Those who are voting against Luther Strange because McConnell endorsed him are missing the point. As Trump pointed out in this weekend’s rally, Strange and McConnell have no history with one another. This is not a case of Strange being a McConnell lackey. This is an instance of McConnell trying to cultivate Strange to be one of his lackeys. Big difference. President Trump is fighting for Strange, a man who has supported him from the day he entered the senate, so that McConnell doesn’t get his hooks into him. If Strange wins because of president Trump’s endorsement, and in spite of McConnell’s, then president Trump will have prevented McConnell from using his support for Strange to extract loyalty from him.
People are totally missing what this is about. Yes, both McConnell and Trump are endorsing the same candidate, but they are opponents, battling for Strange’s loyalty. If Strange wins, because of Trump’s endorsement and in spite of McConnell’s he will owe McConnell nothing, and will know that with his continued support of Trump’s agenda, Trump will always have his back.
Interesting angle but anyone familiar with Alabama politics has known Moore is probably going to win the seat no matter what. Trump or his people would have known this. So maybe Trump’s goal wasn’t to secure a win for Strange per se, but instead just to demonstrate how much his intervention could shift the polls. He didn’t need Strange to win to show that his endorsement is good for a ten or fifteen percent bump. That’s probably why he came to Huntsville: to generate some additional movement in the polls that is unmistakably due to him. Then, once Moore nevertheless wins the primary, Trump will make amends with his AL base by fully backing Moore in the general. If Moore then wins the general decisively, which is likely, and especially if he wins against a scheming McConnell effort against him, that will be further proof of Trump’s influence.
Your calculus expects Luther to parse how many votes Trump got him from a visit versus how many vote McConnell got him from $9 million, and clearly give Donald the win?
What illegal drug do you inject?