Donald Trump many not be a wordsmith and he may shoot from the lip but he says what an enormous number of Americans are thinking. When he blasted [mc_name name=’Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)’ chamber=’senate’ mcid=’M000303′ ] over the weekend, the GOP Establishment was positively orgasmic. They immediately declared that Trump was unfit to be president. The first poll released after that statement had had time to percolate through the news media showed nearly a quarter of Republicans agreed with Trump about McCain. In fact, more people agreed with him about McCain than said they would vote for him. McCain, himself, is beginning to realize that his gambit fell flat on its ass. On Bill O’Reilly’s show, McCain had this to say:

Afterwards, O’Reilly got to the origin point for Trump’s controversial statements by asking McCain to elaborate on his labeling of Trump’s supporters as “crazies,” and whether he had any regrets about that. To that, McCain said that he said that in jest, and that such talk was not terribly uncommon.

“I have town hall meetings all over Arizona. A guy stands up and says you are crazy, I view it as a term of endearment,” McCain said:

“Everybody in my state is entitled to their views. a lot of them are from other places and they enjoy the give and take with them. If anybody was offended, then certainly I’m sorry. We have a pretty rough and tumble game that we play in politics in Arizona.”

McCain finished by saying that everyone was entitled to their own opinion, even towards himself, but that such dialogue was not unusual. He said that he is called “crazy” all the time, and challenged O’Reilly to deny that he ever heard the same. Jokingly, O’Reilly agreed.

Just as the GOP Establishment was convinced that [mc_name name=’Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)’ chamber=’senate’ mcid=’M000303′ ] was so dearly beloved that criticizing him would hurt Trump with GOP voters, they are also trying to convince us that Trump’s statement about the number of felons coming across out border is going to kill the GOP with Hispanic voters. There are several fallacies in this argument. The first is that the whole thing is a “gotcha” game where Trump said something in a very ‘inartful’ way. I think most everyone knew what he meant. The Establishment and the media pounced expecting Trump to apologize. He really hasn’t. From that, the Establishment and K Street types launched the trope that Trump would be poisonous for the GOP among Hispanics. To be clear, we need to do better with Hispanics and with blacks but we aren’t going to get there by pandering to and infantilizing those voters. The third fallacy is that people who live in communities with a high percentage of illegals don’t realize that there is a huge criminal element. From the LA Times:

Edward Morfin, a 57-year-old maintenance worker, speaks fluent Spanish. His surname is common in Mexico.

But when Donald Trump made headlines last month for saying that Mexico sends immigrants to this country who are criminals, including rapists, Morfin wasn’t outraged — he was glad.

“Finally somebody got up there and said what needed to be said,” said Morfin, who was relaxing on a recent night at an Albuquerque festival that featured cumbia and salsa bands and a parade of classic cars. “He said what everybody’s thinking but is afraid to say out loud.”

And then there is this poll from Nevada:

Donald J. Trump maintains his national momentum as the top choice in the crowded Republican field. The latest poll from the fourth in the nation state reveals Mr. Trump as the uncontested leader with 27.7% of voters selecting him as their first choice. Additionally, Mr. Trump has a commanding 31.4% of Hispanic support.

The GOP needs to pull its head out of its ass and realize that the Council of La Raza and LULAC are Democrat front organizations and are opposed to the GOP and to conservatism. The strategy of trying to mollify Hispanic Al Sharptons and Jesse Jacksons is never going to work. The GOP needs to address the issues, like immigration, head on. A Hispanic worker doesn’t like being supplanted by an illegal any more that a white or black worker does. Hispanics, like everyone else, want safe neighborhoods and decent schools. Trump’s bull-in-the-china shop method may be ugly but Americans are ready for ugly and the other candidates would do well to take note.