Rothenberg: Trump Is Serious

Stu Rothenberg writes in his RothenBlog that he's changed his mind about Trump. Trump's poll numbers just cannot be ignored and he is likely in the race to stay. The whole column is interesting but the following paragraphs really got my attention:

In May, a clear majority of likely Iowa Republican caucus-goers — 58 percent — said they could never support him (Trump). That number fell to 29 percent in the most recent Selzer poll.

Remarkably, more likely caucus attendees said they could never vote for Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul (43 percent), New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (48 percent), Ohio Gov. John R. Kasich (40 percent), former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (39 percent), former Texas Gov. Rick Perry (35 percent) and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum (35 percent) than said they could never support Trump for president.

As a list of folks I'd hope don't get the GOP nomination, it's not bad and I would add Jim Gilmore, Mike Huckabee, Lindsey Graham, Ben Carson, and George Pataki. Meanwhile, Rothenberg sees evidence Trump could get some modest percentage of Democrat crossover votes in the general election.