Posted on 01/22/2016 2:09:35 PM PST by conservativejoy
He's not going to get fully pregnant, just a little bit pregnant. What's the harm in that?
"I think they're warming up. I want to be honest, I have received so many phone calls from people that you would call establishment, from people - generally speaking ... conservatives, Republicans - that want to come onto our team," Trump told reporters in Las Vegas before an appearance at the Outdoor Sportsman Awards...
At an earlier rally, Trump painted himself as a pragmatic dealmaker capable of working with lawmakers, in contrast with Cruz, his top rival in the Feb. 1 Iowa caucuses...
"You know what? There's a point at which: Let's get to be a little establishment," Trump told the crowd at the South Point resort and casino. "We've got to get things done folks, OK? Believe me, don't worry. We're going to make such great deals."
A fine soundbite for a general election candidate, which I think is the point of him talking like this. He's not puffing either when he says that establishmentarians are cozying up to him. They are, and some of them aren't shy about admitting their preference for him over Cruz.
In private, some veteran conservative Republicans have been reaching out to Trump. And Trump himself called the ultimate establishment figure in Washington, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, for a talk late last year.
"If it came down to Trump or Cruz, there is no question I'd vote for Trump," said former New York mayor and 2008 presidential candidate Rudolph W. Giuliani, who has not endorsed a candidate. "As a party, we'd have a better chance of winning with him, and I think a lot of Republicans look at it that way."
"Between Trump and Cruz, it's not even close," said Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), a longtime House moderate who has not endorsed a candidate. "Cruz isn't a good guy, and he'd be impossible as president. People don't trust him. And regardless of what your concern is with Trump, he's pragmatic enough to get something done. I also don't see malice in Trump like I see with Cruz."
"With Trump, hey, it's just a deal," said Alex Castellanos, a longtime Republican strategist. "The primary's one deal, that's done. If he were to be the nominee, the next deal's a general [election]. You can see him saying, ‘We had to do what we had to do to win the primary, but now's the general, and we've got to beat Hillary.' You can see him pivot on a dime.
Exactly. Trump is for Trump and he makes no attempt to conceal it. That's why his endless reversals over the past 15 years don't damage him the way Romney's considerably fewer flip-flops did: Trump barely makes a pretense of standing for something beyond his own success. The goal is to win. If muttering about "Mexican rapists" helps him win the primary, okay. If pivoting and presenting himself as a dealmaker who can build a centrist consensus helps him win the general election, okay. If and when he's president, he'll figure out whatever he needs to say to "win" at that point. One way he could "win" is by surprising his relatively small base of hardcore fans and signing a comprehensive immigration deal, which would earn him all sorts of Strange New Respect from his critics and signal that he's capital-s Serious about governing. He's an opportunist down to his bones. And he's so confident that he's going to win the primaries now that he's not even afraid of lending a bit of credence to Cruz's attacks that he's a phony populist who'll play ball with Mitch McConnell if given the chance. Maybe I will, says Trump. McConnell and Chuck Schumer know much more about how to "get things done" in Washington than Trump does. If you want to make America great again, they're indispensable aides in that task, right?
Never mind Trump. He can count on his cult of personality to forgive him anything, and the rest of the primary electorate has already priced his opportunism into his stock. The newsy part about the establishment flirtation with him this week is that conventional Republicans do make a pretense of standing for something beyond their own political self-interest. And yet, as Philip Klein says, "they've convinced themselves that the party would be better off choosing somebody who represents everything they claim to abhor." The Paul Ryan wing of the party may detest Cruz personally, but as Klein says, they have more in common ideologically - or claim to - with Cruz than they do with Trump, and yet the soundbites from congressional Republicans this week have almost uniformly signaled a greater openness to Trump than to Cruz. Not only that, but I can't recall even one of them quoted in the stories I've read this week claiming that Trump is a better conservative or Republican than Cruz. What they like about Trump, per Peter King's quote above, is that he'll do "deals," exactly the sort of compromise-for-its-own-sake approach that usually leaves conservative populists spitting at their congressional leadership.
There are only two possible ways to explain the Beltway preference for Trump, says Klein, given how poorly Trump polls in favorability surveys of the general electorate. Either they'd rather lose with Trump than accept a better chance of winning with the dreaded Cruz, or they just don't care about conservatism as much as they've always claimed. (Or both.) So here's my question to Cruz fans: If Trump wins this primary thanks in part to the "mainstreaming" benefits he's now receiving from people like Bob Dole and Terry Branstad and various Republican senators, why should any Cruz fan continue to support this party? The point of preferring Cruz (or Rubio) to Trump is that conservatism matters; this week you've seen various party chieftains essentially say, "Well, no, it doesn't matter much." If that's where the party is now, then let the rest of the electorate decide between the two non-conservative parties. Trump fans have every right to say they'll stay home if their guy isn't nominee because, without him in charge, the GOP doesn't really represent their interests. The same is true for Cruz fans at this point, no?
Exit question via Klein: Didn't we spend a good two or three years after the 2012 election hearing from establishment concern trolls that the GOP desperately needs to get right with Latino voters on immigration? Wasn't that one of the core arguments for the Gang of Eight bill, that the party is finished as a national force if it allows even one more presidential election to happen without reconciling with Hispanics? Did I dream that? Because here we are in 2016 and suddenly those same establishmentarians seem to prefer the candidate in the race who's utterly destroyed his standing with Latinos with rhetorical bombthrowing on immigration to the guy who's been mean to poor Mitch McConnell in his floor speeches. We're left now with this: "Pass amnesty or else we're dead as a party. Also, take the guy who likes talking about 'Mexican rapists' over the other guy." Huh?
No, Cruz supporters support a Conservative statesman. Trump supporters worship a wrestling promoter who is all about his own interests, always has been, always will be.
so Cruz Good Trump bad. What else do the voices in your head tell you?
Why? You want more of the establishment? We’ve been opposed to them all these years...what changed?
Nothing changed. Every election when it’s time to stand up for principled conservatism, half of FR stands down and screams at those who do have the courage of their convictions.
Trump is it folks. Anyone who thinks Cruz can make it to the end is delusional. If Trump is knocked out of the primary, we will have Jeb or Rubio.
Seriously, it’s time for these people to wake up.
Trump is telling them straignt up what he is. He’s playing them for suckers. It’s not too late to dump Trump and come home to the Constitutional conservative.
It is sad to see so many deceived people willing to put this dangerous phony in charge of our country. We have been weakened by Obama, now we may be embarrassed and humiliated even more.
If trump doesn’t win, perform as advertised and do well at it the gop is finished. Like it or not too many bush, McCain and romney’s destroyed it and cruise or Rubio can’t fix it. To many of us trump is more do or die than compromise.
A big-government statist who wants to “get a little bit establishment” is never “it.” What happened to the conservative values you’ve lived?
You’re trying to convince people to go with a liberal who is ADVOCATING for the establishment. Were you asleep during the years this forum raged against those very people?
“Let me tell ya, this guy would give Burt Lancaster a run for his money in “The Rainmakerâ€.”
Trump wins hands down against Lancaster’s bluster. Trump is the biggest blob of bluster nothing on this planet. He is laughable and likely to be president. If he wins, from that point forward, I will concentrate on my Texas staying conservative and not bother about what Trump does.
Actually he isn’t playing them for anything. They are what they are just as he is what he is. All he’s doing is taking the capitalist route and leveraging his resource.
TLDR: There’s a sucker born every min. Trump just has the guts to use them to benefit Trump.
Most of these people created their own Pillars of Styro. They did it with Romney, they bade excuses for Mitch and Bhoner and they are doing it again.
Yes. Beating a dead horse on the Trump or Cruz side is tiresome.
That being said, the birther issue is pretty odd in that the definition seems fuzzy and it appears even fuzzier in that there doesn't seem there is an easy way to settle it.
If it was such a concern for the founding fathers, it would seem there should be an easier way to resolve it other than some long drawn out court process that is extremely hard to initiate due to standing issues.
LOL!
Now I want to go a Trump rally so I can stand up and yell, "You great big blob of bluster nothing!"
It would be worth getting thrown out, lol.
“Yes. Beating a dead horse on the Trump or Cruz side is tiresome.”
Doesn’t stop you from popping into every thread and stirring the shit up does it Vanilla?
Nope.
Ah, those ever-towering Pillars of Styro...only the blob of nothing between them changes.
The way of the world.
Only in response to the shit that's already been dished out.
Not going to sit on the sidelines while the vitriol is served up.
Oh, and 'Hi, Norm!"
RCP is not going to show the great charts making Trump look amazing. They are cousins of National Rview.
Is the ‘Hi Norm! thing just another way to avoid the issue? I always wondered about that.
Well not really. You have lots of ways to avoid the issue. It’s just one of many. BTW, I wish you’d ramp it up a little. The sooner you alienate more lurkers, the sooner they choose Cruz.
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