouffe has said Trump has “zero chance” against the president, and asked why Trump has called himself Obama’s worst nightmare.

“Well, I understand him, I understand what is going on — I understand the mindset,” Trump said. “They do not want to run against me — I get it,” noting the CNN poll also showed him tied with Obama; the Newsmax poll shows Trump winning that race.

“I was the one that was tied, statistically tied with Obama — the only Republican that was statistically tied with Obama — and I haven't even done anything,” he said. “You know, I haven't said I'm running — one of the pollsters actually said that one of the reasons I don't go even higher is a lot of people don't think I'm running — they think I'm having a good time talking to people like you.

“But the fact is, a lot of people in the polls don't vote for me, because they think I'm just having a good time,” Trump continued. “They think that I'm promoting ‘Celebrity Apprentice,’ which I'm absolutely not — and you just told me how good the ratings are in ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ — I don't need this.”

Hannity asked why Trump thought his numbers were so high.

“Well, I think I'm known as a really good business man — and I am,” Trump said. “And by the way, if I run, I will have to disclose my opinion finances, and my finances are phenomenal —much better than anyone knows.

“You know, they know I'm rich — I've done a great job — I've made a lot of great decisions,” Trump said. “And that will be disclosed if and when I decide to run. And I actually look forward to that — It will be I think a very positive thing.”

Hannity asked Trump whether he would run as an independent if he did not get the GOP nod as he had hinted at in previous interviews.

“I didn't say that — I said I would certainly think about that — because the question was what happens if you don't get the nomination?” Trump said. “And this was also before the new polls came out that showed me leading. But they said, what happens if you don't get it? Would you consider running? I said yes, I would consider running as an independent.”

Trump added he would not run as an independent unless he was sure he could win, because if he lost, he would still get “a tremendous amount of votes and I would take them all from the Republican Party, which would be terrible.”

“So, unless I thought I could win, really win as an independent, I would not do that,” he said. “Because I wouldn't want to come in second or third place — and Obama ends up winning.”

Trump also noted Obama is obviously running hard for re-election, as his Wednesday deficit speech had nothing to do with the nation’s soaring national debt and was strictly political.

“I watched that speech yesterday — I thought it was an outrage,” Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity. “That wasn't a speech on [the] deficit, that was a political speech — that means he's running — and that was his first speech. I thought it was ridiculous; [about] raising taxes, and really not . . . anything having to do with the deficit

“And look, he's been a horrible president,” Trump continued. “I always said the worst president was Jimmy Carter. Guess what? Jimmy Carter goes to second place. Barack Obama has been the worst president ever in the history of this country — Barack Obama is number one.”

Hannity then noted that Trump describes himself as a conservative and asked what that means to him.

“Well, I think I have great values. I love this country — I feel so strongly about this country,” Trump said, adding his values reflect those of the tea party.

“I really relate to the tea party people,” he said. “Somebody was asking me — in fact every reporter asks me — what do you think of the tea party? I said, ‘I think they are great. They are workers — they love the country.’

“And you know, their greatest service has been — and this is very simple — they've made everyone think. They were the first that brought up the deficit,” Trump continued.

“We were just riding this deficit, borrowing more and more money — they were the first ones that really made both Democrats and Republicans think.”
“So, I think the tea party has served an unbelievable and performed an unbelievable function.”

Noting that Trump said he liked Huckabee, Hannity asked Trump what he thought of the rest of the field of potential GOP 2012 candidates.

“You know, I have a problem — they've treated me so nicely — I have such a problem, everyone said such nice things. I saw [former Sen. Rick] Santorum said something nice.” Trump replied.

“[Former House Speaker] Newt Gingrich last month joined my club in Washington. A little before he heard about this, in all fairness . . . I mean, so, I wish I didn't like him — does that make sense?” he said. “They are all saying these nice things about me — I have a hard time. I watched [former Minnesota Gov. Tim] Pawlenty the other day — I don't know him, but he said these wonderful things.

“Look, I think I'm a great negotiator. I think I will do a better job than anybody because I'm really a great negotiator — I know how to negotiate, I know how people are ripping us off — I know why they're ripping us off, and I know how to solve the problem,” Trump continued. “And as far as yesterday is concerned and what is going on over the last couple of days, the numbers aren't as bad as you are thinking.

"Because what is happening is, if you take away $300 billion — where China is ripping us [off] — and you take away Colombia, and you take away virtually every nation in the world, who is making a huge — let's use the word profit on the United States — when you start equalizing that . . . the numbers aren't as bad as what you are seeing.”

I'm happy that Trump said he wouldn't run as an Independent unless he knew that he could win. This means that he knows about what splitting the vote would do. In fact, he leans toward running as a Republican if he gets the nomination and that's it. I also worried about him splitting the vote and getting Obama re-elected.

I want to hear more about where Trump stands with many issues. Yes, I think that he could be a serious contender. Anyone would be much better than Obama. I've liked Huckaby, but I really don't know that he has the funding to make it. Trump would have the funding solved, and the rest would depend on where he really stands on the issues of the day.

I don't trust Trump. In 2008 he was supporting obama and many of his policies from health care to finances. To take such a radical opposite stance now makes it look more like he is only saying it all in order to be popular and not because he truly stands that way.

I know very little about Donald Trump - past or current - except that he's rich. If he supported Obama and Obamacare, that would be all I need to give him a thumbs down. Until recently, the biggest question I had about Donald Trump involved his hair - before he hinted about running for president.

I'm just not sure yet myself.  I would like to see where he stands on the issues also and what his plans would be for the country and how he would impliment them.  At this point however, I think someone outside the political arena might be something fresh.  A politician, Dem, GOP, or otherwise; is still a politician and they all have their hands in the cookie the jar and an agenda for helping themselves and not what's good and right for the average American public.  The fact that the GOP hasn't pressed harder for getting at the truth about Obama is disappointing and discouraging.

Trump's Strength in Early Presidential Polls Defies Conventional Wisdom
FoxNews


A top adviser for President Obama dismisses him as a "sideshow." Former Bush adviser Karl Rove calls him a "joke candidate."

But that hasn't stopped Donald Trump, who has captured national attention with his outspoken skepticism of Obama's citizenship, from surging in early presidential polls. He leads all potential GOP presidential candidates by nine points in a Public Policy Polling survey released Friday. He trailed only Mitt Romney in a NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released last week.

The real estate mogul and star of NBC's "The Apprentice" says he's encouraged by the polls, but won't make an announcement about his plans for a presidential bid until June. Yet he'll be in Florida this weekend to speak at a Tea Party Tax Day rally in his first political trip since he began making waves with talks of a possible presidential bid.

Despite Trump's early strong showing, many still aren't convinced of his electability and analysts say he will have to go beyond the so-called "birther" cause and define himself for Republican primary voters on social, fiscal and foreign policy issues.

Cary Covington, a political science professor at the University of Iowa, attributes Trump's high poll numbers more to a weak Republican field than to Trump's strengths as a potential candidate.

Related Video

 
Rove: Trump a 'Joke' Candidate

Rove on Obama's hot mic, budget, Trump


Donald Trump speaks to the press at a news conference in New York in this March 10, 2011 file photo. (Reuters)
"The Republican Party right now hasn't found that resonant individual who speaks to the various bases the way a Bush or Reagan did and until they do…why not trust Trump?" he said.

While Trump's business success will appeal to fiscal conservatives, social conservatives will struggle to overlook his three marriages, he said.

"He's going to have a hard time making it in the social conservative ranks," he said. "Not sure serial monogamy is going to go over well with the social right."

Ultimately, he said, a Trump campaign likely won't succeed in the early nominating states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

"My intuition says the closer Republicans look at him, the less attractive he becomes," he said.

But GOP strategist Roger Stone, who worked as a lobbyist for Trump for 20 years and has launched a website in support of a Trump candidacy, says his former boss is the only one with the message and star power to defeat Obama.

"The question is why did his poll numbers change so rapidly," he said, noting that two months ago, he was bringing up the rear with single-digits."He's always been wealthy and outspoken. It's what he's been talking about. America getting ripped off by OPEC. America getting ripped off by China. America wasting billions of dollars. And he has the brand."

Stone says he sees a clear path to the nomination for Trump.

"You don't need 51 percent to win this race. You just need a plurality," he said. "There are a plurality of voters in Iowa and New Hampshire who like his message."

He also said Trump's celebrity will enable him to challenge Obama, who he called an "extraordinary, spellbinding speaker."

"If you're Tim Pawlenty, you've got to get people to know who you are and you do it on $10 million," he said. "It's so hard…Trump comes to the table well-known and he has a forum."

Trump has been on a media blitz in recent weeks, drawing attention by echoing the doubts of a fringe movement that doesn't believe Obama  was born in the United States, despite the existence of official documents.

White House senior adviser David Plouffe said this week that he hopes Trump keeps surging in the polls because "there's zero chance that Donald Trump would ever be hired by the American people to do this job."

"There may be a small part of the country that believes these things, but mainstream Americans think it's a sideshow," he told ABC's "This Week."

Rove, a Fox News contributor, said Friday that Trump was an "interesting candidate who had a business background and could have contributed to the dialogue."

"But his full embrace of the birther issue means that he's off there in the nutty right and is now an inconsequential candidate," he told Fox News' Greta Van Susteren. "I'm shocked. The guy's smarter than this. And the idea that President Obama was not born in Hawaii, making that the centerpiece of his campaign, means that he's just a joke candidate."

Rove added that if Trump decides to run, "The American people aren't going to be hiring him, and certainly, the Republicans are not going to be hiring him in the Republican primary."

Trump told the Wall Street Journal this week that he will "probably" run as an independent candidate if he doesn't win the GOP nod.

Trump said he thinks he can win as an independent.

"I'm not doing it for any other reason," he told the newspaper. "I like winning."

Palin: Media Treats Trump Unfairly
newsmax.com

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin says she respects real estate mogul Donald Trump and he is getting a raw deal from the media who question his interest in President Barack Obama’s place of birth. Palin also told Fox News’ Sean Hannity Tuesday it is still too early for her to decide whether to seek the GOP nomination in 2012 — adding she might not take the conventional exploratory-committee route if she does.
 
 
“Well, first, I do have respect for Donald Trump and for his candidness — I think people are craving that today, in the world of political speak . . . coming out of the White House,” Palin said. “And the confusing messages that come from so many of our politicos — we appreciate that Donald Trump is so candid.

“Donald Trump is the one being really treated unfairly — I would say though, in the press —when they are hammering him about the one issue that he has brought up and not been shy about, and that’s the birth certificate,” she continued. “He’s merely answering reporters’ questions about his view on the birth certificate — and then reporters turn that around and [say]: ‘That’s all he’s got — he’s always running on a birth certificate issue,’ when that’s not the case.

“Bottom line [is] that President Obama is so far over his head — he has gotten us on the road to bankruptcy, and insolvency, and a less secure nation,” Palin said. “And Trump, and so many of us, want to do something about that.”

Palin noted candidates have control of their messages and “you don't have to give the time of day to those who are so obviously biased.”

“I was thinking back on some of those interviews that Obama had given back when he was a candidate,” she said. “The inconsistencies that he spewed back then, and reporters didn’t follow up. Certainly now — he as our president — he needs to be asked these tough questions.”

Hannity asked Palin whether she thought the GOP has been capitulating on issues regarding cuts in government spending.

“I say — with all due respect to those Republicans — they got elected with that promise . . . they would rein in government growth on the overreach, and the over borrowing, and the over spending that President Obama has so embraced,” Palin replied. “We can’t just — we can’t afford to have any of the GOP in there — or the Blue Dogs Democrats, the Reagan Democrats — be a part of Obama’s very radical agenda, which as I say is putting us on the road to bankruptcy.

“We are flat broke — it makes absolutely no sense to capitulate, and say: OK, we'll throw in cowboy poetry, and pretty monuments, and more museums, and maybe some road projects that we don’t need,” she said.

“Tea party Americans are the ones who led that mandate, where, no, things were not going to be done the same way as they have been done in the past,” she added. “And, now, we enter a new ring, Sean, and in that new ring comes the fight for the debt ceiling — and there needs to be an understanding in the GOP leadership that we cannot provide another tool for the liberals to just incur more debt — and that’s what raising the debt ceiling is going to allow, again.”

Hannity then asked where Palin was in her consideration of a 2012 run, noting that other candidates have already formed exploratory committees.

“Well, I think it is still too early to declare candidacy — I think it is too early for anyone,” Palin said, adding that an exploratory committee is “not on the radar.” “I've never really run for anything conventionally — I’ve just jumped in there and done it when I’ve known it’s the right thing to do — so it’s going to be an unconventional run if I choose to do that.

“Right now my concentration is on getting that message out to the GOP leadership and to the other side —those who are reasonable and will listen — that we cannot keep going down the path that we are on,” she continued. “I'm so encouraged though by the tea party Americans.”

Palin then returned to talking about Trump, a possible opponent for the  2012 GOP nomination.

“Look where he was last weekend — he was speaking at a tea party meeting,” she said. “That shows you that tea party Americans are influential, that they are big tent, and that they are independent. They want to hear from Trump.

“They want to hear from all who have common sense, pro-private sector, pro-business ideas — and the tea party movement is going to grow and strengthen and — go ahead.”


Read more on Newsmax.com: Palin: Media Treats Trump Unfairly
Important: Do You Support Pres. Obama's Re-Election? Vote Here Now!

Trump is leading because he is saying all the right things, things that most of the rest of the Republican candidates are wishy-washy on, like getting our jobs back from China.
Unfortunately, I question whether Trump really believes these things and will work on them if elected - he seems to have changed many of his positions over the years. Does he really believe them, or has he figured out what will get him votes and has no intention of really doing those things.

Very true question and one that we will be asking ourselves of all the candidates.

Where are we getting that he supported Obama in the 08 election?

Regardless, Trump is off my list of possibles forever. His vulgar language in speaking alone makes him a no go in my book. Yes, Trump would also have to explain many of his previous positions. I think Trump needs to go back to his penthouse and butt out. My only concern if he runs is that he might divide votes and help Obama get re-elected.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2008/06/10/2008-06-10_donald_trump_would_fire_bush_hire_obama_.html

There are a number of videos on the internet showing him in support of obama and later on during the debate over the bailouts and obamacare he spoke out in support of them which are also shown on video. I agree with Brother Tom. Even if it weren't for these I wouldn't vote for him simply because of his foul language he insists on using in public.

Heman Cain is supposed to be in the debates, I read yesterday, but I don't know when it's on.   :-\

It was on Fox News last night, and I watched it. Mr. Cain did extremely well and won the debate in the opinion of many. I also think that he won it. He answered the questions bluntly and with common sense - UNLIKE most politicians who speak and say nothing of substance.

I think that Herman Cain won the debate hands down and the Fox poll taken reflects that, too. Even though Ron Paul came in second on the poll it is my personal opinion that he was the worst one there especially since he spoke out in support of legalizing heroin.

I did end up reading some coverage and blogs on it and they say what you say.  Good for him!  I'm hoping to find some clips online today!

Ron Paul is a strange bird. That bowled me over. I can't believe he did so well in the debate with that stance.

They are supposed to have an Encore tonight on FOX.  If I could find out what time in PST, I may go over to my folks to watch it.  They are on vacation right now and I'm watching the house from them.

I've got Dish Network and I just checked my program guide. I didn't find it, but that might not mean anything. They could have replaced scheduled programming because of interest in airing the debate again. I've had Fox News on for the last couple of hours, and I haven't heard any announcements of this. I'll send you an email if I hear or see anything about this.

I saw it on the FOX news website.

Sister, that explains it. I didn't check there.   ;D