[2ndDivisionVet]

Good analysis?

[elhombrelibre]

Trumps success in the polls comes from telling people what they want to hear. He may or may not believe it, too. He’s the used car salesman in the race. His promises will, like every presidents, depend on whether he will have a Congressional majority sufficient enough to make things happen. Since a big part of the Trump mission is to destroy the Republican Party, it’s hard to see who he will collaborate with in Congress. Granted, many of Trump’s supporters think that Trump should be as vain and as unconstrained by the constitution as Obama has been. The indifference to the constraints on a president by the constitution is a recipe for failure. Trump will have over promised and under delivered. It’s also why he’s fundamentally not a serious candidate and why the US Presidency is not an entry level position.
But anyone not supporting Trump is suddenly not a real conservative and possibly not a real man.

[dragnet2]

Lowry? Sounds like he’s broadcasting from the RNC headquarters.

[Waryone]

Not really good analysis. The fellow believes that "clearly Bush is right" on immigration. (That's really wrong.) Like the rest of the GOPee, he thinks the problem is form not substance. If Bush looked and acted more manly, he wouldn't be losing to Trump since it can't possibly be that JEB! is wrong about immigration.

Even though once again he's mistaken a lack of substance for a lack of form, the meat of this whole article is in the last line:

"Even if he fades, though, someone else will have to fill the screen. To this point, No one else has been big or vivid enough to do it."

I believe someone who is willing to address the areas Trump has and who is not seen as a politician owned by the wealthy GOPees could do very well if Trump somehow disappears from the scene. Cruz or Carson seem to be naturals for the position but the GOPee will come after every and any one who takes over for Trump and is not already owned by them. Just think 2012 all over again.

That is why they keep wishing and hoping for Trump to drop in the polls. The longer Trump stays on top, the harder it will be to put one of their own in place without ripping the whole party election process apart. But, rip it apart they will do because they would rather the democrats win than for someone they don't control to win.

These elites/establishment refuse to believe that it is their ideas that are the problem. No one wants their amnesty. No matter how many times they attempt to label it conservative, giving jobs and tax payer supplied money and gimmees to foreigner invaders is not considered acceptable by US citizens. Until they understand that, no analysis from them will be very good.

I expect the Pees to go full scorched earth if Trump is still leading up to the primaries. It will be as it was in FL 2012, Romney vs. Gingrich. The problem for the Pees, Trump is a known quantity. No calling him out as racist as they did to McDaniel in Mississippi. It will just make them look racist. They won't have the money advantage that Romney had over Gingrich. They certainly won't have media savvy and control over Trump the way they bombarded Gingrich. But that does not mean they won't try.

[gogeo]

Well...

In the argument with Trump over mass deportation, clearly Bush is right.

It's kinda tough to get past that.

[nathanbedford]

Whether by accident or by coordination both Charles Krauthammer and Rick Lowry on the same day have maneuvered toward Marco Rubio as the new establishment answer to Donald Trump.

It is interesting that both of these pundits identify immigration as the key issue. Lowry argues, "In the argument with Trump over mass deportation, clearly Bush is right." By extension, one assumes that Marco Rubio whom conservatives see as a rank betrayer on this issue, is also right. Marco Rubio has disqualified himself in the eyes of informed conservatives when he betrayed his Tea Party base to sleep with the Gang of Eight on immigration. Ever cynical, the Republican Establishment believes that informed conservatives amount to only such a small minority within a minority that Marco Rubio's evident onstage skills will ultimately prevail with less well-informed conservatives and independents.

Revealingly, the establishment argument over immigration inevitably reverts to alleged electability. Republicans cannot win, the argument goes, without a respectable showing on election day in the Latino demographic with the breakpoint usually put at about 40%. Antagonize Latino voters on the issue of immigration, they warn us, and lose the national election. Who better to soothe the misgivings of Spanish-speaking people of color than a Latino with matinee idol looks who has associated his name with amnesty?

The establishment's reverting to arguing electability is revealing because it betokens their cynicism on every issue beyond immigration. We dare not shut the government down, the people will blame Republicans and nothing, not Obama care, not bankrupting the country with runaway debt, is worth an election.

No principle is worth losing an election, fidelity to no promise is worth losing an election, adherence to oath and Constitution is not worth losing an election. It is not worth losing an election to repeal Obamacare. It is not worth losing an election to save the country from bankruptcy, it is not worth losing an election for any cause by shutting the government down or even appearing to be associated with a shutdown done by Obama. It is not worth it to defend the people against the bureaucrats, to defend the people against executive tyranny done by executive order. It is not worth it to oppose leftist judges, leftist attorneys general, leftist IRS agents, leftist schemers in every dark bureaucratic corner of the Obama administration. Nothing dear to conservatives is worth it.

It is however worth risking an election by offending the conservative base; it is worth risking an election to keep faith with crony capitalists; it is worth risking an election to keep the border open whether in the Oval Office or out; it is worth losing an election by serving K St. at the expense of Main Street; it is worth risking an election to presume on the faithfulness of the conservative base while betraying it to billionaire campaign contributors. Is worth risking an election by cutting secret deals with Obama to betray conservative constituents.

It is even worth risking the security of the nation to abandon the constitutional mandate to advise and consent to Obama's secret dealings enabling Iran getting the bomb.

When Marco Rubio slipped in between the sheets with a Gang of Eight on immigration he did nothing more than reveal shortly after his arrival in Washington that he was a quick study. Now the pundits Krauthammer and Lowry nudge unwary conservatives in the direction of Marco Rubio. Soon every establishment Republicans will argue that winning the election is everything. Implied: principle is expendable.

Principled informed conservatives reply, winning with cynics and opportunists is worth nothing. Winning with establishment Republicans is the equivalent of losing.

If demographics is destiny in politics, conservatism has perhaps only this election cycle before it is swept away by a cynically contrived flood of Democrat voting immigrants. Now the very people who caused this, especially the Bush family, and those who at least condoned the Democrats practicing immigration politics, raise their own misfeasance as reason to continue them in power. Properly translated into honest English the GOPe is saying, we have created an immigrant population that must be appeased, we have created a monster which must be fed.

Informed conservatives know this is our last chance.

[Gaffer]

I kinda look at the flow in a piece before really getting down into the meet. Here, we have reportage of the Trump episodes this week, then Bush and then Walker and then Rubio (why?)......and finally Cruz.....

This tells me the thinking is skewed to start with.

I’m not a Trump voter in the vein as in I want him to win the nomination. For me, he is the focal point of all the anger, resentment, disappointment and disillusionment voters who trusted GOP for years and got stabbed in the back. He resurrected the word “illegal” into our national dialogue. All the other stuff? I don’t care. For me, right here, right now, he is the thumb in the collective eye of the GOP. On target.

Bush? Rubio? why even bother thinking about them. Throw their ballots in the trash and move on. Walker? Nice guy - some good prior work, but struggling. Cruz? My guy - I hope he gets stronger.

[9YearLurker]

“His 21st century economic agenda”?

Rubio is a disaster. From his full support for anchor baby-dom to his credit-heavy tax plan. He’s just another Establishment property like Walker or Jeb or Kasich or most of them.

[trebb]

Too early for such an analysis. He should try again next March.

[RoosterRedux]

The problem for the other candidates is that Obama's treason has not just created a vacuum. It has created the greatest vacuum imaginable.

Only a person of IMMENSE personality and presence can fill it.

Ergo, Trump.