Posted on 07/28/2015 6:31:18 PM PDT by Red Steel
GOP elites are only making The Donald stronger.
Kids, you tried your best and you failed miserably, the great Homer Simpson once observed. The lesson is: never try.
Thats probably how the so-called smart set within the Republican Party feels these days. Ever since Mitt Romneys 2012 defeata loss that caught everyone off guard except for people who followed public opinion polls or read a newspaperwe Republicans were promised a tough, new approach to the presidential primary process.
No longer would the non-serious candidatesa term the bigwigs applied to people like Michele Bachmann or Herman Cainbe permitted to dominate the news cycles. This time the GOP would be a well-oiled machine, with a handful of candidates who quickly and quietly made way for the coronation of King Bush the Third.
And yet here we are.
The first GOP debate, televised on August 6 on Fox News, is already a total backfire for the establishment. Based on the latest polls, it will likely include every single one of the candidates the Republican elite despises: Donald Trump, Mike Huckabee, Ben Carson and Ted Cruzand banish to the losers consolation round exactly the types of candidates the establishment presumably wants to showcase: a female business leader, an Indian-American son of immigrants and the consensus-building governor of the crucial electoral state of Ohio.
The controlled, somber and oh-so-civilized process that the GOP promised its donors is now the biggest free-for-all in American political history. The blame for this, of course, is all being thrown in one direction.
Channeling their best William Shatner, GOP leaders everywhere are clenching their fists, looking skyward, and bellowing, Trummmmmmp!
But, come on, the very idea that party leaders could manage the primary process, and bully people like Trump out, was hubris in the first place. Turns out, voters tend not to like it when their betters dictate who should and should not be deemed a serious contender for the highest office in the land.
That Trump is mocking and bewildering the reviled GOP hierarchywho lead a party with plummeting approval ratings among Republicansfills the GOP electorate with a not-so-secret glee.
And is it really The Donalds fault that hes so interesting? Anybody bother to take a look at his main competition in the polls right now?
One candidate, Jeb Bush, comes across as what might have happened to George W. had he decided to become a physics teacher. Another is Scott Walker, whose most interesting revelation in his recent unfiltered ABC News interview was that he still wears jorts. (Yikes.)
Then there is the newest entry into the GOP race, Ohios John Kasich, who articulated exactly the kind of vision that the DC establishment generally supports. Unfortunately, Kasich happened to enter the race the same day that Mr. Trump, deep into one of his now-hourly feuds, decided to broadcast Lindsey Grahams cell phone number on live TV. Which undoubtedly led to the most calls the Graham presidential campaign has received since it started.
But there is a bigger issue at work. Donald Trump is, well, choose your metaphor: a bull in a China shop, a tempest in a teapot, Leslie Nielsen setting an apartment on fire, Kramer trying to host the Merv Griffin show in his apartment, Cersei handing over Kings Landing to a bunch of religious wackos wearing smelly bathrobes and branding weird symbols on their heads. Trump is offensive, impulsive, unmanageable, unpredictable andhe is, by the way, exactly the candidate the DC establishment deserves.
To many voters, rightly or wrongly, Trump is the antidote to years of Washingtons cynical, manufactured outrages, the petty punishments of those who deviated from the party line, its broken promises, meaningless show votes, careful, poll-tested politician speak and a multitude of backroom deals that have solved exactly zero of our nations problems. How deliciously humiliating it must be for the political pros of DC. The guy who somberly handed out goofy busywork assignments to people like Stephen Baldwin and the star of Sharknado on Celebrity Apprentice has just wandered in, delivered a few speeches off the top of his head and totally taken over the presidential race without breaking a sweat.
Unlike the DC crowd, Trump knows something about building brandsand for now at least he has one that sells. The business guy who cant be bought. The iconoclast who wont be controlled. The unrepentant loudmouth who will tell the Boehners and Pelosis and Putins and Kim Jong Uns of the world to stuff it. The quip machineor insult generator if you preferwho stands in sharp contrast to the dry, safe, meaningless drivel that passes for most political discourse today.
Intentionally or not, Trump also lets people in on the little DC secrets that those inside the Beltway wouldnt dare share with regular America. Hes exposed, for example, the fact that office seekers like Rick Perry sucked up to him for millions before he started attacking him. Or that politicians like Lindsey Graham have turned to him for help to get on various TV programs. Or pointing out that the wife of a well-respected political pundit on Fox News works for rival Scott Walker.
Because he is defiantly not a part of the political class, he is impervious to conventional political weaponry. In fact, the attitude of the DC class toward his candidacytemper tantrums and bouts of monumental arroganceis only making him stronger.
Donald Trump has had rough words for many of the GOP and the whole fracas over whether or not John McCain is a war hero (spoiler alert: he is) was foolish and indefensible. But lets not be hypocritical here. The GOP has been equally hostile to Trump from the outsetand that hostility has only grown as Trump has gained traction with Republican voters. Hes been called a clown, a fraud, a pretender, a jokeimplicitly insulting his supporters, which currently happen to be a not insignificant segment of the GOP electorate. A segment that could abandon the Republicans for a third party if Trump is ticked off enough to fund an independent campaign.
The fault for the Trump phenomenon lies not only with the GOP, however. In a first for a news organization, the Huffington Post announced that it was unilaterally relegating a legitimate frontrunner for a major political partys nomination to the entertainment pages. This was the perfect manifestation of the arrogance and elitism Americans despise. The Huffington Post did not perform this public service with other presidential candidates whose chances were even more farcical than Trumps, like Al Sharpton, the professional attention hog. Nor did they exile to their funny pages former Senator Mike Gravelwhose campaign seemed to exist only to publicize its weird performance art campaign ads.
Similarly, the Des Moines Register recently demanded that Trump exit the race, even as he scored at or near the top of opinion polls in Iowa, and long before the voters had any say in the matter. Trump replied in a pointed manner that few politicians could muster: The Des Moines Register has lost much circulation, advertising and power over the last number of years. They will do anything for a headline, and this poorly written non-endorsement got them some desperately needed ink. He made the Registers action look pompous and silly.
The Daily Beast's effort this week to use Trump's ex-wife, Ivana, against hima la Marianne Gingrich in 2012also backfired spectacularly. Rather than labeling her former husband a "rapist," the first Mrs. Trump warmly endorsed him for the White House.
Thanks to this sort of clumsy incompetence, Trump has been handed every Republican candidates dream: the chance to run against both the GOP leadership and the mainstream media.
Should Trump fall, as most people expect, it will likely be at his own hand, not by the geniuses in Washington who dont want some outsider messing up their playground.
Theythe political press, the pundit class, the professional politiciansall but asked for a candidate like Donald Trump. And now theyve got him. Enjoy the ride while it lasts. I certainly will.
Pretty much what Col Bud Day had to say about him in his bio. While Trump is not my first choice, I have two words for anyone who would underestimate him: Jesse Ventura! The non-politician bull in the china shop approach took both parties by surprise. Trumps just doing it on a national scale. It’s going to be quite an interesting ride.
May be because Limbaugh likes a winner?
May be Limbaugh is impressed Trump is leading his nearest rival 24:12 in New Hampshire?
May be Limbaugh understands than losers of elections get to decide nothing?
“May be because Limbaugh likes a winner?
May be Limbaugh is impressed Trump is leading his nearest rival 24:12 in New Hampshire?
May be Limbaugh understands than losers of elections get to decide nothing?”
I’ll add a few:
Maybe because Republican staffers have been calling Limbaugh, telling him to SHUT UP about Illegals.
Maybe because Limbaugh cannot understand how a GOP Establishment plant to flood the country with Democrat voters is going to help anyone but fat-cats wanting cheap labor, while DESTROYING the country at the same time.
Maybe because Limbaugh simply cannot understand how you win a presidential election by having half of your party stay home (or vote Third Party).
Maybe because Limbaugh cannot see the value in winning with an Establishment type who would push the same policies as Hillary - as it is much easier to fight someone from the opposite party.
This isn’t an article, it’s a farticle, written by a little lib traitor (Matt Latimer was a GOP staffer, now he mocks Republicans for weed money).
Very interesting, indeed. Stocking up 15 months’ supply of popcorn.
The polls showed Romney with the lead.
Romney would have won without the fraud, and if the military ballots had been sent out on time.
Obama only won by 50,000 votes.
How dare he?
Pretty sad commentary that the PC crap has inundated itself so far into the population that Trump is considered a bully for unabashedly spreading so much Truth and refusing to back down - there was a time when we called such an individual a Man of principle and looked up to him....
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