The Atlantic’s Liveblog of the Republican Presidential Debate

The more I watch Trump debate, the more fascinated I get by his obsession with polling. He’s the perfect pop-art reflection of the Nate Silver age, where quantification is what matters most. Trump’s answer to everything: ​_Hey, this is where I am in the polls; this is where you are. Need I say more? —David Graham​

.. The more time that Donald Trump spends on debate stages, the more the novelty of his bombastic charisma will wear off, and the more his recourse to insults will wear thin. He can’t help himself but to be baited into pettiness. I don’t know that Rand Paul’s attack on him helped the Kentucky Senator, but Trump’s response—to mock Paul’s appearance—is the kind of thing that will cause him to lose in the end. —Conor Friedersdorf

.. Tapper keeps asking candidates whether they’d be comfortable with Trump’s “finger on the nuclear codes.” Even leaving aside the bungled metaphor, it’s an oddly out-of-place question. It helped sink the presidential aspirations of Arizona’s Barry Goldwater half a century ago; it took a Californian to combine Goldwater’s conservative faith with a less aggressive demeanor to capture the White House. The risk of Trump shooting off nuclear missiles isn’t what gives most skeptical voters pause. But the query raises another question: Is there a candidate on the stage who can sell Trump’s positions less bluntly, the Reagan to his Goldwater? And even if there is, that actually what people want? —Yoni Appelbaum

 

Donald Trump Is Target of Conservative Ad Campaign

The Club for Growth now finds itself playing an unaccustomed role. For years, the group has battled with the Republican establishment, pouring millions of dollars into fierce campaigns against incumbent lawmakers deemed unreliable on economic issues. Now the group seems to be riding to the rescue, investing serious money against Mr. Trump at a time when his rivals have offered only YouTube videos and occasional barbs on the campaign trail.

 

.. Reed Galen, a Republican consultant who worked on John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign, said it could take weeks to see any effect out of the ads, and noted that Mr. Trump had a knack for using free media — such as television appearances — to counterattack.

“The club has to spend $1 million,” Mr. Galen said. “Donald goes on ‘Today.’ ”

 

Strange Bedfellows: The Evangelical Right and Trump

I have worked on a post for the Jesus Creed on this very question. I forget where I read it, but one of the best, if not the best, predictor of support for Trump is the hours spent listening to conservative political radio. This isn’t really about politics. It’s much more serious than that. It’s about spiritual formation. God help us.

The reality is that Trump talks and acts the way that the political info-tainers do (and have done for years). The base that listens to political radio and TV have been groomed (formed), in many cases hours a day for over a decade, to love what Trump is and does. Anyone who does serious work in formation could not be surprised by the rise of Trump in an era in which conservative radio has remade the GOP base in its image. Sorry, Church, your once or twice a week interactions are no match, even if the preacher was offering a fundamentally different tenor or content.

“Do not make friends with a hot-tempered person, do not associate with one easily angered, or you may learn their ways and get yourself ensnared.”

Love of one’s enemies is not something you’ll get from political radio. Anger is. Brash rudeness is. Disrespect of others is. Conservative radio isn’t filled with people who make their gentleness evident to all, and bad company has corrupted good character. We are reaping what we have sown. For some of us, the teachers to whom we listen most have been Rush and Beck and others. We have been fully trained and have become like our teachers.

.. Derek may be on to something! Evangelicals are used to spending an hour a week being preached at by a confident, charismatic personality with all the answers. Who else besides Trump in the GOP field fits that description?

.. These same Christians, always on the lookout for someone willing to stand up for God, have found even better in Trump: Someone who’s willing to stand in the place of God.

He’s everything a God should be. He agrees with them, he gives them permission to confidently affirm their beliefs and desires (whether sinful or not), he openly antagonizes their enemies so as not to make them feel guilty for not loving them, and he requires, in exchange, nothing more from them than a statement of support. He’s the ideal candidate for the person who shows up late to church, sneaks out before the end of the sermon, and spends the rest of the week boasting about their love of God. That is to say, he’s the ideal candidate for a huge number of Americans.

With Donald Trump’s Rise, Fox News Reaps What It Sows

because he has demonstrated no firm grasp of public policy in any area; and because his boastfulness, bombast, and petty insults are signs of insecurity, not confidence. It would be dangerous to put such an apparently insecure man in a position of power.

.. But if he doesn’t implode and GOP elites want to keep him from becoming their nominee or a third-party spoiler, they’ll need to offer winning arguments as to why he’s unqualified to a base that they’ve trained to be immune to media persuasion.