The Powerline blog has gotten ridiculous. It was once one of the blogs I would read everyday. Lem even has it on his sidebar. However the two mooks who write are so off the rails about Trump that I can't anymore.
Their latest idiocy is that Trump is just going to quit. That he never wanted to win and that he is going to quit before the convention so the Rhinos can name someone they want like Paul Ryan or Romney. Right. That makes a whole lot of sense. Now that post was by a guest contributor but it does reflect their sensibility. Or lack of sense as it were.
The only reason to read them is the weekly recap of the best political cartoons. Otherwise it has kind of become like FOX. A caricature of a conservative website. The most important thing that Trump has done is expose so many so called conservative media outlets as the elitist condescending pompous pieces of shit that they really are. You can bet that if Trump is rooked out of the nomination that a third party will arise. I don't think Trump will be the candidate. But he might back someone and serve as the eminence grise of the party. There will be a whole bunch of people who would be interested. Not just Trumpkins. The Republicans might be on the verge of destroying the Grand Old Party. They should think carefully about what they are doing. The Tea Party was the first polite gentlemanly incarnation of the movement. Sarah Palin was the first outrider of the common people having someone to talk for them. Trump is the rougher, vulgar more populist version which is a little coarser and borderline violent and disorderly. The next incarnation might be a whole different thing.
I can see a lot of scenarios that could easily come to fruition. Trump could pull out a celebrity to run who would have a whole bunch of Trump's positives. An actor like Reagan. A celebrity general like Ike. A businessman. A ball player. Anything but a lawyer or a politician. He can take a page out of Trumps play book. Trump is not unique. He is not the only person who could run this type of campaign.
It would behoove the politicians and power brokers in the Republican party to think long and hard about what they are going to do next. If they listen to gold plated losers like Karl Rove and George Will and Eric Erickson then they are going to assure their own destruction. I urge them to take a step back and think about it. They can win fair and square. But an underhanded and devious trickeration will end up in blowing everything up big time.
31 comments:
I know what you mean. I've been saying no matter how things work out, a lot of Internet reputations are going to be in tatters. Once you get past the Establishment types, it's always useful to remember, although they're a small part of the body politic, Libertarians have had a very big presence in the blogosphere.
I think that's about to take a major hit.
Trooper York said...
Trump is just going to quit. That he never wanted to win and that he is going to quit before the convention so the Rhinos can name someone they want like Paul Ryan or Romney.
With the lion's share of the delegates?
Sounds like the "He's doing it for Hillary" argument we've heard so much here.
Nobody has done as much damage to Hillary as The Donald.
When I read that post I just couldn't believe it. The worst collection of claptrap and wishful thinking I had seen since Michael Moore thought he was going to get some trim from Megyn Kelly because he was praising her for dissing Trump.
Twitter is having a field day with that Emory University chalk story. It has inspired #thechalking and #thechalkening.
Our own MH hit Retweet paydirt... Link
Yup. The scales have fallen from a lot of people's eyes. Listening to Limbaugh floundering around trying not to offend too many people is kinda sad. Regarding Fox News, one of my favorite exposes describes Rupert Murdoch's work for one of the largest open-borders groups in the country.
Mickey Kaus kept track of Fox's reporting on the Gang of Eight's immigration fiasco when it was most intense. He found that Fox barely mentioned it on their primetime broadcasts.
Well said. I still think Trump is blowing this--he is acting like a dick because he can't help himself.
Evi L. Bloggerlady said...
Well said. I still think Trump is blowing this
I don't think so. The whole "spill the beans" thing had nothing to do with anything personal about Heidi Cruz - just her resume. And that's the damaging part, just like Roger Stone's piece today about Daddy Cruz and his Bush and Wall Street connections.
Pounding on that will bring down the Cruz scam.
Yeah, Trump took a risk and now has made a big show about being all penitent about it.
But it got a lot of damaging information about the Cruzes out there - stuff they really didn't want advertised.
Trump is an open book and I'll bet all those poll numbers aren't much different than what they were 2 months ago. And they're going to turn out to be like Reagan's in '80. Wait till he starts in on Hillary and gives the country a real choice by reminding everyone what she's really like.
Just as Reagan did giving the country a choice between him and Bucketmouth.
PS If Trump had let that shot at his wife stand without raising Hell, would it have helped or hurt?
Notice, after he told Daddy Cruz to spread the word, we haven't seen any more naked pictures of Melania.
The Trumpkins are having more fun... and they could have more if somebody could manage Trump.
Here's the thing. You have to hit back. If he let it go it would have got worse. So he put a shot across his bow. Because Cruz has shown that he is ready to get dirty. So you have to make sure he knows he is going to pay a price.
Oh, he is a dick. And he cannot help himself. Those two things are true.
Why would people want that? Honestly! Why?
I believe they have suffered the affects of a giant dick who cannot help himself held aloft and carried forward and shoved down everyone's throats with extreme force and zero desire for cooperation, only acrimony the entire way. Entirely 100% acrimony the the whole way the whole time. And now I'm reading in comments all over they're called losers. Dismissed as losers. It's been nothing but cruelty the whole way and it still is. There is no end to that.
Here is an grade A asshole who holds himself aloft and propels himself forward against the current. For now. He's an altogether better asshole. A much more effective weapon for maximum damage all around. For as long as he can hold out. As Troop says, the force that created Trump is not going away, it compounds with each cycle.
Did you notice the imported disrupters are not worth their salt? One or two arrests and they scatter. No gunshots, no bludgeoning, no deaths, no stabbings, no solid head bashing, no bloodshed, nothing of past real solid disruptions, nothing but noise and disruption. Noise.
I agree with you Chip.
You are seeing a foreshadowing in Europe these days. The conservative parties in France and Germany and Holland are getting more and more popular. The soccer hooligans are in the forefront. We don't have a comparable group here. But one might develop.
Chip you are a great chef. You have used a pressure cooker. You know how that works right? Well our pressure cooker is damaged. It's not good.
Democrats enthusiastically embraced the dysfunctional Clintons and Obama, and it hasn't seemed to hurt them too much.
It may be way too early, but this being an oddball political year, maybe the thing to do is to announce the VP slot and get more people on board. Who would best complete the Cruz ticket? Walker? Rubio? Clint Eastwood?
Who would best complete the Trump ticket? Palin? Jindal? Carson? I think the Epic Beard Man would round out the Trump ticket nicely.
Somebody needs to make a bold move to avoid the GOPe from slipping in their loser at the convention.
Tom Cotton is the man. In fact Trump should take a page out of Reagan's play book and name him before the convention. That would shut up the foreign policy wankers and give the conservative pause. He just has to get Cotton to agree.
Trooper York said...
Here's the thing. You have to hit back. If he let it go it would have got worse. So he put a shot across his bow.
As a youse guys kinda guy, you get it.
What kind of man lets somebody take a free shot at his wife and lets them get away with it?
Even though he's from Texas - now - where no real Texican would have let that slide, either, Daddy Cruz is still an Ivy Leaguer at heart and was probably stunned at Trump's response.
The thing to keep in mind is that the NeverTrump crowd has thrown everything they've got at him and he's still standing. If Haz is right (and I agree with him), the polling is close on this, which is why both sides are campaigning up to the last minute.
Apparently, the financial backers of NeverTrump want to see some results for all their money and even a squeaker of a win for Daddy would be a moral loss. They've chosen WI as the hill on which they die and I think they will because Trump will still get some delegates out of WI which will leave the basic math unchanged.
YMMV
PS This is too cute too keep. For what he tried to do to Trump, Romney's numbers are lower than The Donald's.
Listening to Limbaugh floundering around trying not to offend too many people is kinda sad.
I have to admit to being naive about Limbaugh. Maybe that's why I've been so shocked by his obvious attempt to position himself so that he can say he supports the Republican nominee, whoever that turns out to be. Reading between the lines, which is not all that hard to do, it's clear that Limbaugh favors Cruz over Trump. In fact he considers Trump a clown. Fair enough. Come out and say it and let the chips fall where they may. But instead he has stretched his fake neutrality to an absurd degree and has irrevocably broken the trust bond with much of his audience, maybe most of it. He'll never recover from it, IMO. And for what? To be able to say he backs the Republican nominee, even if that nominee turns to to be Ryan or Romney?! Incredible.
Why do populists give a shit what Conservatives have to say? You got your candidate - run him. Don't expect every Conservative to become a populists just because you have. They don't like Trump because he doesn't represent their values. It's that simple. They didn't suddenly change - you did.
It's not Conservatives that are opposing Trump, it's the Libertarians and a few soreheads from the Conservative movement.
I haven't heard this much turmoil over who is and who isn't a Conservative in my entire life and I remember the Goldwater candidacy.
Used to be Conservatism was a relatively big tent with Social Conservatives, fiscal conservatives, neocons, Hardhats, and a great many others. Now the Libertarians want to take over the movement using a phony Conservative as their stalking horse.
It's not about who's a Conservative, it's about whether some people want to get all wound up over labels because if Daddy Cruz is the One True Conservative Shining on a Hill because they need a Messiah.
The Libertarians are running a scam and Daddy Cruz sure as Hell is running a scam and that's what you are so afraid of. That the big scam becomes public.
Hell, even Pat Buchanan, father of the sorehead Conservatives, says Trump is the real deal.
That ought to be the end of it, let the two fight it out, the guy with the best message wins, and we all go on together.
But NOOOOOO, if you guys can't get your way, you're going to pick up your ball and go home.
You want 4 years of the Hildabeast so you can whine, "We are so fucked", like you did the last 8, do it.
Cruz has turned his coat more times than James Webb, but, as long as he claims he's the Only True Conservative in the history of Everything, that's all that matters.
You think Cruz represents Conservatism, look at how closely he's tied in with the Bush family - which all real conservatives hate, right?
Look at his voting record - all of it, particularly the first year.
Look at how he's joined with the Democrats, the Whigs, and the Libertarians in the last month.
Look at how he's flipped on the issues.
If you've got the guts.
We are running him bags. He is winning. The conservatives are joining with the establishment to cheat him out of the nomination. Did you know that there is a movement to have delegates elected to vote for Trump to vote for someone else on the first ballot. To nullify the votes of the primary.
Do you think that is right? Do you think the party will survive that?
Troop, FWIW, I think that business of trying to flip Trump's delegates is a last ditch bluff by the NeverTrump crowd, especially Rinse Ryan and the McConnell crowd to keep the donor money flowing. Want to hand control of Congress, and I mean on a New Deal scale, to the democrats for a generation so there's no pie at all, not even scraps, for the Republican Party, pull something like that.
The Surber piece I linked at 7:43 talks about that.
YMMV
Trump has scammed so many people in his life that it would actually be justice for him to be cheated. Just as it would be justice for Hillary to lose by indictment. The nomination will go according to the rules, and Trump will sue if it doesn't. He sues at the drop of a hat like all bullies.
He will lose on the first ballot, because he won't win enough delegates in the primaries, pure and simple. He will lose the nomination because a majority of Republicans in the party don't want represented by him more than almost anything. That's his fault, and nobody else's. Cruz will win on the second round for the same reason, because once the delegates are free to do as they wish, they will dump Trump. All perfectly legal and in line with the rules. Cruz has simply out-worked, out-planned and outsmarted Trump. If it was the other way around you would be trumpeting how Trump does what it takes, how this is how politics is played in the big leagues, and how Trump is a superior leader because of it, and you'd be right, but that's not what Trump does. He just spouts off crowd pleasing nonsense that makes 1/3 of the electorate swoon, but he neglects the hard work of strategy, planning and execution, and that's your fault for settling for so little from him. You have taught him that this is easy, and that you will accept anything from him, so why try hard.
Ross Perot predated the Tea Party by 16 years. Pretty much on the same issues,indifference of the political class to their voters and rotten trade deals. The tea party also took on the out of control spending.
bagoh20 said...
(we've heard it)
Spare us the NeverTrump propaganda.
Cruz' machinations have nothing to do with the second ballot (if you looked at the story that's been running for a couple of weeks, you'd know that), but with slipping delegates already won by Trump. Even more important, if you honestly believe the Whigs are actually going to turn the nomination over to a walking disaster like Daddy Cruz, you are as big a fool as the rest of the NeverTrump crowd. If the delegates can be freed on the second ballot, they can be freed from Cruz as easily as from Trump.
Rove said it, the Whigs think it should be a "new" face. And, with all those adultery allegations hanging around him, that face sure won't belong to the Colossus of Ted.
He will lose the nomination because a majority of Republicans in the party don't want represented by him more than almost anything.
Which is why he's gotten most of the votes.
Brilliant.
It's sad, but you and April are everything you claim the Trump supporters are, but worse because you run when the facts are presented.
The classic sorehead Conservative, you will pick up your ball and go home when you don't get your way.
PS For somebody who doesn't tie himself to any candidate, you've certainly invoked the One True Ted often enough.
It might be possible for the party to survive if Cruz wins on the second ballot. But not if he doesn't get ir either. That is the plan of the cabal of neoconservative, conservatives and Rhinos. They are going to ignore the combined voters of Trump and Cruz to give it to an "new face."
Who could that be? Ryan? Walker? Daniels? Perry? Lincoln? Teddy Roosevelt? Snookie?
Just about the only guy I would support would be Jeff Sessions. But there is no way in hell that Karl Rove and Rancid and Haley Barbor would go for that.
Anyway you slice it if Trump is rooked unfairly a new party will form. He will never run again but he could set someone else up to run.
Lonesome Rhodes phone home.
ricpic said...
I have to admit to being naive about Limbaugh. Maybe that's why I've been so shocked by his obvious attempt to position himself so that he can say he supports the Republican nominee, whoever that turns out to be. Reading between the lines, which is not all that hard to do, it's clear that Limbaugh favors Cruz over Trump. In fact he considers Trump a clown. Fair enough. Come out and say it and let the chips fall where they may. But instead he has stretched his fake neutrality to an absurd degree and has irrevocably broken the trust bond with much of his audience, maybe most of it. He'll never recover from it, IMO. And for what? To be able to say he backs the Republican nominee, even if that nominee turns to to be Ryan or Romney?! Incredible.
I believe after this election he will most likely retire or set a retirement date. His 'Cruel Neuter-ality' is already laid bare and people have been calling him out on it. If Hillary wins, what's he going to do? All he has to do is rehash his tapes from the Bill Clinton days. It will sound the same. If a republican wins, he can go out on top as the guy who helped. His #1 talk show radio host is well cemented, but it's a fractured foundation.
Evi L. Bloggerlady said...
Well said. I still think Trump is blowing this--he is acting like a dick because he can't help himself.
This is the New York douche effervescing from him. Frankly it effervesces from most north-easterners. It's just who they are or rather it might be the rat like maze environment they've been forced to grow up and evolve in. Trump is showing himself to being a detestable creature. I like him still, but he's shit is wearing really thin. He doesn't have it together. His team is a wreck. He has very little ground game and is instead relying on his force of will persona to carry him through. That cannot be sustained and come the convention or the general, it will be apparent that he was a mistake.
I don't mind that he's being salty right now, but I just know the kind of guy he is. I grew up with guys like him. They think they own the shit. That they are the shit. He ain't the shit. This election cycle will humble him one way or the other.
Trooper York said...
Here's the thing. You have to hit back. If he let it go it would have got worse. So he put a shot across his bow. Because Cruz has shown that he is ready to get dirty. So you have to make sure he knows he is going to pay a price.
Troop, i get it about hitting back. About kicking their teeth in even when they are down so that they are reminded of who the fuck did it, but there comes a time when you have to put the brakes on and show wisdom and temperament of when to strike and when not to. Trump is a schtizoid on that front. His shrewdness doesn't extent as far as he has led people to believe because after a while he'll start to look like an embittered 5 year old throwing a temper tantrum and even his most ardent supporters will just throw their hands up and walk away.
The problem with the GOP and the ones calling themselves conservative, is that once in, they never act like a conservative, and a lot of us have noticed. That's why Trump is doing so well, even though he does not have political instincts. Which is a good thing. Obama has said just as many stupid things as Trump, and he won twice.
Legal Insurrection is getting pretty high and mighty as well: today gloating about Trump supporters being sandcastles.
Perhaps Garage Mahal was onto something -- calling Jacobson "Mr. Mustard."
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