Victor Davis Hanson:
Well before Donald Trump entered the race, there were lots of warning signs that the Republican party was on the road to perdition.
After the marathon 20 debates of 2012, with the ten or so strange candidates who brawled and embarrassed themselves, there had to be some formula to avoid repeating that mob-like mess. Instead, in 2016 there were 17 candidates and 13 debates along with seven forums. There were supposed to be tweaks and repairs that were designed to avoid the clown-like cavalcade of four years ago, but they apparently only ensured a repetition.
Three of the most experienced candidates, at least in the art of executive governance — Bobby Jindal, Rick Perry, and Scott Walker — were among the first to get out. The most experienced government CEOs somehow (or logically?) performed poorly in the raucous debates and lacked the charisma or the money or at least the zealous followers of Cruz, Rubio, and Trump.
Or they had too much pride (or sense) — unlike Carson, Christie, Kasich, and Paul — to insist that they were viable candidates when fairly early on, by most measurements, they were not. How strange that those who would have been more credible candidates saw the writing on the wall and left the field — to those marginalized candidates who had no such qualms and ended up wasting months of their time and ours in splintering the vote, engaging in endless bickering on crowded stages, and ensuring that there were few occasions for any of them to distinguish himself. At some point, someone should confess that Democratic debates further Democratic causes far more than Republican debates help Republican causes.
The other veteran governor in the race, Jeb Bush, may have felt, at 63 years old and eight years after the end of his brother’s administration, that his presidential ambitions — born in the pre-Trump-announcement days — were now or never. But after the failures of McCain and Romney, the hard left drift of the country, and the spectacle of utter chaos on the border, political correctness run amuck, the huge debt, Obamacare, and the implosion of the Middle East, primary voters were in no mood for another sober and judicious establishmentarian, however decent Jeb sounded. The unfortunate outcome of the 2016 Bush campaign and its affiliates was spending several million dollars to help destroy the candidacy of fellow Floridian Senator Marco Rubio. That did nothing for Bush and only further empowered Donald Trump. Never in all his business days has an enemy of Trump’s proved so helpful to him.
Then there was the strange career of Chris Christie. His campaign was an odd mixture of bullying and New Jersey tough-guy schtick with temporizing and split-the-difference politicking in a year of take-no prisoners politics. His bluster was Trumpian, but he was no Trump-like showman — and he ended only with another destructive legacy of tearing down others without helping himself. His mean-spirited candidacy confirmed that his 2012 ill-timed hug of President Obama in the hours before the election was no accident. His gratuitous attack on Rubio — followed by his obsequious lapdog role with Trump (who does not suffer toadies gladly) — proved kamikaze-like, blowing up the attacker while damaging somewhat his target.
Then there was the Republican establishment’s assumption that the supernova Trump would on its own burn out by last autumn. That was an odd expectation for a variety of reasons. Did no one remember the gubernatorial campaigns of the similar celebrity blowhards Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jesse Ventura? Did the Republicans forget that just because TV or movie personalities may prove failures in office does not mean that they cannot get elected, at least one time? The Apprentice may be schlock TV, but it would be impossible to continue a narcissistic reality franchise for 14 seasons without having a P. T. Barnum genius for discerning a fickle public’s shifting tastes. In normal times, a presidential candidate on a debate stage implying that his phallus was large would be seen as a crude and uncouth disqualification for the job; in Trump’s view, it is an LBJ-like reassurance that a real hunk would be president.
It was brilliant for Trump to boast that he would take no tainted campaign money — on the assumption that his celebrity glitz would obviate that need anyway by ensuring him hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of free publicity. Smarter still were his pouts and threats and occasional outbursts to journalists, which in passive-aggressive fashion terrified the supposedly courageous media; as a result, timid journalists treated him as if they were sitting next to a smiling cobra, who could hiss and strike at any moment.
Trump cleverly contradicted and sometimes even retracted his loonier pronouncements, which had the effect of making him “flexible” and “realistic” rather than an extremist or at least a flip-flopper and hypocrite. As politicos derided the fact that Trump had no advisers, senior wise men, or planned Cabinet members, Trump smiled: The supposed void was honey to has-been party fixtures and careerists, who flocked in and provided “legitimacy,” each imagining himself the new brain implanted in the Frankenstein monster.
Nor did party pros fathom that precisely because Trump was not wedded to any ideology, it was that much easier for him to emerge in 2016 in a new incarnation as a fed-up populist insurrectionist, who appeared to be the “real” rebel conservative in the race. In other words, once Trump entered the campaign, his politics would become as fluid as Ross Perot’s idiosyncratic 1992 bid, but this time even more so, given that the fed-up challenger was a Republican insider maverick. In a year when wealth and privilege were looked askance upon, Trump turned privilege on its head: It takes the people’s rich man to know how corrupt rich men have rigged the system.
It required ten debates and a winnowed-down field for other candidates finally to do to Trump what they had already done to one another. And by then the desperate level of invective needed to damage the Trump locomotive ensured that the attacker appeared as mean-spirited as Trump himself. Marco Rubio, a decent sort, has by his playground attacks seriously wounded Trump, but by matching Trump smear for smear probably also fatally hobbled his own candidacy. Odder still, at about the time that Republicans were wising up that Trump’s shenanigans, incoherence, and puerility needed to be fully exposed, he was already shedding his lizard skin and growing a front-runner magnanimous exoskeleton. The day-late-and-dollar-short attacks were now falling on a sometimes “presidential” Trump, and not on the cruder Trump that had so richly earned them just weeks earlier.
Last week Mitt Romney unveiled a new strategy by the GOPestablishment: Keep Trump from getting a majority of the delegates and then steal the election from Trump at the convention.
Remember the days of the ”Favorite Son?”
All those governors who have already dropped out would have, in olden days, not even fund-raised.
They would have been entered into nomination at the convention by their states as ”Favorite Son” candidates.
Later, in smoke-filled rooms, one of them might emerge as AT LEAST a VP.
Trades and trading, in private, was how it used to happen.
Now it is all out in the sunshine.
BUT…..Mr. Trump’s ”delegates” are NOT HIS.
They were all part of a GOPe slate who got pegged with voting for Trump ONLY in the 1st round of votes.
Easy to make that 1st round a show trial.
then, freed up delegates can all vote who they really want….Bush, Rubio, Kasich, ….Romney???
To quote Stephen Moore:
(We all know how THAT worked out.
Can you say, buckled to Obama without even a whimper?)
The reforms (or, new rules) the GOPe put in place for this year’s nomination process was designed to inhibit the ”message” candidate by diluting his delegate wins in early voting states so his money would deplete and he would quit well before the winner-take-all states (Starting March 15th).
That new GOPe strategy would have stopped most TEA Party candidates, but Mr. Trump was self-funding and not dependent on the generosity of others to keep going.
He played by the GOPe’s new rules and is winning.
So, the Romney ploy was thrown into the mix.
Yes, there will be a show-vote as a 1st vote.
Then freed-up delegates will vote in a GOPe puppet.
UNLESS Trump wins enough delegates outright OR Trump wins so many delegates that the GOPe chickens out and allows him to be the nominee.
Food for thought:
Democrats fret about Trump’s appeal
The GOPe has tossed Br’er Trump into the brier patch numerous times, only to have their wily furry opponent laugh at them and come out still on top. But there’s much for Democrats to worry about regarding Trump:
REVOLT: SEIU Union Members Turn On Leadership… Pledge Support to Donald Trump
Unions Lean Democratic, but Donald Trump Gets Members’ Attention
Corrections Union Boss Gives High Praise To Trump
Teamsters becoming “Trumpsters”? I can imagine Rich shivering in his boots. With both Hillary and Sanders bowing down to “BLM” activists, law enforcement Unions and their members are lining up to support Trump.
This is but one thing that could seriously hurt the Democrat’s dreams. For Union members to jump ship and support Trump’s promise to ‘Bring the jobs back’ (as some Unions are beginning to consider.) Unprecedented support for a GOP candidate would be “Checkmate” in the General Election.
Dems can shout out “Inconceivable!”
Democrat Unions are such strange creatures, they continue to back those that hate them. Its like a man booking a honeymoon trip for the woman who emptied the bank account and moved every stick of furniture out of his home, leaving the divorce papers in the middle of the livingroom…GET A CLUE. Its over except the spousal support and 1/2 of the 401k.
Thats how we feel about the RNC, we lavished them with positions trusted them to slow the Oval marxist down, then they betrayed us. You wonder why we are discontent ? PFFFFFFFFTTTT. See you in the
lawyers officeBallot box. To add insult to injury we are dating Don and Ted.@Ditto: Does anyone else get tired of Donald talking incessantly about all the good deals he’s gonna make or all the bad deals everyone else has made?
The guy sounds like the salesman that he is. I’ve been in sales all my life–I know he’s got billions–Personally I wouldn’t buy anything he’s selling from his “University” to his steaks. This guy can’t buy class. You wanna trust him go ahead but I’d say buyer beware.
BTW did anyone see him in recent debate? Finished 4th.
Florida has had more recent state wide polls than the other states coming up this week.
How do they look?
Now the Dems can stop ”fretting” about Donald Trump.
The Left arrayed all its top activists against Donald Trump for all to see a comparison.
Occupiers, BLM’s, anarchists, communists, socialists/Bernie supporters, la Raza, even Bill Ayers and MoveOnOrg were involved.
I noticed how the Middle Eastern habit of setting up traffic check points took hold on the highways.
People of the wrong hue or lacking the verbal credentials were set upon.
The drivers who parroted the Leftist line were allowed passage.
If the Left could have learned ANYTHING by now about Donald Trump it is how easily he owns the downside.
Think this will hurt him?
Or, like everything else thrown at him, will it stick on those doing the throwing?
@Nanny G: “people of wrong hue or lacking the verbal credentials.” CODE??
KASICH wins Ohio—race goes on.
@Richard Wheeler:
Rich, I am really getting tired of the intolerance of the political left, and your latest post is just another straw on the camel’s back.
If you don’t want to listen to Trump, Republicans in general, or any of the rest of us who are in the political opposition, you are free to mute your radio or TV, change the channels, frequent different websites and blogs, etc. In other words, you have the freedom to go your merry way to Salon, Huffington Post, or any number of other leftist media and read, post, or listen to whomsoever else you DO want to listen to. If you don’t like it, well, we don’t really give a rat’s ass.
The 1st Amendment protects free speech. We Constitutional Conservatives have been quite tolerant in protecting the rights of Leftists to speak their mind, even when we oppose what you have to say. Yet you leftists continually want to silence those who say things the progressive left does not want to hear. You were a US serviceman (as many of us here were) and you swore a sacred oath to protect and uphold the Constitution of the US which includes the free rights of all citizens. This nation was not designed to be a free speech “Safe Zone” where you can whine and complain to silence others. If you can’t handle the fact that all US citizens, (including those you don’t agree with) must be allowed their Constitutional rights of free speech, then you need to either suck it up Marine, or walk the hell away. We aren’t here to hold your hand and baby you.
@Ditto: What—-I’ve praised Cruz advocated a Kasich/Rubio ticket for Potus
Knocked Trump and Clinton
Free speech–I’m for it
You gotta admit Trump’s self aggrandizing gets a little tiresome–no?
I don’t care for Obama’s bloviating and endless lies, Hillary’s shrillness and cackling, Kerry’s pompous droning, and listening to any number of other political hacks. I don’t whine about it, I just turn them off. I suggest you do the same and quit acting like a snotty, whiny-ass troll.
@Ditto: I hear you Ditto. I’m gonna turnoff Trump’s mindless bullshit -. Hopefully the voters will send him back to Palm Beach in the next few months. Starts Tues in Ohio.
March Madness coming up–Go Irish—Kansas to win
@Richard Wheeler:
still trying to make it up as you go along, Richie? No poll showed him finishing lower than 1st in last debate.
I guess you’re not shocked that your idol Webb has now endorsed Trump. Since you seem to credit Webb with good sense, it was only a matter of time.
@Redteam:Talk about making stuff up–you’re the master. You’ll endorse Bernie before Webb endorses The Donald.–You been feeling the Bern RT?
Trump loses Ohio this Tues.–he wants to get back to Palm Beach so he can stop wearing that orange spray tan in the Midwest winters. His face matches his hair.–maybe he can stop by your place and kill some raccoons.
@Richard Wheeler:
As Ditto said Richie, you are free to mute your volume or change channel. No one would deny you that right.
I couldn’t personally say that that I’m tired of what Shrillary or Bernie have to say because I never listen to them. I know if their lips are moving they’re lying, so not much point in listening. I sure would not go to a rally for either of them and attempt to interfere with their right to make a speech and to allow their followers to hear what they have to say. Now that the unions are backing Trump to bring jobs back to the US, it seems as if it may be “the fat lady is warming up’ time.
@Richard Wheeler:
done deal. Webb said yesterday he’s voting for The Donald.
@Richard Wheeler:
Nobody kills raccoons. They are born dead as flat spots on the highway. Haven’t you seen them?
@Ditto:
What? abandon his personality? wow.
@Redteam: You know that’s not so —-wanna post it–or are you lying? again
@Richard Wheeler:
I forget, how did they do in the ACC tournament?
@Redteam: Irish beat the defending National Champs in the ACC tourney—saw LSU LOST by 40 today–ugly
How come you’re lying about a war hero like Webb?
Geez Richie, don’t you know how to look things up?
http://www.redstate.com/streiff/2016/03/04/video-jim-webb-jumps-trump-train
@Richard Wheeler:
Oh, ok, didn’t realize they won the ACC tournament. I’ll have to check that out.
—saw LSU LOST by 40 today–ugly, didn’t even know they were playing today. Who did they play?
71-38? that’s 40 points? Did they have math at that school you ducked out of?
@Redteam: It was over 40 when aggies let up and put in their cheerleaders for last few minutes and beat em by 33.
You’re right LSU basketball going nowhere–even worse than their football
Where’s that Webb post?
@Redteam: Did you listen to what he said? He said he would not vote for HRC—He did not say he was voting for Trump—You hard of hearing or just enjoy lying?
That interview is from over a week ago–thought maybe you had something new–you endorsing Bernie?
@Redteam: Notre Dame to tourney–LSU staying home
Kasich will beat Trump in Ohio.
@Richard Wheeler: Just a reminder–
I got Kansas over Virginia in tourney final–what say you?
@Richard Wheeler:
What’s a bernie? That a communist thing?
Don’t have a clue. No one I’m interested in still in it.