Auto Sales -- February 2, 2016

Ford:

• Ford brand SUVs have their best start since 2004 with 50,212 vehicles sold;
• Edge sales up 26 percent 
• transit sales increase 51 percent, driving Ford van sales to their best January since 1985 
•  Lincoln posts January sales up 8 percent on strong demand for all-new Lincoln MKX 
• Ford Motor Company average transaction prices grow almost three times the rate of overall industry; U.S. Ford sales of 173,723 vehicles decline 3 percent versus January last year -- but that's after particularly strong results last year

*************************************

Iowa Caucuses

Updates 

February 4, 2016: how Trump blew an easy win in Iowa, Karl Rove. Rove says GOP race may be decided at the convention; I've been saying that all along. Without a majority vote in first round, delegates are "free" to vote the way they want. Rubio is the current GOP favorite if it gets to the convention; the only reason Jeb Bush is hanging around is hoping it gets to a brokered convention. On the Democrat side, some say Biden will jump in if party seems in disarray after New Hampshire. But time is running out; I think he missed his window of opportunity, but if Hillary falters.....

Original Post

 

It is beyond doubt that Donald Trump made huge mistake skipping that last debate.

If nothing else, without Donald Trump on-stage, Marco Rubio spoke more and excelled as a debater.

Rubio's outcome in the Iowa caucus was the difference between Cruz #1 and Trump #2.

Lesson learned: Donald Trump is a businessman; he is not a politician; he does not have the "political insight" that Bill Clinton has; possibly not even the "political insight" that President Obama has.

Woody Allen said this years ago: 90% of life is simply showing up.

Or as the fans of any lottery tell us: you can't win if you don't play.

I argued that Trump made the right decision to skip that last debate. We both thought wrong.

Update, February 3, 2016, 4:24 a.m.: Trump admits that skipping the last Iowa debate may have hurt him.  Link here.  Many people are trying to explain "WHY" skipping the last debate hurt Trump. The reason "why" doesn't really matter. The fact that it (skipping the debate) did hurt him is all one needs to know going forward.