[Hoot Gibson]

I am sure that I am not the only person to notice that Donald Trump has generally refrained from making any attacks on Ted Cruz and Cruz has returned the favor. I can think of several reasons that Trump might be holding back on criticizing Cruz.

1. Trump fears Cruz's debating skills and does not want to poke the bear.

2. Cruz has not reached a level in the polls where Trup perceives him as a threat to win the nomination.m

3. Cruz's positions match Trump's positions better than the other nominees, so he is having trouble finding fault with Cruz.

4. Cruz is Trump's second choice for president. In case Trump's poll numbers fade, he wants there to be a strong alternative to the GOP establishment candidates left in the race. Cruz is Trump's insurance policy, so he is taking it easy on him.

5. Trump is only running to ensure that Bush, Rubio, or one of the other mainstream Republicans do not win the nomination. He plans on withdrawing from the race later and endorsing Cruz.

I am leaning heavily toward scenario #5 because Trump does not seem to be adding much depth to his policy positions from one debate to the next. He is repeating the same sound bites as he did in the early days of the campaign in response to debate questions. As popular as Trump is, people will begin to suffer from Trump-fatigue if he does not come up with some new material to support his positions.

What does everybody else think? Is Trump in this campaign to win the nomination or is he in it to shape the debate and knock Jeb Bush and Rubio out of the race?

[Granny Bear]

My first choice is option #4...then option #5.

Trump's ego is just too big to go through all of this and not go for the gold ring.

JMO

[Hoot Gibson]

My first choice is option #4...then option #5.

Trump's ego is just too big to go through all of this and not go for the gold ring.

JMO

Favors don't get much bigger than to pave the road to the White House for somebody. If Trump withdraws while his poll numbers are still decent and endorses the future president, then the president would be forever in Trump's debt.

Trump doesn't need the salary and benefits of a president and I doubt that earning a few million dollars making paid speeches as an aging former president (74 or 78 years old) offers much appeal for Trump. He might be content just watching his fortune grow faster knowing that there is a capitalist president in the White House.

Scenario #4 is my second choice. If Cruz continues to climb in the polls and the ridiculous personal attacks on Dr. Carson take a toll on his poll numbers, then I guess that we will find out whether Cruz is exempt from Trump's attacks.

[TheRealThing]

Put me down for one through four. I think Trump really wants to be president, I just don't think he is gifted with all the 'normal' line of gab that the other politicians seem to have. Trump recognizes the RINO hiding within Marco Rubio, and has taken him to task for it.

[WideRight05]

My guess it would be any of the first four reasons, likely #4 considering that Cruz would very likely be his VP if he runs. Trump hasn't gone into great detail about his views in debates, but I just can't see him taking the time to post detailed versions of his plans on his website unless he were serious about it.

Honestly, even though he has an ego I don't think the Donald ever expected to draw this kind of attention. Me personally, I expected he would be toward the bottom tier of candidates while drawing a small crowd that would urge him to run as a third party.

https://www.donaldjtrump.com/positions/tax-reform

I have included a link to his tax reform plan. Of all his positions, I believe that one is the most detailed.

[Hoot Gibson]

My guess it would be any of the first four reasons, likely #4 considering that Cruz would very likely be his VP if he runs. Trump hasn't gone into great detail about his views in debates, but I just can't see him taking the time to post detailed versions of his plans on his website unless he were serious about it.

Honestly, even though he has an ego I don't think the Donald ever expected to draw this kind of attention. Me personally, I expected he would be toward the bottom tier of candidates while drawing a small crowd that would urge him to run as a third party.

https://www.donaldjtrump.com/positions/tax-reform

I have included a link to his tax reform plan. Of all his positions, I believe that one is the most detailed.

I have not even looked at any of the candidates' campaign websites and will probably not look at them in the future. As a rule, I dismiss campaign promises unless they are consistent with a candidate's past performance. What I was talking about is Trump's simplistic answers to debate questions. A response to a question such as "We will build a wall. It will work, if properly done. Just ask the Israelis if walls work if you don't believe me," (I am paraphrasing) do not indicate much preparation.

To be a good president (or nominee), one needs to be able to fill in a few more details than Trump seems to have at his command. Trump did not use the allotted 90 seconds for most of his answers, while other candidates used most or all of their time (and then some). It is good to not repeatedly talk past the time limit in a debate but it is not so good to consistently finish your responses well short of the limit, which suggests that you have spent all of your knowledge on the subject.

Until I hear Trump deliver more than a 10,000 foot level of detail in response to a question, I will assume that he has not studied his own plans. A candidate does not need to be an expert on every issue, but if they want to win the general election, they have to convince an audience that they have expert level knowledge on issues that are most important to voters.

In Trump's case, he needs to show that he has expanded his detailed knowledge beyond his experience as a real estate and hotel tycoon. So far, I do not believe Trump has done so. I suspect that is also one of the reasons that he takes so many cheap shots at his rivals. As long as the media is questioning Trump's manners, they are not spending much time questioning his qualifications or grilling him about his plans.

At this point of the campaign, I still plan on voting for Trump is he wins the nomination. However I am getting tired of his petty personal attacks on other candidates. Repeating the ridiculous mainstream media smears against Ben Carson and his feeble attempt to make Marco Rubio's personal finances a campaign issue have really bothered me. I am not a fan of Rubio, but putting personal charges on the party's credit card and then reimbursing them for the charges does not seem like something that should be a major campaign issue.

Trump is very vulnerable on his own business background and maybe that is why he has not gone after Cruz. If I were running against Trump, I would identify a few people who lost their jobs and healthcare benefits as a result of one of Trump's four bankruptcy filings. I would ask how many vendors he stiffed, how much money they lost as the result of the bankruptcies, and how many small businesses went under because they could not pay their own bills. Just asking such questions would put The Donald on the defense.

You can bet that Hillary will personalize Trump's bankruptcies if he wins the nomination and it is only a matter of time before one of Trump's primary opponents does the same to undermine the growing perception that Trump is electable. I am a bit surprised that Rubio has not already pulled the trigger.

[WideRight05]

I have not even looked at any of the candidates' campaign websites and will probably not look at them in the future. As a rule, I dismiss campaign promises unless they are consistent with a candidate's past performance. What I was talking about is Trump's simplistic answers to debate questions. A response to a question such as "We will build a wall. It will work, if properly done. Just ask the Israelis if walls work if you don't believe me," (I am paraphrasing) do not indicate much preparation.

To be a good president (or nominee), one needs to be able to fill in a few more details than Trump seems to have at his command. Trump did not use the allotted 90 seconds for most of his answers, while other candidates used most or all of their time (and then some). It is good to not repeatedly talk past the time limit in a debate but it is not so good to consistently finish your responses well short of the limit, which suggests that you have spent all of your knowledge on the subject.

Until I hear Trump deliver more than a 10,000 foot level of detail in response to a question, I will assume that he has not studied his own plans. A candidate does not need to be an expert on every issue, but if they want to win the general election, they have to convince an audience that they have expert level knowledge on issues that are most important to voters.

In Trump's case, he needs to show that he has expanded his detailed knowledge beyond his experience as a real estate and hotel tycoon. So far, I do not believe Trump has done so. I suspect that is also one of the reasons that he takes so many cheap shots at his rivals. As long as the media is questioning Trump's manners, they are not spending much time questioning his qualifications or grilling him about his plans.

At this point of the campaign, I still plan on voting for Trump is he wins the nomination. However I am getting tired of his petty personal attacks on other candidates. Repeating the ridiculous mainstream media smears against Ben Carson and his feeble attempt to make Marco Rubio's personal finances a campaign issue have really bothered me. I am not a fan of Rubio, but putting personal charges on the party's credit card and then reimbursing them for the charges does not seem like something that should be a major campaign issue.

Trump is very vulnerable on his own business background and maybe that is why he has not gone after Cruz. If I were running against Trump, I would identify a few people who lost their jobs and healthcare benefits as a result of one of Trump's four bankruptcy filings. I would ask how many vendors he stiffed, how much money they lost as the result of the bankruptcies, and how many small businesses went under because they could not pay their own bills. Just asking such questions would put The Donald on the defense.

You can bet that Hillary will personalize Trump's bankruptcies if he wins the nomination and it is only a matter of time before one of Trump's primary opponents does the same to undermine the growing perception that Trump is electable. I am a bit surprised that Rubio has not already pulled the trigger.

I haven't seen a lot of Trump's speeches, but what I have seen is very similar to the way you described. I watched a video of him speaking at the Values Voter Summit and he just rambled on and on. He didn't really give specifics in his plans. Even though he leaves a good amount of detail on his website, I agree he will have to provide more when he's on the stage. Especially when it comes to comments he's making such as "we're going to build a wall and Mexico is going to pay for it."

Liberals dread Trump, many of them not realizing that he's actually one of the more or maybe the most moderate Republicans running. His tax plan is a progressive tax plan with lower brackets. From the very little I have been able to gather, his health care plan seems like Obamacare-lite. He has claimed that he would be the best representative that Christians have sent in a long time, but I'm yet to see him take any kind of stand on an issue with the exception of wanting to see Merry Christmas be said more often. Don't get me wrong, I would cast a vote for Trump if he won the primary. If Trump is in this thing as someone just looking to stop the establishment and pave the road for somebody like Ted Cruz, he is doing an excellent job.

In fact, I will give it to Donald Trump on one thing that he has done an excellent job of in that he has changed the dynamic of the Republican Party entirely. The first Republican debate was all about who could be the most politically correct. Several Republicans including Jeb Bush were trying to gather voters by being politically correct. Take Ben Carson, for example, who has recently taken a major stand against the media. A while back he made a couple comments toward LGBT groups that were considered "hateful." Instead of standing by them, he apologized both times it happened. I don't think he would apologize if this were to happen now. My feeling is that a lot of this is coming from Trump's anti-political correctness charge and how well it has been working.

Unless it's Jeb Bush that makes it out of the primary, I think whoever runs against Hillary will have a lot to work with be it Trump or anyone else. Bernie Sanders is the one I'm worried about - he is attracting a lot of attention and enthusiasm. I could be wrong but I gather that George W. Bush struggled running his businesses as well - although I know GWB hasn't gone bankrupt four times. Trump has claimed that he hasn't gone bankrupt. I'm not sure how that would be handled if he were to actually make it out of the primary and debate Hillary Clinton, but he would have a lot of mud to sling at her.

One of my biggest concerns for this election is the SCOTUS. We could lose as many as four judges. Ginsberg (82), Scalia (pushing 80), Kennedy (Just turned 79) and Breyer (77) could decide to hang it up and retire. Choosing the right judge is extremely difficult. Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush combined sent five new justices to the SCOTUS, but Scalia and Thomas have been the only two IMO that have been consistent conservatives. I would trust Cruz's judgment in sending the right person for that job, but would be a little hesitant with Trump's considering he hasn't taken a real strong stand on issues such as abortion or protecting religious liberty.

You mentioned the bankruptcies which was certainly a good point, and here below is a link to something that I also think will be used against Trump as his campaign advances. There are several videos like this online, but considering that liberals tried to use something Mitt Romney did 50 years ago against him I have no doubt that they will try to use clips like this. It will be interesting to watch all this unfold.

(If I didn't get the link posted right could a mod fix? Thank you!)

[YOUTUBE="Donald Trump vs. Rosie O'Donnell"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d32577Hom08[/YOUTUBE]

[TheRealThing]

^^ You know, when 'his excellency' was making his run up to the White House in 2007, there were a lot of promises made, just as there were a lot of slams being perpetrated. I didn't hear much in the way of any sort of cohesive plan being put out there by the Obama campaign in support of those promises. I did however, hear a thinly veiled threat against the American energy field when Mr Obama stated that America used 67% of all the energy being used on the planet, and that that was an unacceptable situation.

Then we saw the ramifications of 'the war on coal', which adversely affected or actually closed coal fired generating stations in a total of 37 states, totalling upwards of 600 separate facilities. We saw the passage of ObamaCare which was not going to cost the American taxpayer "one dime." Then we saw the repeal of DADT, followed by a subsequential avalanche of pro gay legislation and an assault on bakeries and pizza parlors which were among those that had any kind of reference to our Lord up on the wall. None of that was detailed in Mr Obama's campaign. Just as there was no way to envision US cities in flames, and US colleges in riotous uproar with students marching to the drum beat of thread bare but republic destructive civil rights inequities resurrected from the past.

Nobody can make these clairvoyant and clear revelations into the future that are being called for by the Trump doubters. But I would think the past 7 years would make us afraid of today, not tomorrow. I mean, the ship of state is taking on water right now. None the less, we have on that debate stage one brightly shinning light in the person of Ted Cruz. Trump has helped us all properly frame the issues. I believe Cruz could more completely help us solve them. But make no mistake, the libs are not going down without a fight and I could see things getting very politically nasty.

This deal with college students and their so-called protests, have me very concerned FWIW.

[RunItUpTheGut]

Ive noticed a lot of people on comment sections and message board wishing for a Trump/Cruz ticket. I don't care which way it is, that's the ticket I want.