Second debate, second time the media frantically conjure “conventional wisdom” to explain how this time Donald Trump will crumble. Pundits and the Washington press just can’t help but wish for the GOP front-runner to succumb to the usual laws of political gravity.

Politico thinks it sees the beginning of the end of America’s Trump infatuation, pointing to various measures indicating that Trump’s mentions on radio and TV have declined.

Close

Washington Examiner columnist Byron York said Friday on “The Laura Ingraham Show” that he is not so sure.

“It’s a media-centric analysis. We’re talking about him less, so the fever has broken. We’ll have to see if the voters get the Trump memo … Has his momentum somehow stopped? I don’t know. But it was certainly there in Dallas on Monday,” York said

“There is wishful pundit thinking going on that Donald Trump is out of the race, I am done predicting Trump’s outcome,” York said.

“There is wishful pundit thinking going on that Donald Trump is out of the race, I am done predicting Trump’s outcome,” York said.

He noted that two establishment favorites in both parties — Republican former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Democrat former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — each failed to draw a full audience for rooms that hosted campaign events this week.

Despite the soothsaying, Trump dominated an unscientific online poll from the powerhouse news-aggregation website Drudge Report following Wednesday’s GOP debate. At the end of the debate, over 60 percent of respondents to the survey selected Trump as the night’s winner. Second-place Carly Fiorina pulled only 14 percent.

Trump currently leads RealClearPolitics national polling averages with 30.5 percent of support from Republican primary voters.

York said the belief is strong in the Bush camp and other campaigns that Trump eventually will fade.

“Now that may be true. But they just have this belief,” York said. “Right now, it’s just an act of faith.”

Who do you think would win the Presidency?

By completing the poll, you agree to receive emails from LifeZette, occasional offers from our partners and that you've read and agree to our privacy policy and legal statement.

Certainly, Trump has towered over most of his rivals in terms of news coverage. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee told Ingraham on Friday that CNN in primetime from Aug. 24 to Sept. 4 gave Donald Trump 580 minutes of coverage.

“I had six seconds,” Huckabee  said. “Six seconds in a two-week period.”

Trump also got the most camera time Wednesday at the CNN debate. And many of the questions posed to other candidates were about Trump.

Huckabee, who beat only Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker for airtime at the debate, was not a fan of the format.

“I got three questions in this three-hour snooze-a-thon that CNN put on,”Huckabee said. “It was just insufferably long, and CNN clearly had an agenda.”

“I got three questions in this three-hour snooze-a-thon that CNN put on,” he said. “It was just insufferably long, and CNN clearly had an agenda, and it was not to give me any particular airtime.”

Huckabee defended Trump from allegations that he stood silent Thursday during a question-and-answer session at an event in New Hampshire when a man who said President Barack Obama is a Muslim. Huckabee called it “much ado about nothing.”

Huckabee said he likes Trump.

“He is who he is. He doesn’t pretend to be someone he’s not. It occurred to me, he’s a very New York kind of guy,” he said. “It’s kind of like Chris Walken running for president.”