I’d normally be loving the schadenfreude involved in the GOP nomination contest being between (oh lordy) Trump and Cruz. Arguably the two vilest, most repugnant candidates (for very different reasons, interestingly enough) that the GOP has.
I mean heck, they’re so bad even the GOP Leadership itself can’t stand either of them. They’re absolute disasters incarnated in human form. The situational irony is absolutely delicious. Mana from the heavens, nectar of the gods type stuff.
But I’m still more caught up on watching the Dem Primary, and wondering what will happen next. I would have thought it would be resolved by now. And to be fair, it pretty much is. The chances of Bernie catching up at this point are pretty much negligible. But when the Bernster is still at it with “Hillary Bad! Hillary evil! Vote me!”, in state after state after state, with the media giving it a magnifying loudspeaker each time, it’s distracting. It makes it harder to focus on the General.
I realize it’s all me, but hey, it is what it is. I guess I’m a worrywart at heart. I need to make more of an effort to enjoy the epic trainwreck that is the GOP nominating contest right now.
When his entire spiel is “the GOP Leadership and all of GOP Congress are a whole bunch of traitorous lying bastards! Don’t trust them, trust me instead!”, it does have a tendency to make those ‘traitorous lying bastards’ not look at him very kindly.
“What we just saw today was an absolute demonstration that not only what he told every Republican senator, but what he told the press over and over and over again, was a simple lie,” Cruz said Friday morning. “We know now that when the majority leader looks us in the eyes and makes an explicit commitment, that he is willing to say things that he knows are false. That has consequences for how this body operates.”
"Oh, about that little tirade of yours from a few months back? No biggie, it's all forgotten. Yeah, you can come to the barbecue."
"Oh...wait.....NOT!!!"
@alphadad This is precisely one of the reasons I think he’s not strategic at all. I think that while he may be smart enough to grab an opportunity that is in reach at any given moment, he’s a strategic moron. This was apparent when he decided to run for President and Heidi’s firm put her on unpaid leave. He complained at the time they had to go find healthcare. That was clearly a surprise to them both. Again, no strategy (he could have taken his work healthcare or signed up on the exchange in preparation for Heidi’s layoff and no one would have been the wiser, instead they made it a press issue that was turned back around on him because he didn’t know what he was talking about regarding obtaining healthcare). When he pushed the government shut down, it was an immediate response to a momentary opportunity without thinking through how that would effect him long term. Again, no strategy.
I’m not saying he’s not a sleazy opportunist, I’m just saying he’s not nearly as smart as people give him credit for all the time. It’s like the myth that Paul Ryan is some sort of economic powerhouse boy genius. That’s clearly not true either. Both are press driven myths.
EDIT: I directed this @alphadad because we were having something of a similar conversation elsewhere.
I’ll have to counter that claim-- as he has some technically astute individuals on his staff. @daveyjones64 has spelled out in detail some of the online digital strategies that Cruz’s campaign has done to target voters at a granular level-- using the same advertising/impression techniques as some online retailers like Amazon do-- to ‘follow’ websurfers and reinforce his brand.
Not that it makes him anymore likable to those who he ‘stalks’ online-- but IMO do not sell his GOTV apparatus short.
Opportunist is exactly what he is, if an opportunity presents itself you can almost see him getting ready to jump on it. As president you could bet international opponents and some friends would be taking advantage of habit. For the longer term strategic thinking, not so much.
I am simply averse to Trump far far more. The Southern Poverty Law Center has some disturbing figures on the damage that Trump is doing to people I hold dear right now. Moreover, Cruz is a snake, but he has not made the Economist’s Greatest Threats to World Security list, like Trump.
In addition, the presence of the simple fact that any October Surprise calling for weak minded people to crave a “strong man” defaults to a Trump boost.
I do not want Trump anywhere near a GOP Nomination (unless he nominates himself as a Third Party candidate).
Evidently Lawrence O’Donnell and I are of like mind. Over the past month, O’Donnell’s show could be confused with that of a GOP Booster Show, with the likes of Talk Show hosts and other Stop Trump people. Yes, I know that Lawrence is not “Pure”
He just (like I do) reads The Economist occasionally.
I don’t think that adds to ‘strategic’ though. I think he finds himself in situations and he responds to it. At some point he decided to run for President, so he hired some technically astute staff. I think he responds to momentary things and maybe he, now, has found himself some strategic thinkers to help his campaign. I’m not saying the entire enterprise is devoid. I’m saying he’s not the intellectually gifted strategic schemer everyone says he is at all. It’s a myth.
I was watching Charlie Rose last night and Jacob Weisberg, author of some Reagan bio, was on. Essentially he said (I’m paraphrasing) there will not be any kind of unity candidate at the convention this year. There’s SO MUCH discord in the GOP at this point, there’s no modern equivalent to turn to for analysis. He said what many of us have been saying since last year: the gulf between the out and out teabagging freaks and the 14-16% “moderate Rethuglicans” is just to wide to bring together. The current version of the GOP will most likely break apart with either wing of the Party taking the mantle of Republican Party.
The military would be a good analogy (Officers as “establishment”, enlisted men as “The Base”, NCOs going either way).
But I don’t think so. The Base simply HATES…they have little else, but they have pigmentation There is tangential policy thinking if any. If they could reject Obama’s Jobs Bill and then “complain about jobs”, then there is a screw lose.
There are crazy people in the MIlitary, but the enlisted men are not motivated by hate. Most (like me and my son when we were a enlisted men) simply did their hitch, cared for their buddies and left or made it a career (like my Dad).
Wow. These people are professional politicians. They make a living saying nasty things about people and then going out to dinner with them or supporting their bills. They must hate Cruz a lot and have made the calculation that after this cycle he’s toast.
Because these responses aren’t just “sorry, I can’t do that.” They’re nasty, and as bridge-burning as anything Cruz has done. I wonder whether they’re making the calculation that the republican brand will do better if Trump goes down in flames with no establishment support rather than Cruz doing the same, but with everybody’s efforts to support him.
