I probably need to brush up on my Leo Strauss to figure out what the fuck Bungalo Bill is up to here. There’s no way anybody’s feeling any Cottonmentum let alone Alitomentum:
Shouldn’t Republicans be open to doing what Democrats are now considering? That is: Welcoming into the race, even drafting into the race if need be, one or two new and potentially superior candidates? After all, if a new candidate or new candidates didn’t take off, the party would be no worse off, and someone from the current field would prevail. If the October surprise candidate caught fire, it would be all the better for the GOP–whether he ultimately prevailed or forced one of the existing candidates to up his game.
Who could such a mysterious dark horse be? Well, it’s not as if every well-qualified contender is already on the field. Mitch Daniels was probably the most successful Republican governor of recent times, with federal executive experience to boot. Paul Ryan is the intellectual leader of Republicans in the House of Representatives, with national campaign experience. The House also features young but tested leaders like Jim Jordan, Trey Gowdy and Mike Pompeo. There is the leading elected representative of the 9/11 generation who has also been a very impressive freshman senator, Tom Cotton. There could be a saner and sounder version of Trump—another businessman who hasn’t held electoral office. And there are distinguished conservative leaders from outside politics; Justice Samuel Alito and General (ret.) Jack Keane come to mind.
Here’s what I don’t get: the possibility of some candidate with no political experience and/or name recognition (e.g. everyone there but Daniels and Ryan) getting in and winning is extremely remote. All this talk does is make all of the non-Trump candidates, especially Bush, look weak. I thought Kristol wanted a non-Trump candidate. What’s in it for him to trash the non-Trump candidates?
Davebo
I have no idea. Kristol? A link might provide a clue.
debbie
Kasich’s hoping it’s Kasichmentum.
DougJ
@Davebo:
Sorry, I added a link.
Arm The Homeless
The feeling of dread in the conservative movement since T-Rump entered the race has bloomed into pants-shitting, hair on fire arm chair quarterbacking.
The angry white nationalist core of their party will not accept anyone tainted by their proximity to #cuckservatives. And they sure won’t accept candidates from a person they consider a dirty jew. Good luck with all that, Billy.
Meat’s back in the menu, boys!
Davebo
@DougJ: I knew it had to be Kristol.
Amir Khalid
@Arm The Homeless:
They let him foist that appallingly stupid Palin woman off on them, didn’t they?
JPL
Mrs. Alito might be a nice person, but I just can’t picture her on the campaign trail. She’d have to bring a box of tissues to each event.
me
Why not the only politician Bill has any respect for or loyalty to, Benjamin Netanyahu.
Capt Seaweed
Never in the field of human conflict has one man been so wrong about so much…
NotMax
How many shots did the writer have to down to be able to get through typing that without either uproariously guffawing or projectile vomiting?
Or both.
Jeffro
Anyone insane enough to recommend that Trey Gowdy and/or Sam Alito jump into the GOP race is, well, insane. Tom Cotton for president? You could add up all the good deeds I’ve done in my entire life, and I haven’t earned a karmic reward THAT big.
Arm The Homeless
@Amir Khalid:
They knew they were marginalized, that the GOP would only throw them a bone using dog whistles. T-Rump gives them their hourly dose of red meat. The yahoos hanging out at Stormfront see this as an opportunity to Red Pill the apathetic white population. Billy aint steering the ship, they won’t allow it. They would rather go down with their freak flag flying than hide behind a veil of political respectability.
me
@me: Wait, I forgot there is another politician Bill loves, Richard Cheney. Why not him?
Omnes Omnibus
It’s panic, pure and simple.
ottercliff
Tom Cotton is not a “saner” version of anyone.
jake the antisoshul soshulist
Even realizing it is William the Bloody, it does seem early for a Hail Mary. There does seem to be an anyone-but-Trump
movement growing in the Republican establishment. Probably for good reason. For one thing, the odds of Trump winning the general are fairly long. Plus, he is a loose cannon, and cannot be trusted to do what he is told.
MattF
It’s clearer from the linked post that Kristol really is trashing the current field– maybe this is his takeaway from the recent NR-in-Alaska excursion– his audience was unhappy about all the candidates. And, I’d bet, particularly and specifically unhappy with Jeb!.
Jeffro
@ottercliff: The only person crazier than Cotton would be someone who openly advocates to put the nation’s launch codes into Cotton’s hands. I have a hard time thinking of anyone worse (Joni Ernst maybe, or La Palin herself?)
Ryan
It’s Kristol, so I am not expecting anything to be right here, but honestly, 16 non-Trump candidates isn’t enough? What about the deep bench they gloated over in the last couple of years?
NotMax
@Ryan
Easy. They were misquoted.
Derp bench.
me
Remember when the Republicans last “drafted” a candidate into the race. Fred Thompson worked out so well.
Kay
They already have one, except she’s not a man.
I’m pulling for Paul Ryan, myself. He should travel the country telling economically insecure people he’s going to cut their lifeline, again.
Capri
As someone who works at the esteemed institution that is headed by Mitch Daniels, I’d say the chances of “drafting” him this cycle is 0. He has found a safe harbor and is waiting for the Republican’s fever to break and rational thought to return.If that doesn’t happen in his lifetime, he’ll stay put.
Meanwhile he’s happy to put the local bookstores out of business by entering special deals with Amazon.
NotMax
@Capri
Godot will put in an appearance first.
Amir Khalid
@Kay:
I presume you mean Fiorina. Her big problem is that her own kind — businesspeople — don’t think she’s competent to run America.
wasabi gasp
Kristol missed what would’ve been a cred building opportoonity.
Kay
@Amir Khalid:
I do, but isn’t it weird he wouldn’t mention her? That’s her role! :)
Also? I’m not entirely convinced “business people” are impressed with Donald Trump. He just screams “bullshitter” to me. I’d like to see his income. Not what he claims to own or manage or run. His income.
I’m curious why such a successful bidness man would need a scam Trump University to steal 5000 dollars from enough dopes to clear 7 million. Maybe he has cash flow problems?
Rex Tremendae
Mike Pompeo for President. It’s almost too obvious.
boatboy_srq
@Amir Khalid: I think you could use “his/her big problem is that his/her own kind don’t think s/he’s competent to run America” to describe the Teahad’s perception of the entire GOTea field, with the possible exclusion of Trump – and his own kind aren’t thrilled with him, either, which is why they’re desperately searching for the antiTrump.
J R in WV
@Kay:
Never enough money for these guys.
Have a billion, means I need another one RIGHT NOW!!
That’s what greed is all about, never enough.
I agree with you about Trump, though, pure BullShit all day. No “there” there at all.
Amir Khalid
@Kay:
As you say, Trump’s a bidnessman. And what is bidness, if not the parting of dopes from their money?
And you are right, he’s also a bullshitter. Between the incompetent, worst-CEO-ever contender Fiorina and the bullshit artist Trump, the business community isn’t being represented in the Republican field by its best people.
Kay
@Amir Khalid:
Right, I get that, but you don’t see Warren Buffet fleecing the ordinary rubes. It’s not like he came up as a used car salesman. Didn’t he inherit a lot of this real estate? One woud think the second generation would move on from stealing. This stuff is gross- it’s fraud. I know we’re all supposed to admire anyone who can rip off anyone else, but why is he casting around for money-making scams?
Bobby Thomson
@Jeffro: I would love for Alito to resign and run for president. Draft Strip Search Sammy!
Tom Q
I’d suggest there are multiple things going on here:
1) Kristol does take Trump as serious problem
2) He doesn’t have the confidence that many (including here) do, that Bush can be pushed through in the end. It’s worth remembering that in 2000 Kristol was not a Bush man (he was advocating National Greatness with McCain), that he openly argued the party going all-in on Bush was a mistake. (Of course he reversed that once Bush became the nominee)
3) Buried at the beginning of this is that sentence about letting in new candidates “like Democrats are doing”. He knows the more chaotic the Dem primary becomes, the better his party’s chances become. This offhand assumption (based solely on unattributed rumor) that the Dems are going to get into a big party-dividing fight may be the thing he most wants to advocate for in this entire article.
blueskies
@NotMax: Beat me to it.
That ALONE should prevent people from joining or remaining in the GOP. Yet the Republicans I know think that Ryan actually does have sound ideas. I guess that says a lot.
Of course, these are the same Einsteins who that that Palin was going to win them the WH and that liberals/Democrats/the-rest-of-the-world were just scared of her mighty powers and that’s why we were so mean to her.
blueskies
@NotMax:
I’m stealing that one!
catclub
Well, sure, but what about Jon Thunementum? Huh? He’s tall blond handsome and Republican.
blueskies
@Amir Khalid: You’re right. We’re missing one of the several Walton clan.
Gin & Tonic
@Kay: Trump inherited a fortune from his father, who made most of his money building housing for average people. By some estimates, if Donald had take that money, put it in a passive stock index fund and sat back doing nothing, he’d have had more by now than he allegedly does. I’m insufficiently bored to calculate if that’s true. But the flashy buildings, the marquee properties, were not his father’s.
catclub
@Bobby Thomson: I think Alito would only have to resign from the SC if he won the Presidency. Nothing says he has to resign while running.
Amir Khalid
@Kay:
Seriously, I think the difference between Trump and people like Buffet is that Trump is more of a hustler, and less inclined to obey his moral scruples if he has any. Trump seems to me a less overtly genteel variation on someone like Mitt, whose Bain Capital was essentially a chop shop for businesses that fell into its clutches.
Lige
I think its interesting that Ryan – who would be a decent Republican candidate – has been sitting this one out. Maybe he really is the intellectual leader of the republicans!
VOR
@catclub: But there would be an amazing stack of conflict of interest ethical issues to ignore.
Gin & Tonic
@Amir Khalid: Buffett and Trump inhabit completely different worlds. Buffett’s business plan for several decades has been to buy well-run companies in business sectors that are simple to understand (i.e. they make or sell something you can explain to your mother in 10 seconds) and to let them continue running unmolested. Trump is about using other people’s money to splash his name on things. He is a brand without a product.
Gin & Tonic
@VOR: I think he’s up to that task.
Peale
“Markets are crashing – all caused by poor planning and allowing China and Asia to dictate the agenda. This could get very messy! Vote Trump,” Donald Trump writes in Twitter post.
•Another: “As I have long stated, we are so tied in with China and Asia that their markets are now taking the U.S. market down. Get smart U.S.A.
Ah. So as President, how does he plan to dictate to China how it should run its large economy for our benefit. I’m sure they’d be open to his orders.
Nutella
@Kay:
I seem to remember that Trump has gone bankrupt more than a few times, but like everyone in the construction business, has enough separate corporate entities that he was able to sweep it under the rug.
Joe Falco
Maybe when football season starts back, Kristol can focus on writing down his fantasy team there and leave politics alone. But a man can dream, can’t he?
glory b
@Kay: I recently read somewhere that if Trump had just continued to sit on the real estate his father left him, maintained it and collected rent instead of doing “deals” he’d have as much or more than he has now, based on the increase in value of New York real estate.
daverave
Murdoch is now talking up Michael Bloomberg as the White Knight to save us all from Trumpmentum…
Jeffro
@Tom Q:
These two definitely, and one more thing besides your #3…I’m surprised it took me a while to latch on to, but this is Bill Kristol after all. If he’s pushing Mike Pompeo and Tom Cotton, what’s on his mind? Why, our 51st state of Israel of course. All of this Trumpmentum is taking the focus off of being sufficiently anti-Obama-agreement w/ Iran for Bloody Bill’s liking.
Jeffro
@daverave: Bloomberg…running as an independent or for the GOP nom? ‘Cause if it’s the latter (if Murdoch thinks Bloomberg is going to appeal to that crowd) that’s nuts (and I don’t mean Deez, either)
Just Some Fuckhead
Yeah, because 19 declared Republican candidates isn’t enough. Throw in a dozen more and then someone – maybe even Bloody Bill himself – can win with 12% of the primary electorate.
Tree With Water
Bloody Bill has gone-a-courtin’ for a new trophy wife [“paging Elsa Lancaster”” can be heard thru background noise].
Meanwhile, a question. Is the White House in a position in influence who succeeds Reid as senate leader? That might explain the Warren-Biden meeting over the weekend. Or is that placing my hopes above my head? Be that as it may, Warren should withdraw her endorsement of Schumer and for obvious reasons, all of which concern the best interests of the party’s rank and file.
CONGRATULATIONS!
Ol’ Bill knows they are fucked this cycle, and every day Donald Trump is alive and flapping his cakehole is another month the GOP will spend in the wilderness. I think the technical term for this is cri de coeur.
So he’s begging for a replacement. Who will rid me of this meddlesome Trump? Not I, Bill. Not I.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@Jeffro: Unless the GOP wants to cancel the convention and appoint JEB! their candidate by fiat – a course of action which would right then and there destroy the party – JEB! ain’t gonna be the candidate.
Turgidson
@jake the antisoshul soshulist:
That’s the real problem the conservative “intelligentsia” have with Trump. If they thought he could win and would dutifully carry out the plutocracy’s marching orders like Jeb, Scottie boy or Thirsty Marco, they would probably be fine with him.
Cpl Cam
Desperation is a stinky cologne.