Trump, Christie stump for Iowa supporters

OSKALOOSA - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump unleashed a blistering, freewheeling and unflattering critique of America's political elite, holding himself up as the only candidate not beholden to special interests and the best hope to 'make America great again.”

Trump at times blasted President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and GOP rival Jeb Bush and his brother, former President George W. Bush, during a wide-ranging campaign appearance that drew an overflow crowd of nearly 1,400 to a local high school auditorium. He also opened a new front by attacking Iowa 2016 GOP front-runner Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, saying the 'gloves are off” after a member of Walker's team disparaged Trump.

The billionaire businessman Trump said Wisconsin is 'a mess” and facing financial trouble under Walker's leadership and blasted the Wisconsin governor for being 'totally in favor of Common Core” at one time.

'He's the only guy that's ahead of me” in Iowa polling, said Trump, who told the Iowa crowd that was divided into two separate areas of the school building to accommodate the throng that he can't believe he's in second place in Iowa.

'Folks, would you please put me in first place so I feel better?” Trump said to rousing applause.

The outspoken New Yorker also took aim at the Obama administration, calling its negotiators 'soft” and 'weak” with repeated failures in dealing with Iran, China, Japan and Russia in which America is 'getting fleeced.” Trump said he was tired of seeing America get 'out-negotiated” by other nations that no longer respect and revere this county.

'We don't win in this country any more,” he said. 'People are tired of that.”

He also took aim at the media, calling the political press 'very dishonest” in their coverage of his campaign. Trump criticized the Des Moines Register, which published an editorial last week calling for him to end his 2016 presidential bid, but insisted his campaign's decision not to issue credentials to Register reporters did not bar them from covering his event as members of the crowd.

During a post-event news conference, Trump told reporters there is 'no cap” on the amount of his personal fortune that he will spend running for president, noting that as a self-funded candidate he is the only one from either party who is not bought and owned by special interests who will demand favors in return.

'Our system is broken. We can't have that,” he said.

He dismissed talk of him possibly running as an independent, third-party candidate because new national polls have him leading the 2016 Republican field. 'If we win this (Iowa's first-in-the-nation Feb. 1 precinct caucuses, we'll win the whole thing,” he said.

Meanwhile Saturday, another Northeastern Republican, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, shopped for supporters at the farmers market and Italian-American festival in downtown Des Moines and during an education forum at a community college in Ankeny.

During his two-block stroll alongside Iowa Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds through the downtown market, Christie explained to one woman his support for a state-based rather than a national health care system and insisted to another greeter that the Obama administration's nuclear deal with Iran has to be stopped or 'it's going to make the work a much more dangerous place.”

Christie posed for a photo with a man of Italian heritage, joking with him that it was good to share the market with 'another good-looking man.” Another market attendee twice asked the New Jersey governor if he planned to try the breakfast burritos, but he did not make any purchases during a nearly one-hour walk, noting 'it's too early for a burrito for me.”

A woman stepped up to shake Christie's hand and remarked it was too hot and humid for a long-sleeved white shirt and tie.

'I've got to do a town-hall meeting after this,” Christie replied. 'It was a ‘tweener' day for me. I didn't know which way to go. I was struggling over my wardrobe all morning. Staring in the mirror going what can I do?”

Talking briefly with reporters, Christie was asked about his low standing among a crowded GOP field in Iowa polling in which he badly trails Trump in the competition among candidates from the New York-New Jersey metropolis.

Christie insisted there is 'no competition at all” between him and Trump, and he planned to make up ground in Iowa by vigorous campaigning now that he is an announced candidate.

'You campaign because campaigns matter. If the election were held tomorrow, people would be shocked because it's not going to be. It's going to be held eight months from now here in Iowa, it's when we're going to have the caucuses and we're got a lot of work to do between now and then,” he said.

'That's all you do. I've been ahead in campaigns and behind in campaigns and it doesn't change the way you campaign. You just work hard and look at where we need to go,” Christie said.

'Do I have a sense of my position?” he said in response to a reporter's question. 'I really don't and neither does anybody else for that matter.”