Donald Trump maintains strong lead

Many leading Republican officials are in a bit of a standoff, as strategists and donors now say they fear Trump’s nomination would lead to a sweeping defeat – one that would wipe out, or undo, some of the gains Republicans have made in recent congressional, state and local elections.

Just 42 percent of GOP voters now say Carson has the right experience to be president, down from 64 percent last month.

“Trump is saying the Emperor has no clothes and he challenges our politically correct times”. Rubio is the mostly likely establishment candidate at this point and Cruz remains well-positioned to absorb the “outsider” vote should Trump collapse next year.

However, the memo did praise Trump’s efforts as well. According to Silver, in 2012 the CNN/ORC polls had an average error of 1.8 points, and slightly favored Republican candidates by 0.6 points.

It’s not only the number of candidates – 13 at this point – that makes the outcome unpredictable. They shared the memo confidentially with trusted Republican advisors in September. “That will only serve to topple the GOP candidates at every level”, Baker writes. “The only Republicans who have ever won have run on all three legs of the conservative stool: They have run as fiscal conservatives, social conservatives and national security conservatives”.

“If the nominee of the Republican Party will not allow for an exception for rape and incest, they will not win”, Graham said.

“We need not be so tied to him we have to engage in permanent cleanup or distancing maneuvers”, says the memo. The campaign did not immediately respond to a request for more information. “If you think it’s about turning out more people and continuing on this path, you’re setting up this party for oblivion”. Overall only 25% of Republicans support doing that to 44% who oppose it. Again on this issue supporters of every single candidate other than Trump are against it. The answer could very well decide if Trump is the nominee. They’d have little choice.

In this environment, Trump might return the favor and act more like a traditional nominee.

CNN reports Trump cited the high unemployment rate among African-American youth during a rally in Virginia, and pledged to do more than Obama has done.

Wilkie, on the other hand, was a man of actual courage who tried to steer his isolationist party toward early support for the Allies in World War II.

What the 2016 candidates said about shooting: USA Today rounds up the 2016 presidential hopefuls’ comments on the shooting on Wednesday in San Bernardino, Calif., that left 14 people dead.

And that’s the root problem.

“He’s the typical sort of person that historically folks thought of as a typical Republican — wealthy, country club guy who has a strong will and doesn’t listen a lot to hard working folks”, List said.

While this latest poll did not change Bush’s rank among the GOP field, it does mark his lowest national polling score to date, according to Real Clear Politics polling data.

If it comes to that.