Hispanics loathe the guy.
Since Gallup began surveying Hispanics in early July, just 14 percent viewed Trump favorably while 65 percent viewed him unfavorably, leaving the real estate mogul with a net -51 percent favorability rating with Hispanics.
Frank Luntz is terrified of him.
The focus group watched taped instances on a television of Trump’s apparent misogyny, political flip flops and awe-inspiring braggadocio […] They saw that Trump once supported a single-payer health system […]
At the end of the session, the vast majority said they liked Trump more than when they walked in.
“You guys understand how significant this is?” Luntz asked the press breathlessly when he came back into the room behind the glass. “This is real. I’m having trouble processing it. Like, my legs are shaking.”
“I want to put the Republican leadership behind this mirror and let them see. They need to wake up. They don’t realize how the grassroots have abandoned them,” Luntz continued.
Outreach to women is going well. In a nutshell, he stayed up to watch Megyn Kelly’s first show after the unplanned, eleven-weekday vacation she took when Roger Ailes tossed her under the bus* to get back on The Donald’s good side. Some staffer apparently forgot to inactivate Donald’s Twitter account and, well, just click through.
Sleep well, Reince.
(*) I know, this hackneyed phrase has become almost meaningless from overuse. In this case I genuinely cannot think of better way to describe how Roger Ailes turned on Kelly and discarded her when he realized the attack lines she delivered, which he unquestionably had personally approved, caused FOX more trouble than Trump.
***Update***
Roger Ailes has demanded that Trump apologize for harassing Megyn Kelly (thanks OzarkHillbilly). It would make Kelly’s position at FOX untenable if he did not defend her, but even so it seems like a bold move for a guy who has been courting Trump pretty desperately. When you fall off the tiger, it’s so damn hard to get back on again.
gratuitous
So, whaddya think? Will it take all the way until Labor Day for Ailes to be groveling before T Rump again, and to have totally forgotten the unpleasantness surrounding Megyn Whatshername?
Ailes can’t possibly fight against T Rump, who has assets and means of his own to fire back. Ailes will be running up the white flag soon enough. Megyn Kelly should sit down and do a thorough review of her career options (if any there be) when her boss knuckles under to T Rump again.
MattF
Pierce on Luntz on Trump.
Robin G.
While watching the right-wing Frankensteins be consumed by their own monster has an undeniable level of schadenfreude, I’m not sold (at this point) by the conventional wisdom that the Dem nominee would slaughter Trump in the general. Meep.
Steppan
I’m terrified of these people too, but for very different reasons.
BR
@Robin G.:
Neither am I. The general public has been fed a daily diet of media swill for too long, and Trump knows how to work within that system much better than any ordinary politician, Democrat or Republican. Makes me wish Obama could run again.
smintheus
More Luntz:
Luntz is full of it. Trump is punishment to a Republican elite that has fed hatred, bigotry, and demagoguery with wedge issue after wedge issue left unresolved in their voters’ minds. Stop pretending you’re shocked the Tea Partiers are taking over your damned useless party.
SRW1
Eleven-day, not eleven-week
smintheus
@BR: These people seem totally unaware that they’ve been propagandized to the nth degree. “Gosh, Trump is able to parrot back to us exactly our own ‘thoughts’ on all the wedge issues!!111! I’m just like totally amazed to hear someone else saying everything that’s been crammed into my own mind.”
boatboy_srq
Edited for clarity.
OzarkHillbilly
Fox Boss Demands Donald Trump Apologize For Attacking Megyn Kelly The Boss is Ailes.
MattF
The Republican party is facing a nightmare scenario. Supposing, for the sake of argument, that Trump doesn’t win the R nomination. Can you imagine the problem that the actual nominee, whoever it might be, would be facing? OTOH, if Trump wins the nomination, would that be an improvement?
It’s just ugly. And yeah, it’s their own damn fault, but the rest of us have to face the consquences as well.
WJS
Roger Ailes came out today and said he was 100 percent behind Kelly and defended the network’s journalism “ethos” against Trump. When the backlash hits, I would expect Kelly to end up on The View or hosting a game show because Trump represents a pretty real threat to the continued dominance of Fox News over the Republican Party.
Trump is doing significant damage to the Republican Party and the conservative establishment. It may be time for Democrats to start raising money for him.
the Conster
FrankenTrump’s got the clown car’s pedal to the metal and it’s wonderful to watch. There is no way he’ll be president, but boy, is it fun to ogle while he makes Jeb? look like the soft handed inbred scion of Babs and Poppy, and Walker look like the uneducated dull witted doofus that they both are. Luntz, Ailes, Murdoch are all watching in horror too, as they realized their life’s work will be destroyed by four words – “it’s on his hat”.
boatboy_srq
@smintheus: Donald Trump is the predictable consequence of pandering to the Reichwingnut lizard brain. Luntz just doesn’t want to accept that. It’s understandable. Execrable, but understandable.
Betty Cracker
@smintheus: Wowsers. The unfathomably vast lack of self-awareness contained in that observation from Luntz makes the universe look small.
schrodinger's cat
You can ride the tiger only for so long, before you become his lunch.
Haydnseek
It’s on his hat!
It’s on his hat!
He’s surely a different breed of cat!
It’s on his hat!
It’s on his hat!
Now what could be more important than that?
JPL
MSM needs to call the GOP on their xenophobic behavior and until they do, it won’t stop. They are waving flags and preaching patriotism, while throwing those of color under the bus. We used to be one nation, and this is not the fault of the current President.
The decision to never negotiate was made by McConnell and the party needs to come to grips with it.
pamelabrown53
Ain’t it poetic justice that Luntz has spent his career perfecting dog whistles. Now he’s terrified that the rest of America hears the true intent.
The single thing I like about Trumpmania, is he has 0 compunction in squashing the Luntz weasel.
boatboy_srq
From the Pierce article:
Dear Mr. Luntz: this is a sample of the kind of voters your despicable misrepresentations, finessed dogwhistles and out-and-out lying have produced. Trump is their chosen candidate. Deal with that.
BR
@JPL:
Yeah, this is worrying to me — the normalization of really open xenophobia. It can lead a society to dark places that I don’t want to see in my lifetime. As long as the media keep reporting it as if everyone is entitled to say anything they want and have it amplified for free into every home, without any competing progressive messaging to push back against it (with progressive framing as well), we’re in trouble.
Chris
@smintheus:
Yeah. I love how it’s only now, when the rabid dog they’ve been feeding is starting to look at them funny and threatening to break free of his leash, that they’re starting to freak out. Fifty years they’ve been supporting this, but now that it’s happening to them, now all of a sudden it’s not funny.
Haydnseek
@Haydnseek:
He’s richer than Jeb!
He’s smarter than Rand!
But his dreams are scooped up
from a box full of sand.
Paul in KY
@Betty Cracker: He’s not paid all that money to do self-aware. I bet he knows it, it’s just that he’s a spinner for Repubs & has to spin it in the least damaging way to the brand.
smintheus
@Betty Cracker: Yep. It’s almost as if there weren’t any mirrors available to Luntz in that focus-room where journalists were observing the rubes from behind mirrored glass.
Amir Khalid
Are there any numbers on The Donald’s popularity among Americans in general? It’s one thing for him to have the Republican party base eating out of his hands, but I’d like to see if other people are buying what he’s selling.
Kay (not the front-pager)
Tossed her like a used kleenex?
JPL
@BR: Sunday Morning Show lineups are mainly Republicans, who go unchallenged. Fox News is in a world of its own allowing people to call the President, the anti-christ or Muslim.
I’m not sure that the GOP is going to implode by itself.
goblue72
@BR: The dumbest and most dangerous people in America are old white people.
In the thread on reparations yesterday, someone noted a poll that followed Ta-Nahesi Coate’s Atlantic article on reparations – 94 percent of whites opposed reparations. NINETY-FOUR.
Times like these, I am so ashamed at being white.
Jeffro
I love this, love, love, love it! Hey Luntz, you collected a pack of Trump SUPPORTERS, what did you think you’d hear? Chill out, they are only 30% of your base…you’ve still got 70% that you can sell Jeb! too. (Good luck w/ that btw)
Here is my favorite quote from a Trump supporter in the focus group:
Well there you go, folks (and other candidates please take note): put something rah-rah-America on a trucker hat and wear it at every appearance. Electoral glory awaits!
Betty Cracker
@BR: It is scary, but is it any worse than amiable dunce Reagan kicking off his campaign in Philadelphia, MS? Is it worse than the Willie Horton ad? Is it worse than Jeb Bush interfering in the Schiavo family’s personal business? Is it worse than Rand Paul telling Rachel Maddow private businesses should be allowed to hang up “whites only” signs? Is it worse than the President of the United States of America being compelled to produce his birth certificate to respond to the openly racist birther nonsense? Is it worse than having a bunch of pious old men testifying before Congress on the whether women should have access to birth control?
Maybe it’s better to stop all the sugar-coating, winking and nudging and have this shit out in the open.
C.V. Danes
Before the Republicans think about chasing Trump down the rabbit hole, they might want to consider that Hitler was pretty popular with the rubes too before he was elected.
Betty Cracker
@goblue72: You don’t have to be a racist or a nutcase to think reparations are a bad idea.
BR
@Betty Cracker:
I think it is worse. Honestly, a lot worse.
The reason the dog whistle stays at frequencies that can’t be heard by others is because it’ll backfire if broadcasted to everyone. I think even the recipients of the dog whistle realize that, which is why they’re responding so heartily to Trump ditching of the dog whistle — it’s the “saying what’s on their mind but couldn’t be said out loud” aspect. As soon as that happens, people start thinking that xenophobia is now acceptable in public, and start to take matters into their own hands, like the two in Boston. That sort of thing quickly spirals in ugly ways if history is any guide.
goblue72
@Betty Cracker: But at what point does that just normalize it and move the window of what is acceptable belief backwards?
I mean, if its ok to publicly promote what is deepest in our hearts – when do I get to promote armed resistance to the rightwing and the organizing of a socialist army to bring out a worker’s revolution? Because, frankly, that’s what I really want to see deep in my heart. Not the titans of Wall Street figuratively swinging from a rope – but literally hung in the public square.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
JPL
Serious question?
What the hell does Make America Great Again mean? Does it mean that we won’t invade countries because we don’t like the dictator?
goblue72
@Betty Cracker: Seriously? 94 percent opposed and your knee-jerk is that its probably because its a bad idea on the merits and not due to what is blindingly obvious? That the majority of white people in this country, on the spectrum of racism, are more on the “racist” side of that dial than the “not racist” side of that dial – and continually refuse to accept even 10% of the responsibility they should for the racist society they created.
goblue72
@JPL: It means the De-Blackening. That’s what it means. Its racist POS language right on the front of his cap.
Elie
@MattF:
So true. This is hurting all of us and there will be collateral damage to many parts of the US system. You cannot allow the amount of overt hatred and incivility to have free reign and end up with anything good. We Democrats picked a bad election cycle to not have exactly the right alternative. Yes, it IS too bad that Obama can’t run again, but there it is.
srv
Liberals and Cucks join hands in their fight against the common folk. Wherever you go, no matter what you do, in the end, it’s just two sides of the same coin.
Trump is bigger than Fox. If Murdoch’s kids know what’s best for them, Roger will be headed on a ‘vacation’ himself. Hopefully someplace real, like South Boston.
goblue72
@BR: Bingo. Folks should go the NY Times Video section and watch the video on Trump’s appeal. They interview a bunch of his supporters. They all repeat variations on “he says what we have all been thinking but can’t because ‘political correctness'”
These people never change – whether its lynchings in the 50s or throwing rocks at school buses in the 80s, or declaring open firing season on blacks in the 2010s. We don’t destroy them by ceding ground to them.
Grumpy Code Monkey
@Amir Khalid:
Most Americans know him from his reality show, and I think as of today most regard him as a joke candidate running a self-promotional vanity campaign. It’s only August, and the sane people in this country won’t even think seriously about politics until November (social media’s changing that game a little bit, though).
But…
What’s setting him apart from the rest of the pack at the moment is that he appears to genuinely not care about what anyone else thinks about him. He doesn’t use dog whistles, he doesn’t couch the bile in focus-group-approved language, he doesn’t resort to euphemism. That’s striking a chord with a lot of people who are fed up with phoniness in politics and politicians in general. He’s an asshole, but he’s a genuine asshole. And that’s every bit as much of a problem for Democrats as Republicans.
One of the legitimate points he’s been making is how both Democratic and Republican administrations enabled the offshoring of manufacturing jobs (see Perot’s “giant sucking sound” description of NAFTA). Every time a new trade deal is announced, working class Americans seem to take it in the shorts (that’s the perception, anyway, if not the reality). That’s got labor listening to him, which is going to be a real problem for the Democrats in the general if he’s the nominee (or running third-party). The whole hush-hush nature of Obama’s trade partnership proposal is going to hurt the eventual Democratic nominee, more so than I think people realize.
Again, it’s only August; a lot’s going to change between now and the first primaries. Most of the clowns will have been kicked out of the car by then. The only Republican candidates still standing by Super Tuesday will be Bush, Cruz, maybe Walker, maybe Rubio, maybe but most likely not Trump.
Bobby Thomson
Outreach to GOP women is going just fine for Trump, and that’s his only concern.
Hungry Joe
Today I reached my Trump Tipping Point: He shifted from hilarious vulgarian to frightening fascist. Hard as it is for us to accept, being sane and all (most of us, anyway), whoever the GOP nominates has a real shot at becoming President of the United States. He/she (Hi, Carly!) will start with at least 42%, and with that unshakable base, yes, it can happen.
Tom F
@Amir Khalid:
Ruckus
@Grumpy Code Monkey:
How is T Rump going to be left not standing by Super Tuesday? The MSM is going to ignore him? No. Fox is going to ignore him? Maybe but I doubt it.
Now after Super Tuesday I might give you. But if T Rump does even moderately well before that, and that possibility is way more than single digits, then all bets are off. This is not in any way a normal presidential run. As has been noted many times, even in this thread, the repubs have been running this scam for 50 yrs, and amped up even more as time went on and T Rump is taking advantage of it, big time. And he’s getting away with it exactly because he’s not a politician.
ETA Should have said, not a bought and paid for politician.
different-church-lady
I can’t understand it — Trump is merely accusing them of being an evil rot that’s the cause of all of America’s problems and they act like he’s insulted them or something!
gwangung
@goblue72: White liberals might back down.
Blacks, Hispanics, Asians? HELL, NO. It IS existential for us.
Joel
I’m of mind that this is all Br’er Rabbit. Trump gets to cry about being attacked by the liberal media — his followers will eat that shit right up — Ailes gets to claim that he’s stood up for his people, and his anchors get to play victim again.
BR
@Hungry Joe:
Yeah, same here. And it’s not that I think he’ll be a strong general election candidate. But it’s that he would have any chance at all of winning is scary. (Same for Ted Cruz, but he won’t be able to get away with as much even if he won.)
different-church-lady
@Grumpy Code Monkey:
He’s merely reversed 30 years of Atwater’s “N-word, n-word, n-word” rule.
Betty Cracker
@BR: I guess it depends on your assessment of the overall venality of Americans. I might be more optimistic than you are. Of course it’s alarming that one of the two major political parties is becoming more openly xenophobic, but I think there’s a fairly low ceiling on the electoral appeal of that message.
I could be wrong, of course, but even Trump walked some of his more outrageous anti-immigrant statements back a little bit, and if the party becomes as openly xenophobic and misogynist as Trump’s yahoo core of supporters think he is, I think the Republicans could be done nationally. And maybe something better could arise from their ashes.
@goblue72: Nope. You seemed to be making a straight-up equation that opposition to reparations = racism (citing that statistic as your basis for being ashamed to be white), and I’m saying it’s not that simple. Of course some of the 90%+ of whites would oppose it because of racism, duh, but there are plenty of other reasons unrelated to racism. IIRC, 40-something percent of black Americans oppose reparations!
different-church-lady
@srv:
Half the TVs in Southie are probably tuned to his network right now.
Citizen_X
@Joel:
I think you’re right: they both get to claim they’re independent. (Fox: see? Fair and Balanced! Trump: see? I don’t belong to anyone!)
That arrangement will work out fine for both parties–until Trump wins the nomination. Then one of them (Fox) will have to bend their knee and pledge allegiance.
Iowa Old Lady
I gather Trump called Kelly a “bimbo” today. That’s what provoked the new call for an apology. We’ll see how long that lasts.
gene108
The sublime beauty of Trump, is not so much tapping into the mountain of hate right-wingers have for others, but the fact no Republican can call on on the sketchiness of his “policy” proposals.
Republicans, for the last 15 to 20 years, have not really been interested in governing.
They run platforms that do not make sense, when subjected to the harsh light of reality and facts, such as tax cuts pay for themselves. They have grown used to the media papering over their fantasy policies.
And especially since Obama has been elected they make no attempt for their policies to benefit anyone other than the rich and they are pretty open about it.
So Trump’s basically free to propose whatever far fetched plan he wants and the Republicans can’t really say, “hey, that makes no sense” because none of them have policy positions that make any sense, if people bothered to look.
different-church-lady
@Iowa Old Lady: There goes 65% of the women in this country.
Considering that it’s already been proven you can’t win the presidency with only the white male vote, I’m not sure where Trump thinks he’s going with his current “strategy”.
catclub
@gratuitous: @WJS:
I disagree. Only one of these two runs a network, and THAT guy has the power. Trump is not Berlusconi for the US. Berlusconi owned a large fraction of the media in Italy.
indycat32
People have been yelling American Exceptionalism!!! for 7 years. Now Trump comes along and says America sucks and is stupid, and these same people are saying, yeah, right, we suck! Has anyone noted that “we’re tired of being politically correct” means why can’t we call the President the N-word. Someone is going to say it, maybe even Trump
Matt McIrvin
@Amir Khalid: There’s been some head-to-head polling of Trump vs. Clinton, which is a lot sparser than the polling for other R candidates, but mostly seems to produce results comparable to the more establishment guys:
http://elections.huffingtonpost.com/pollster/2016-general-election-trump-vs-clinton
http://elections.huffingtonpost.com/pollster/2016-general-election-bush-vs-clinton
http://elections.huffingtonpost.com/pollster/2016-general-election-rubio-vs-clinton
Huckabee, Cruz and Walker do significantly worse, but Trump right now seems to be registering as a major player. His unfavorables are still higher than Hillary Clinton’s, though they are dropping as hers rise:
http://elections.huffingtonpost.com/pollster/donald-trump-favorable-rating
http://elections.huffingtonpost.com/pollster/hillary-clinton-favorable-rating
(Do note that the favorable/unfavorable polling on Hillary Clinton goes back a long, long way, so the horizontal scale makes her recent drop seem much more rapid than it is.)
Amir Khalid
@Iowa Old Lady:
Oh yeah. It was Ailes who backed down a couple of weeks ago and sent Megyn Kelly on vacation, wasn’t it?
@gene108:
The Republican House and Senate caucuses couldn’t find their arse with both hands and a map, as they have been demonstrating since 2010. Yet they are still expected to retain their majorities in 2016, are they not?
Ruckus
@gene108:
It’s his openness that works. With the others you have to either just accept the party line or actually do some digging, OK scratching the surface lightly, to find out exactly what is meant by their policies. This has been even more predominate in the past but T Rump has blown the doors off of that cloak of civility that the rest have tried to cover their policies in. And at least some of the base repubs like that. They don’t have to work to get their hate on, it’s right in front of them, being presented to them, in a format they like and understand.
Calouste
@Grumpy Code Monkey:
Trump will still be there, unless he has gone third party, as will be Carson, Huckabee and Paul at least (grifters gotta grift), in addition to all the names you mention. The GOP primaries are all proportional until 2 weeks after Super Tuesday, and Super Tuesday is only the fifth primary, after Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada. No one will have a decisive lead or be out of the running by Super Tuesday, but some will have dropped out because they no longer have money to spend on their campaign (not a problem for the grifters of course, they have no intention of spending sweet cash on actual campaigning).
different-church-lady
@efgoldman: Yeah, that’s the other half.
different-church-lady
@efgoldman: By the way, my friend, this was a work of genius.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
From the Time article on the focus group:
So, Donald Trump is the altruistic guy with the common good in his heart? How far gone do you have to be to come to that conclusion? The guy’s whole life has been one big long, unapologetic exercise in being in it for himself. I get, after decades of soaking up the Republican “every man for himself” ethos, how someone like the Donald would appeal to these folks, but I don’t see how anyone could convince themselves that The Donald has their interests at heart.
gene108
@Amir Khalid:
In the House yes. In the Senate maybe not.
I need to hold out hope that the current incarnation of Republicans will self-destruct. I thought the disaster of the Bush Administration might’ve done it, but I was wrong.
I’m hoping the Trump candidacy and their lack of doing anything for most people will finally break them.
Identity politics has carried a lot of less than savory politicians to victory all over the world.
America is no exception.
@Ruckus:
Part of the reason the openness works is Republicans can’t call bullshit on Trump’s plans, since their own plans are just as much BS.
If they went “wonkish” after why Trump’s plans won’t work, then Trump can rip them apart just as well and probably better.
Bobby Thomson
@Grumpy Code Monkey: why not Trump? He’s leading with all subgroups of the Tepublican party, no one else comes close, the also rans have so little support that even uniting behind a not-Trump doesn’t add up to much, Trump is the leading second choice, and Bush and Walker make Romney look warm and quick on his feet. He also can’t run out of money and can’t be shamed. His strategy is clumsy and offensive, but he sure knows his audience.
Bobby Thomson
@Tom F: to be expected as Republicans fall in line. It will get even tighter if Obama’s popularity doesn’t improve over the next year. It’s past time to take this election seriously.
Amir Khalid
Oh yeah — I should mention that the post headline reads kind of gross, although not much more so than its subject.
boatboy_srq
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
Translated for clarity.
Betty Cracker
@gene108:
I too was bitterly disappointed at how quickly the Republicans recovered from the Bush debacle. By rights, they should have spent at least a few years howling in the political wilderness, but instead, they rebranded as the “tea party” and almost fully recovered in short order.
I see Trump’s current ascendancy as just another phase in that same rebranding. The Kochs, et al, were always behind the tea party rebranding initiative, but they lost control, and now they have to deal with Trumpism. I fervently hope this is where the entire enterprise comes to grief!
sm*t cl*de
@WJS:
Say what you like about Fox journalism, at least it’s an ethos.
Boots Day
@JPL: It means the same thing as BELIEVE IN AMERICA or COUNTRY FIRST or A STRONGER AMERICA. It means nothing.
Elie
@gwangung:
It sure is… no doubt about that.
I would add Jews to the list too. If the US goes full throttle racist, I don’t see them getting a pass…Did I mention gay people? It would be a bad bad time
This will NOT happen though. The Republican Party is in deep trouble, and while they represent some pretty awful folks, I don’t see them taking over — though we may have a period of great angst and turmoil. Its a big nasty boil that has to burst and drain.
Elie
@Betty Cracker:
Betty, I think the Republican Party seemed to heal on the surface, but its like a bad infected wound. Sometimes it looks healed on the surface but there is smelly rot underneath and the thing poisons the whole system — in this case, their party. It is clear there are no ideas, just rot based on fear, hatred and corruption. Its scary to witness but am still fairly confident that it will work out right…fairly.
Jeffro
@Calouste:
Totally agree and Fiorina might even be in there that long as well – her goal now is to stay technically running (even if it’s just her and 1 staffer) until after New Hampshire, at least. That Veep shortlist isn’t gonna generate itself!
gbear
You just know that Luntz’s respnse to this horror is to consider moving into a more securely gated neighborhood.
different-church-lady
@sm*t cl*de: Cookie full of win.
catclub
Somehow I don’t think she would have the same reaction if Obama wore that hat.
Maybe He would have to wear one that says ‘Make America GreatER Again’. I bet that would convince her.
Matt McIrvin
@Elie:
Especially not them, because the American conspiracy fringe still remembers the old stereotypes identifying “the Jews” with the moneyed elite, and populist resentment against financiers could easily be redirected into antisemitism.
Recently I had a run-in with a bunch of actual literal flat-earthers, ranting about how all NASA space missions are fake. Turns out modern flat-earthers are really into (a) the Confederate flag and (b) blaming the Jews for everything.
Karen S.
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: I’m as baffled as you are. Trump only seems suited to a presidency in a satire or parody about government, not to a presidency on any actual government. Yet his supporters seem to love him for precisely that reason because everything they say, every reason they give for loving him seems like satire or parody.
different-church-lady
“All I did was take a collection of random body parts that my lab assistant Igor gathered from dubious sources and sew them together!” Luntz continued. “I had no idea they were going to turn into a hideous, uncontrollable monster!”
redshirt
I’d still pick Trump over Cruz or Walker or any of the other Right wing nut jobs.
If he gets the nomination, one way or the other, 2016 is gonna be an exciting year.
Matt McIrvin
@catclub: Re-Becoming The Greatness We Never Weren’t!
catclub
Looking a little further down the line, Trump, as a different kind of politician, will have a problem if he gets the nom: Naming a VP running mate. If he picks one of the 17 who he has been belittling for the past n months, that will make him look like any other politician. If he finds a non-politician loony instead, that will also work badly. And I doubt he can get Michael Bloomberg to join him on the billionaire ticket.
Maybe he will name himself as his running mate.
different-church-lady
@catclub:
I… smell… REALITY TV SHOW!
Betty Cracker
@different-church-lady: Oh man, that could totally work! It could be called “The Short List.” Megyn Kelly would HAVE to be on it.
different-church-lady
@Betty Cracker: I think I just punched my ticket out of this shithole!
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@different-church-lady: The VEEPrentice!
catclub
@different-church-lady: Yep, you won the internets today.
Sad_Dem
@SRW1: If only my bosses punished me by giving me 11 days off. Megyn Kelly is getting punished like a cop who shot someone.
different-church-lady
@catclub: Nope, #97 wins at the wire!
Mike in DC
I’m just waiting for Latinos to mobilize and vocalize in response to the rhetorical onslaught of the 2016 candidates. Seems inevitable, but I could be mistaken.
Jeffro
@catclub:
Wouldn’t that be Peak Trolling by the Prez…think of the wingnut reaction…they wouldn’t know whether he was laughing at them, mocking America, indicating that Trump is secretly a Dem plant…O the possibilities!
Jeffro
@redshirt:
I used to think I wouldn’t, that if it came down to it, I’d rather have Kaisch in there. He is only 49% batshit right-wing loony…the rest are 95% loon, just different GOP varieties (“libertarian”, religious kook, billionaire tool, etc)
But the more I think about it, sure if it came down to it, I’d take Trump over any of these guys. His winning the nom alone, much less the general, would completely destroy the GOP. (Unfortunately if he somehow gets elected, it’s a weird and rough four years for America…that’s a lot of collateral damage at worst and a lot of spinning our progressive wheels at best)
It’s already exciting. 2016 is gonna be YOOOUUUUUUGGGGEEEE!
TriassicSands
Trump is the result of the entire Republican Party — top to bottom (with rare exceptions) going completely insane. When the little guys finally discovered that the overlords are a bunch of soul-sucking plutocrats, they looked for a savior. But they’re still insane, and feeling betrayed didn’t make them any smarter. So, instead of landing on someone who might work to make their lives better, then gravitate to the loudest, rudest, most offensive alternative (Trump), who spews an endless line of bombast, which is just what the lunatics want to hear.
Meanwhile, the plutocrats, with no original ideas about how to respond to disenchanted masses, simply try to imitate what seems to be working — i.e., Trump. It’s ugly all the way around.
Proving that the entire American political spectrum is peopled by stupid, ignorant nuts, members of the know-nothing political center, as well as some poorly informed lefties, join in adoring the blowhard. What is even more worrisome is that some on the left who are supporting Trump don’t seem to be entirely clueless. They know, or at least feel, correctly, that, over the past forty years, the Democrats in Congress have routinely joined with Republicans to pass bills designed to help the haves and hurt the have-nots.
TriassicSands
@Jeffro:
i hope you don’t still feel that way about Kasich. I think the correct way to appraise a Republican candidate is to ask yourself what lunatic bills a Republican Congress would send to a Republican president would that president veto. In the case of Kasich, I think the answer is probably none. The same goes for all the Republican nominees (with the exception of the blowhard) with rare and probably minor exceptions. Bush, for example, might refuse to sign a really reprehensible immigration bill, although his pathetic performance on the “anchor baby” question shows that he might be too weak to stand up on immigration. No matter what a candidate’s style or apparent moderation is, all these bozos would sign virtually every single Tea Party/Koch brothers bill sent their way.
boatboy_srq
@Karen S.:
Welcome to the Teahadi view of Washington.