If we underestimate him, he will be applying gold leaf to the White House next January.

Like I said, he plays a good con. So he's smart within that context.

But he's a complete blathering idiot when it comes to policy.

Because his supporters don't give a damn about policy: they live for outlandish statements from a strongman who will protect them and keep people they don't like at bay. Though this may be seen as a Godwinism, his speaking style is comparable in its effect of to both Mussolini and Hitler.
He is running the smartest populist campaign I've even seen.
He gutted the Republican Party and wears it like a suit.
I think that he is a lot like Reagan and Kennedy is his star appeal, and I think he has a damn good chance of winning the Presidency.
I think we have a chance to avoid the Trumptastrophy, but we will all have to get together and fight like hell to get people out to vote.
I don't see any sign we will do that.

Democrats are as divided as Trump's Republican opponents.

Who is the biggest blathering idiot.....Bush or tRump??

....who, while corrupted, were very well educated on a variety of matters. I don't think Bush gave a damn about anything.

The thing about Trump is, while he always claims he's going to bring in the "best guys" to help him out, he doesn't like criticism or dissent because he's a narcissist. So I see him overstepping his own advisors a lot while trying to add his own word on things. Problem is, his own word is usually not very smart.

Massive cheer from the crowd

At AIPAC, he gave a prepared speech because he knew he had to be on point. Different audience, different approach. That takes smarts.

I think he is brilliant. He plays the game, knows who he is talking to and more importantly who hears him, and talks in generalities that his supporters want to hear. (Brain-dead though they are).

He spent 8 years crafting his plan for this, working on TV, crafting his whole thing. He created a lovable ego maniac character on TV so now when you see it, you are so used to it that it isn't as obvious and to the brain dead masses, that's their kind of guy.

To his credit, Trump has played this primary better than all the seasoned professional politicians.

He knows his base, he knows what they want to hear, he knows how they want him to behave, and he is doing in the face of everyone else telling him otherwise. He has been right and all the experts have been wrong so far.

I'd say that's pretty smart.

Stupid con men don't make any money.

He is a pure snake oil salesman and he people are lining up to buy.

And that he is.

But he doesn't have to be actually educated in the subject of the con. If he was actually educated in that subject, he could proceed on his own merits as opposed to conning people.

So he's not a complete slobbering idiot on all counts, but he's clearly not educated in terms of public policy.