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WaPo: Establishment desperate for GOP Establishment Candidate


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2015 Nov 13, 8:11am   3,966 views  16 comments

by MisdemeanorRebel   ➕follow (12)   💰tip   ignore  

Less than three months before the kickoff Iowa caucuses, there is growing anxiety bordering on panic among Republican elites about the dominance and durability of Donald Trump and Ben Carson and widespread bewilderment over how to defeat them.

Party leaders and donors fear that nominating either man would have negative ramifications for the GOP ticket up and down the ballot, virtually ensuring a Hillary Rodham Clinton presidency and increasing the odds that the Senate falls into Democratic hands.

The party establishment is paralyzed. Big money is still on the sidelines. No consensus alternative to the outsiders has emerged from the pack of governors and senators running, and there is disagreement about how to prosecute the case against them. Recent focus groups of Trump supporters in Iowa and New Hampshire commissioned by rival campaigns revealed no silver bullet.

In normal times, the way forward would be obvious. The wannabes would launch concerted campaigns, including television attack ads, against the ­front-runners. But even if the other candidates had a sense of what might work this year, it is unclear whether it would ultimately accrue to their benefit. Trump’s counterpunches have been withering, while Carson’s appeal to the base is spiritual, not merely political. If someone was able to do significant damage to them, there’s no telling to whom their supporters would turn, if anyone.

Just read the whole thing. The GOP Establishment has lost control and is even turning to desperate measures:

According to other Republicans, some in the party establishment are so desperate to change the dynamic that they are talking anew about drafting Romney — despite his insistence that he will not run again. Friends have mapped out a strategy for a late entry to pick up delegates and vie for the nomination in a convention fight, according to the Republicans who were briefed on the talks, though Romney has shown no indication of reviving his interest.

It wasn't supposed to be this way:

For months, the GOP professional class assumed Trump and Carson would fizzle with time. Voters would get serious, the thinking went, after seeing the outsiders share a stage with more experienced politicians at the first debate. Or when summer turned to fall, kids went back to school and parents had time to assess the candidates. Or after the second, third or fourth debates, certainly.

None of that happened, of course, leaving establishment figures disoriented. Consider Thomas H. Kean Sr., a former New Jersey governor who for most of his 80 years has been a pillar of his party. His phone is ringing daily, bringing a stream of exasperation and confusion from fellow GOP power brokers.

“People usually start off in the same way: Pollyanna-ish,” Kean said. “They assure me that Trump and Carson will eventually fade. Then we’ll talk some more, and I give them a reality check. I’ll say, ‘The guy in the grocery store likes Trump. So does the guy who cuts my hair. They’re probably going to stick with him. Who knows if this ends?’ ”

GOP Establishment big money:

One well-funded outside group, the Club for Growth, has aired ads attacking Trump in Iowa and more recently came out against Carson as well. “Donald Trump and Doctor Ben Carson are in over their heads,” said Club for Growth President David McIntosh, labeling both candidates as “pretenders.”

Still, the party establishment’s greatest weapon — big money — is partly on the shelf. Kenneth G. Langone, a founder of Home Depot and a billionaire supporter of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, said he is troubled that many associates in the New York financial community have so far refused to invest in a campaign due to the race’s volatility.

We all know what the founder of Home Depot doesn't want - immigration control, only talk about it to gain votes, not the slightest chance of deeds. Problem is those pesky GOP voters want Action. They actually want the ball or the biscuit after the dog whistle is blown, not just a "Good Boy! Good Doggie!" The days of elections being only methods to provide self-identity in the culture wars may be gone.

And the Money Comment of them all:

“This business has turned into show business,” said Voinovich, who is backing Ohio Gov. John Kasich. “We can’t afford to have somebody sitting in the White House who doesn’t have governing experience and the gravitas to move this country ahead.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/time-for-gop-panic-establishment-worried-carson-and-trump-might-win/2015/11/12/38ea88a6-895b-11e5-be8b-1ae2e4f50f76_story.html

Oh GOP Establishment, you blew the dog whistle too many times, and now the GOP Voters want their dog biscuits. Not a heat pat, not a "Good Dog", but the steak that was promised that you really don't want to give them. "Forget about immigration, let's talk about LOOK, A BLACK DUDE!"

Comments 1 - 16 of 16        Search these comments

1   Vicente   2015 Nov 13, 8:53am  

Hahahaha.

2   lostand confused   2015 Nov 13, 8:55am  

So they want to get a Mitt Romney again?

3   Vicente   2015 Nov 13, 9:08am  

On a more serious note the convention delegates could toss all that primary nonsense out the window, and pick who they want. It'd be a desperate and unpopular move, but you push them into a corner that's what they'll do. And what are GOP voters going to do about it? Switch to Hillary? NOOOPE!

http://www.salon.com/2015/09/20/how_gop_party_bosses_will_rig_the_system_to_keep_trump_from_winning_partner/

4   mell   2015 Nov 13, 9:11am  

Good! Let's get rid of the establishment manginas and feminazis and elect a non-PC, patriotic and patriarchic outsider and make this country great again.

5   Heraclitusstudent   2015 Nov 13, 12:18pm  


“It’s not just that it could be somebody Hillary could destroy electorally, but what if Hillary hits a banana peel and this person becomes president?”

Oh the panic! :)

6   Heraclitusstudent   2015 Nov 13, 12:21pm  

thunderlips11 says

"Angst about Trump intensified this week after he made two comments that could prove damaging in a general election. First, he explained his opposition to raising the minimum wage by saying “wages are too high.” Second, he said he would create a federal “deportation force” to remove the more than 11 million immigrants living in the United States illegally."

aren't these parts of the 'normal' republicans credo?

7   MisdemeanorRebel   2015 Nov 13, 12:37pm  

Heraclitusstudent says

aren't these parts of the 'normal' republicans credo?

Yep. The big one is Number Two. The Base no longer trusts the GOP establishment to deliver on immigration It's why Jeb stinks, and Rubio's bounce is over the moment he gets asked a "Gang of Eight" immigration question in the debates.

Trumps comments on the minimum wage were in the context of outsourcing and raising it further.

8   socal2   2015 Nov 13, 1:08pm  

Ha ha! Love reading the Progs jerking each other off here as they comment on the Republican primary. Shocker - the Republican party has some actual ideological diversity and are shaking things up, even at the worry of the establishment. Who was leading the Republican polls at this time in 2012? Huckster? Santorum? There is plenty of time.

Meanwhile, the Progs have their own problem by whipping up college kids, Occupy and Black-Lives morons into a frenzy where they are actually forcing liberal/progressive university presidents and administrators to resign over Halloween emails. The Prog cult is feeding on its own and out of control.

Is that fanatical mob going to come out in droves to vote for Hillary? Who is more establishment than Hillary?

9   MisdemeanorRebel   2015 Nov 13, 1:21pm  

There is no ideological diversity. Less than 10% of the GOP backs Jeb and Rubio-style Amnesty. Yet every candidate before them is a softy on immigration, talks tough, acts exactly the opposite.

The Oligarch-Donor-Neoliberal base of the GOP has been using immigration as a dog whistle, but now the dogs want their biscuits and no longer trust the GOP-E.

12   socal2   2015 Nov 13, 2:55pm  

Fucked By Goats Ironman says

It's such a pathetic mess of confusion and anger it doesn't know who to attack first. Think of it as an internal war with a target rich environment. "We gotta get with it and do something even if it's wrong." All that hate has got to be good for something.

Confusion and anger?

Certainly you must be talking about the little Progressive snowflakes that are marching through campuses this week?

Or are you talking about the Occupy movement morons banging pots and pans at their rape camps?

Or is it the Black Lives movement?

13   Tenpoundbass   2015 Nov 13, 5:25pm  

A friend told me the other day, that has been sceptic about Trump until now.

"You know, I want him to get elected, just so I can see how he's going to do all of the things he says he's going to do. I mean really! I'm really curios no candidate has America's best heart in mind regardless what they tell you. Here he's comming along and smashing the old ways to bits. He's going to be on the highwire without a net. I wanna see what in funk is he going to do."

I know one thing it will be very entertaining. I don't think none of the other candidates can offer the entertainment value that Trump will bring. All assbags being equal otherwise that is.

14   HydroCabron   2015 Nov 13, 7:58pm  

Tenpoundbass says

I know one thing it will be very entertaining. I don't think none of the other candidates can offer the entertainment value that Trump will bring.

That's an excellent reason to vote for someone: for the sake of entertainment.

The only better reason is because he says things you believe to be offensive to liberals.

15   Vicente   2015 Nov 14, 12:17am  

Ironman says

How's that vote for Obama (twice) working out for you?

Dunno about HydroCarbon, but good here. Plenty of entertainment watching GOP, especially the
Karl Rove meltdown when he couldn't believe Romney lost. The GOP has done a great imitation of
Harold Camping too, a man I adore. WORLD IS ENDING TOMORROW, wait postponed, yep it's
going to end next week for sure.

16   HydroCabron   2015 Nov 14, 12:37am  

Ironman says

How's that vote for Obama (twice) working out for you?

Could be worse.

On the one hand, I got someone almost as bad as Bush, but watching the wingnuts fume over the latest prominent Democrat is always fun. Seems every non-Republican president is the Worst President Ever.

Yawn.

In 10 years, the Christianist nationalist rightists will be comparing the next Dem president unfavorably with Obama and taking credit for Obama's"accomplishments. It's the same way that most vile winger fascists now believe Kennedy to be a great conservative thinker.

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