Republican Assault on Trump May Only Make Him Stronger (This from the Rolling Stone)

rollingstone.com ^ | Matt Taibbi

[RoosterRedux]

That Fox and the other "contestants" onstage were ganging up on Trump was clear enough, but it hasn't stopped there. Trump is now also seeing a wave of punditry pieces flowing in from traditional conservative outlets slamming his campaign. The National Review's Jonah Goldberg wrote a long piece this month, "Trump fans, it's time for an intervention."

*snip

Meanwhile, Rich Lowry at the Review called the debate a "fabulously awful" night for Trump. He slobbered over the rest of the field. He said Bush "made no mistakes, " Christie was "forceful," Carson was "winsome," Kasich "more of a presence than I would have thought," and Huckabee was "incapable of having a bad debate."

Meanwhile, Fox contributor Charles Krauthammer gleefully declared the debate to be the "end of Trump," saying that he looked "lost." He's been an ongoing critic of the Donald, along with other Republican stalwarts like George Will, who not long ago asked, "If Trump were a Democratic mole, how would his behavior be any different?"

*snip*

What the Goldbergs and the Wills and Krauthammers of the world probably don't get is that by singling Trump out for abuse, they're almost certainly boosting his campaign. First of all, while it might have looked like a damning image to see Trump alone onstage with his hand up and refusing to pledge not to run as an Independent, on another level it was a great Trump moment. As it has been all season, there was Trump, and everyone else. That scene just made the other nine guys onstage look like what they are, stooges beholden to their party and their donors, unable to think for themselves.

[Georgia Girl 2]

Conservatives are sick of the GOPe pundits, Will, Kraut, Lowery, Goldberg,Hayes, Kristol et al telling us who the proper candidates are.

Right about now I bet Erick Erickson wished he had kept his mouth shut. His Facebook page is ugly.

[Albion Wilde]

The article makes some astute observations about the GOP's near-total lack of strategy for dealing not only with Trump, but the voter outrage he channels. But then the author says something like this:

Assuming this doesn't all end in Trump becoming president and the world shortly thereafter ending in nuclear apocalypse...

Why, pray tell, does "B" = nuclear apolcalypse, follow directly from "A" = Trump becoming president? What do the writers for Rolling Stone think a CEO of a multi-billion dollar, multi-national business does all day long? Why do they believe that over the past 40 years of his very public career he has never encountered a difficult problem or a potential catastrophe, and solved it? How do they think he has managed to amass and manage hundreds of thousands of employees and properties and media entities that reach millions of viewers here and in Europe?

I've read here on FR and elsewhere that he merely inherited money from his father, when in fact, Donald Trump received a seed of money and training and multiplied the returns hugely, exponentially. It's astounding how little today's Americans know about creative enterprise and how it's done.

[tumblindice]

“But there are plenty of Tea Party-type voters out there who hate the Republican Party establishment almost as much as they hate the Democrats. There are also plenty of right-wing voters who think George Will and Charles Krauthammer are smug media weasels only slightly less disgusting than the Rachel Maddows and Keith Olbermanns of the world. A know-it-all is a know-it-all.”

National Review=Rolling Stone. Feck `em both. Go Trump.

[Red Steel]

That scene just made the other nine guys onstage look like what they are, stooges beholden to their party and their donors, unable to think for themselves.

Times like this we can get an objective view from the other side.

[Albion Wilde]

I honestly think the GOP wants to lose. It's been the minority party for so long, that it is more comfortable there, than being accountable.

It's like the guy who gets out of prison after decades and then commits another crime so he can go back to the only life he knows how to operate within.

[ponygirl]

Sorry, I will not click that link. Matt Taibbi can go **** himself with a sharp stick.

[Red Steel]

I honestly think the GOP wants to lose. It's been the minority party for so long, that it is more comfortable there, than being accountable.

Yeb and Lindsey are good for it.

[scottiemom]

Oddly, it seems that Trump sounds more like a movement or philosophy rather than an individual. Will we one day say to someone, "Remember the Trump movement?"

"Trump is getting stronger" really means the people are voicing how they really feel and what demands they are making for change. "It" rather than "he" is what this country needs.

[Democratic-Republican]

(R)epublicrat Stooges

[Yogafist]

I don’t think they want to lose, but unlike the voters, they are willing to allow the Democrats continue to destroy America as we know it if they think it will set them up to control the treasury. By helping Democrats pass legislation, they are able to help their crony donor class with legislative hand-me-downs. Truth be told, I think they would much rather have the upper hand in spending so their donors would become more powerful, which would make them more powerful, and wealthy. I am sure they would rather let the Democrats try to win with the leftovers from Republican legislation.

[Cboldt]

The minority party holds considerable power, when you account for all the regulation that power concentrated in the federal government and its regulatory agencies.

Just saying, the minority party can help its crony donor class, probably close to as much as the majority party helps its crony class - keeping in mind that the crony class is indifferent as to which party is in charge.

[Melinator]

Lol. Trump called him a deviant. It will stick.

Fox is making a big mistake replaying that debate because allowing people to see it again now that most people have heard the pundits backstory are going to have a fresh look and realize he was tearing the heads off everyone in that room, including the moderators.

I went back and looked again and what initially felt flat to me with his performance is now such a clear butt- kicking i dont know how i missed it the first time

[MasterGunner01]

Well, duh. The more the GOPee elite RINO Establishment and Media try to destroy The Donald, the stronger he gets. Their efforts to clear him from the field are only pouring gasoline on the fire of Americans fed-up with the gutless, spineless, clueless, stupid, go along with the Democraps Party. Trump has given the disenfranchised a voice. The harder they try to silence and marginalize him, the stronger he grows. It IS that simple.

[kabar]

The Republican party and its allies at Fox, on afternoon radio and in the blogosphere have spent many years now whipping audiences into zombie-style bloodlusts. When it suited them, party insiders told voters across middle America that foreigners were trying to crawl through their windows to take their wives, and that stuffed suits in Washington and in the media were conspiring to enslave their children in Marxist bondage.

Now all of that paranoia is backing up on them. They created this monster, and it's coming for them now. Trumpenstein lives. He is loose in the town and on his way to the doctor's castle. We may not be laughing two years from now, but for the time being, man, what a show.

LOL. Taibbi is a leftist hitman supreme, but he does have a turn of phrase. His imagery throughout the piece is hilarious.

[kabar]

The harder they try to silence and marginalize him, the stronger he grows. It IS that simple.

Sort of like the Blob.

A technician brings a frozen specimen of the original Blob back from the North Pole. When his wife accidentally defrosts the thing, it terrorizes the populace, including the local hippies, kittens, and bowlers. The Blob grows in size every time it consumes something.

[MasterGunner01]

As I recall, “The Blob” was Steve McQueen's first movie role. He survived this Grade B film to do some classic movies. i thought he was a great actor.

[kabar]

His first movie was as an extra in Somebody up there likes me. His second movie appearance was in the Blob,

[Georgia Girl 2]

Yes Fox has stepped in doo doo and they have no idea how to get out of the swamp. Too many alligators on their azz. They are in hiding for the most part. Trump is surging.

[onyx]

Right about now I bet Erick Erickson wished he had kept his mouth shut. His Facebook page is ugly.

LOLOLOL

[CyberAnt]

Well, I don’t care about that .. I just never personally like Erick. He was always nasty about FR.