Posted on 09/24/2017 3:06:52 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. Alabama Republicans have a choice between a Trump-like outsider and a Trump-backed insider Tuesday in a closely watched Senate GOP runoff that has the potential to wreak havoc on the Senate Republicans narrow majority.
In a fitting conclusion to a sometimes nasty battle, supporters of GOP establishment-backed interim Sen. Luther Strange, R-Ala., are expected to rally on the eve of the election with Vice President Mike Pence. On the other side of the state, backers of insurgent candidate Roy Moore will stump with Trumps former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, and controversial "Duck Dynasty" star Phil Robertson.
Trump is taking a risk backing Strange, whom he campaigned for Friday night here, but many see far more upside potential for the president than downside. If Strange wins, Trump will be credited for turning the tide, engineering an upset, and saving an incumbent earning goodwill with GOP lawmakers.
If Moore prevails, Trump will be dinged for falling short in pulling his candidate across the line. But at the same time, it will be read as a sign of anti-GOP establishment strength, a movement acting in Trump's name, regardless of his endorsement in this race. The president still remains perhaps their best and only hope in D.C. for change.
His support for Strange, as the president has made explicit, is about personal loyalty to him, not about ideology.
Trump, who has flirted with endorsing primary challenges to incumbent Republicans and regularly vents his frustration with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, seems comfortable emboldening, or at least not squashing, Bannon-ite primaries.
And Moore backers, who can't bring themselves to believe Trump really means it with Strange, would be eager to have the president back on their side.....
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
If ya can't baffle 'em with brilliance... Thanks 2ndDivisionVet.
I don’t care about his Strange support
but I do hope he continues to oppose Ariz Flake and maybe other GOP in their primaries next year.
I don't think so.
Roy will be a great Supporter of Maga!! Trump got bad advice on strange and thought he could ingratiate himself with bitch McConnell who hates Trump because the power base has changed.
Because NBC can’t think right they miss the biggest point. If Strange loses, then Trump will come fully behind Moore and go to Mitch and the rest of the Congressional Wimp Delegation and tell them: “Look, I tried my best. I supported your guy but he lost. Lost badly! The people do not want that kind of guy, which is why from now on I’ll be supporting and endorsing more challengers like Moore”. The only thing you can do is get on the bandwagon and support my tax cut and repeal Obamacare in hopes that I might change my mind”.
"Why doesn't Alabama want Big Luther Strange!
Click on my profile page. And that's not the half of it.
I think I see what’s happening. The entire Repub base is getting a hyper boost with the campaigns for both Moore and Strange.
Want on or off this ping list? Just drop me a FReep mail.
Trump will lose if he “wins” in Alabama, or rather, if the candidate he “endorsed” gets elected. That endorsement was a political ploy to plant an ob on McConnell at no political cost to himself because Strange was not going to win which was apparent by the time Trump made his endorsement. Trump’s endorsement actually shook out more votes for Moore because the people who prefer Moore are much more intense than those who would vote for the Strange guy. Trump knew that. He had surely already scoped out the landscape. M. Trump is pretty sharp with things like that.
Donated a couple hundred to Moore - hope he prevails.
Anyone notice how all the Never Trumpers and original Cruzbots have come out of the woodwork to support Moore? Including Levin. It’s naïve and stupid to think that Moore will support the President on key issues like Repeal O care. No record of his having said he would. He’d join Cruz and Rand. I think Trump doesn’t see him as a team player at all.
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