Trump Spends Zero & Is Crushing It…How?

I saw an amazing chart in The Wall Street Journal the day after JEB Bush dropped out of the race…

This chart shows that JEB Bush spent an astronomical amount of SuperPac money and actually lost significant ground. The Journal article reports that

Last April, some 70% of Republican primary voters said they could imagine supporting Mr. Bush, while only 27% said they couldn’t back him, a Wall Street Journal/NBC News survey found. Over the course of a campaign that included some of the most-watched political debates on record, those numbers steadily reversed.

In a survey released this week, only 46% of likely GOP primary voters said they could back him, while 53% said they couldn’t.

It also shows that Trump spent ZERO SuperPac money and is still, as they say, “running the table.” Both JEB and Trump are showing results that would represent a significant paradigm shift in American-style pay-to-play politics. Even the anointed one, Obama, spent oodles of money to win, breaking promises of restraint along the way.

The pundits are saying there was just so much “Bush fatigue” that even money couldn’t overcome it, but where did the alleged Bush fatigue come from if not from W’s unpopular second term? If it had come from W, why did it kick in now but wasn’t present in April 2015? It doesn’t make sense.

How could JEB’s SuperPac have failed so miserably? Conservative talking heads have been invoking the old incompetence canard, but I am beginning to wonder if they tanked JEB on purpose–and with his blessing–his buffoonery perhaps giving the lie to the claim of a campaign run to win. More on that another time, however, because solving that mystery still wouldn’t answer the question of how Trump is crushing it with next to no money.

The answer is obvious. Trump is getting round the clock free publicity from the mainstream media with the added benefit of the credibility that comes from being the story rather than a sponsor. This is self-evident to anyone who ever watches cable news, yet there is almost no mention of it anywhere. The only references I could find to this phenomenon were from last summer, but even this is pretty damning:

Trump gets nearly 10 times TV network coverage of all GOP candidates

Donald Trump has been on Fox News 10 times as much as Jeb Bush

More recently, when Trump stiff-armed Megyn Kelly’s debate, Hannity mentioned that Trump had been on Fox 132 times….that’s not including Trump’s constant coverage during newscasts. Since then, Trump has been on Fox many more times, even taking up the full hour of Hannity the night before the Nevada caucus. By my rough estimate (forty minutes of airtime for that Hannity show plus ten-minutes average appearance time [that’s just a guess] at $20k per 30 second spot), the monetary value of the 132 appearances plus the one hour on Hannity is likely upwards of $50 million alone. It’s such the elephant in the room, that Trump actually joked about it during that hour on Hannity. He said something to this effect: I don’t spend any money. I don’t have to. Look, I’m here on Fox for an hour and I don’t have to pay for it! How much would that be worth? Hannity just said, “A lot.”

But it’s not just the airtime. The respectful way these guys treat Trump gives him legitimacy. In stark contrast, those same “journalists” deliberately undermined Ron Paul in 2012. Not only did they blackout Paul in the media for the most part, they would skip over his name in poll results, treat him with disrespect–even mockery–and argue with him over his positions.

Lest you think it’s just Fox who’s “in the tank” for Trump, in this exchange on MSNBC, it seems clear that Mika Brzezinski has already given Trump the questions and, during the commercial break, is asking Trump’s permission to ask one. He answers, “Nothing too hard, Mika,” and she says, “OK.” Listen for yourself:

Leaked Audio Catches Mika and Joe Chatting With Trump During Break: ‘Nothing Too Hard, Mika’

Given that there is no current data on just how much of an advantage Trump has in media coverage, I just zipped over to CNN’s politics page and foxnews.com to see the relative coverage of the GOP candidates…here are screen shots of those pages at 1:15pm today.

I recently read an article, How Google Could Rig the 2016 Election, reporting that “what we call in our research the Search Engine Manipulation Effect (SEME) turns out to be one of the largest behavioral effects ever discovered.” I don’t know what Google is up to, but I can see what CNN, MSNBC and Fox are up to…the question is why? It’s the obvious conclusion that CNN and MSNBC are shilling for Hillary, but is Rupert Murdoch too? It wouldn’t surprise me.

Murdoch has long been beyond partisanship. Back in the day, his paper endorsed Tony Blair (the UK equivalent of Bill Clinton) for British Prime Minister, and more recently named Blair his daughter’s Godfather. In addition, Fox boss Roger Ailes fired the super-popular Glenn Beck in 2011, just as Obama launched his reelection bid. From Roger Ailes: Off Camera:

In the fall of 2011, Roger Ailes told journalist Howard Kurtz that he was turning down the partisan heat at the network. Ailes didn’t say so, but he had already decided that, in the interest of a more moderate tone, he would have to get rid of Glenn Beck.

Around that same time, I distinctly remember gross undercoverage in The Wall Street Journal and on FoxNews of the Operation Fast & Furious scandal.

Could they really all be in it together? Maybe. The United States Presidency is the most important elected office in the world–the powers that be are unlikely to let it get away from them, and I don’t think they will. Trump has been a Hillary supporter and she did go to his wedding. As for the Bushes, a shocking revelation exposes just how cozy they are with the Clintons. W actually debated with siblings whether he or “Bubba” should give his father’s eulogy. Maybe JEB threw his hat into the ring as a favor to Hillary, playing a bit of a clown to be Trump’s establishment foil. Maybe the Clinton Machine is using parallel tactics in both the primary race and the general: pit her against an unelectably polarizing spitfire to get the vote out, just as the Axelrod machine used parallel tactics for Obama in Illinois during his Senate run. (In that case the tactic was to get both his primary and general election opponents’ divorce records unsealed.)

One more thing I continue to find disturbing…ever since exit polls predicted Kerry the winner and the “True Vote” said otherwise, we don’t get exit polls anymore. Why? One electronic voting machine engineer and whistleblower testified that exit polls are the best and maybe the only way left to detect voter fraud. Now I know that until I can watch my paper ballot from cast to count, voting is just a matter of faith in government. Since I have no faith in government, I think it’s possible the fix is in and we are now living in a post-democratic America. The consent of the governed is still essential and they can’t steal the election unless it’s close, but with media help, the process can be highly manipulated.

So, if the fix is in, what happens next? Two things: (1) Hillary will be president; and (2) those pesky anti-establishment upstarts among the Republican rank and file will learn their lesson the way stay-at-homers did after Dewey’s loss. The Reagan landslide was founded on a “Remember Dewey” get-the-vote-out rallying cry. After this the message might be: “Don’t risk another Trump! Vote the establishment!”

See also:
“A Cautionary Tale” Courtesy of “Decent Conservatives”
#loseonpurpose

UPDATE (2/25/16): I just searched for “Super Tuesday / SEC Primary” and this was the first site that came up so I clicked on it…Truly, this is why Trump doesn’t have to spend any money…

This just in…

How Jeff Zucker Turned Donald Trump From a Reality Star to a Frontrunner

I had missed these the first time…

Trump gets 25 more media mentions than rest of GOP field combined (December 2015)

The Media’s $2 Billion Gift to Trump

Update (2/25/16): And only now are they beginning to vet him…too little too late…Why didn’t JEB’s $150 million SuperPac full of smart money get this out?

A look Inside Trump’s global deals exposes trouble in many spots

MITT ROMNEY: There’s good reason to believe there’s a ‘bombshell’ in Donald Trump’s taxes

I also think to the extent Trump is using his own money, that his coffers are being replenished by a hyper-profitable award by the government:

• Trump Hotel in Washington, D.C., to Open Ahead of Schedule
  The high-profile project to convert the Old Post Office building has, at times, been drawn into campaign politics
• Update: Here’s more on that: Trump Is Going Postal
• Update: Oh, and guess who was the realtor cutting that deal on behalf of the government: Sen. Feinstein’s Husband’s Company to Bag $1 Billion for Government Deal

It’s still going on (another update 3/11/16)….

In an effort to learn more about Ben Carson and a possible run for Florida Senate, I clicked on this link: GOP operatives to pitch Ben Carson on Florida Senate run …guess what is there? Right under the headline is a video that automatically started playing–a video of Trump’s victory speech after the Nevada primary. I kept watching it wondering if it was going to segue into something relevant to the headline, but nope, all Trump all the time.  Here’s a screenshot of what I saw when I was trying to read about Ben Carson – note the headline and the video frame:

Note also that about 3 1/2 minutes into this speech he thanks Steve Wynn, who apparently became a Trump adviser in the Fall–that floored me given Wynn’s history with Trump. Here’s a quote about Trump by Steve Wynn from the back cover of TrumpNation

How deeply is he disturbed? When he was a kid or growing up –who did this to him? I mean, a psychiatrist would know all this.

And here’s some more backstory on their dirty dealings: http://articles.philly.com/…/25604405_1_donald-trump-trump-…

Updates (March 21, 2016):

• I’ve noticed the parallels between Bernie and Trump especially with respect to their polarizing natures possibly being Hillary’s stepping stones to the presidency, but there’s another parallel I hadn’t noticed before. Both Trump and Sanders boast about not having a SuperPac. As I discuss above, Trump’s ability to dominate the field spending next to nothing is highly suspicious, but likewise, Bernie’s ability to break record after record for individual fundraising and amass a Clinton-sized war chest also defies probability. I’m not saying it’s impossible, just highly unusual and coincidental–a combination that always gets my antennae up!
• Here’s another example of how the media and other institutions appear to be “attacking” Trump but are only giving him lots of press:

  • Donald Trump’s Speech to Aipac Prompts Protests
    Discourse, not policy, targeted as Republican presidential front-runner slated to speak to pro-Israel lobby in Washington on Monday

    • that was on page A6 of The Journal today and has been in the 24 hour news cycle ad nauseum, while I can find hardly a reference in the news including the WSJ of this 2012 story:
  • “AIPAC refused to invite [Ron] Paul to its conference because of his record of voting against assistance for Israel, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.”
    • http://www.ibtimes.com/aipac-policy-conference-2012-gop-hopefuls-focus-iran-super-tuesday-419752
  • Ignoring Ron Paul was predictably effective; inundating Trump with news coverage and opportunities to speak and raise controversy is also predictably effective
• Here are two more examples of how the GOP is simply not vetting Trump…if I can find this stuff in my spare time, why didn’t JEB’s $150MM superpac? And what will Hillary come up with?

  • INSIDE TRUMPS’ BITTER BATTLE Nephew’s ailing baby caught in the middle

  • Independent Trump Bags First Mega Donation from Disgraced Ex-Con Real Estate Mogul – “The Mogul” is Trump’s daughter Ivanka’s father-in-law, Charles Kushner, who was jailed for making illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion and witness tampering. 

Updates (June 27, 2016):

Now that Trump is running against Hillary, the worm seems to have turned…note above Trump was likened by Fox to Reagan in the primaries, now the WSJ is likening him to Barry Goldwater, most famous for having lost spectacularly in the 1964 presidential election against LBJ…

Update:  If fox et al really didn’t like him, why didn’t they play this every night?

Update: How did I miss this?