In 2011 it asked the same people to rate Mr. Trump. One of the personality traits in the battery is called openness. Someone who scores high on openness is relatively more likely to be drawn to explore complicated or unfamiliar things: the person who orders that item on the menu that no one else risks trying or who is drawn to a career demanding creativity more than reliance on routine. The data show clearly that people who score high on openness have lower ratings of Mr. Trump than those who score low.
.. “Differences across global cultures and religions are too great to manage and we should stop trying so hard to minimize them” and the second is, “I try to be sensitive to people from other cultures and religions.” People who agreed with the first statement and disagreed with the second — in other words, people who didn’t think it was important to make an effort to close cultural gaps — were far more likely to hold favorable views of Mr. Trump.
.. Few people will change their minds on these things over the next several months — in either direction. Rather, these dimensions represent longstanding beliefs that are most likely developed early in life and are stable over time. This presents Mr. Trump with a rather large problem: It puts a ceiling on his support.
Springtime for Grifters
As it happens, Mr. Carson lied. He has indeed been deeply involved with Mannatech, and has done a lot to help promote its merchandise. PolitiFact quickly rated his claim false, without qualification. But the Republican base doesn’t want to hear about it, and the candidate apparently believes, probably correctly, that he can simply brazen it out. These days, in his party, being an obvious grifter isn’t a liability, and may even be an asset.
.. The report found that the bulk of the money these PACs raise ends up going to cover administrative costs and consultants’ fees, very little to their ostensible purpose. For example, only 14 percent of what the Tea Party Leadership Fund spends is “candidate focused.”
.. Current estimates say that Mr. Carson, Mr. Trump and Mr. Cruz together have the support of around 60 percent of Republican voters.
.. There was a time when Mr. Rubio’s insistence that $6 trillion in tax cuts would somehow pay for themselves would have marked him as deeply unserious, especially given the way his party has been harping on the evils of budget deficits.
.. But the Republican base doesn’t care what the mainstream media says. Indeed, after Wednesday’s debate the Internet was full of claims that John Harwood, one of the moderators, lied about Mr. Rubio’s tax plan. (He didn’t.)
Are Evangelicals Losing Faith in Trump?
But a funny thing happens when you shift your gaze from the pews to the pulpit. Everyday evangelicals praise Trump’s straight talk and anti-establishment bluster, but prominent pastors, insiders, advocates, and academics are much less impressed. Evangelical leaders, as it turns out, loathe Trump.
.. “He’s someone who is an unrepentant serial adulterer”), among others.
.. Pastors and other nonprofit heads risk their tax-exempt status if they explicitly endorse campaigns, and, as Kidd points out, the primaries just aren’t discussed formally in most evangelical churches. This leaves a gap, he adds, that many church-goers are filling with talk radio and Fox News, which are relatively friendly to Trump—or at least happy to give him air time.
Bush Cuts Costs, Carson Eclipses Trump in Iowa and G.O.P. Frets
Some Bush strategists grumbled about what they described as an excessively large infrastructure at the headquarters. One department that will be particularly thinned out, advisers said, is the group of video producers and editors, called “Jeb TV,” that was assembled for what had been a robust digital effort.
.. “This means lean and mean, and it means that I have the ability to adapt,” he said, pointing to Mr. Trump’s unexpected rise. “Every dollar we can save in overhead is a dollar that goes on television, goes on radio, goes on media, goes on voter outreach.”
.. Whether Mr. Trump will now start spending heavily from his personal fortune on his campaign, as he has said he would do, remains unclear: He has donated roughly $1.9 million of his own money, and he has yet to spend on television.
.. A focus group of Republicans in Indianapolis this week, conducted for the nonpartisan Annenberg Public Policy Center, called Mr. Trump “self-serving” and “disturbing.” In contrast, Mr. Carson was called “wise” and “a gentleman.”