My fear is that Trump may end up making folks like Rubio and Jeb! seem sympathetic. If one of those two guys gets the nomination, they can use the fact that they stood up to Donald Trump as an example of why hispanics can trust them. Trump may end up helping one of them reach the 40% threshold…
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No one should wonder why Trump is picking up more and more support from the GOP base every time he says something racist like this. Republicans made their bed. Now they get to sleep in it.
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There is no leadership, because the GOP is a deeply divided party. Ironically, thanks to W. After his disaster of a presidency, the GOP was so eager to try and get the stink off of them they spawned the Tea Party. And true to so many horror stories, the monster turned upon its creator. There was a great deal of smugness after the 2014 elections, thinking that they had finally put it down.
But one of the consequences of this internal civil war has been, that while the TP may be on shaky financial legs, in terms of leadership, nobody can claim that mantle…really in either wing, let alone for the entire party. Thus we have this cluster of a nomination campaign with so many candidates. Many know they have no chance at winning, but they are all scrambling for pecking order in one wing or the other, and trying to prove which wing actually won.
Trump entering the race in the middle of such chaos is indeed a very bad thing for Bush. You are correct, there will be no meaningful shutdowns by surrogates for this, because JEB is NOT a clear front runner. He cannot hold to his “above the fray, not getting my hands dirty” persona on this, he will have to wade in and do battle with Trump.
Which is exactly what he doesn’t want to do, because it only serves to elevate Trump as exactly a time when they are trying to ignore him right off the stage.
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Don’t forget, we have Cruz as his understudy … who actually expressed support for Trump’s extreme statements. Cruz is a bomb-thrower of the first magnitude and doesn’t mind GOP collateral damage at all. He can sit back and let Trump take the blow-back for now.
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“To make these extraordinarily ugly kind of comments
is not reflective of the Republican Party” …
…the Jeb! 2016 Rapid Reaction Team snapped back – after
two and a half weeks of intensive focus group research.
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Yup, to the point that a tiny part of me is almost (almost) ready to believe that Trump’s an RNC plant, in the race to boost Bush by giving him opportunities to show how decent and strong he is by hitting back at him. Unfortunately, so far Bush has just shown himself to be an ethical coward and a rhetorical weakling. And a typical Republican in the defective-empathy-gene department: Trump actually had to target his wife to [edit: surely, by later today…] get a rise out of him.
…adding, to @JaybeeRaybee: yeah, I’ve been thinking that maybe the conventional wisdom’s right and he’ll make the party look bad, but it’s just as likely he’s giving the “major” candidates in the field the chance to look “moderate” in comparison. 'Course, that depends on them demonstrating more sense and balls than Jebya and the others have thus far, especially if others in the field stand with Trump in a crazy-GOP-haters-club bloc. It also depends, crucially, on their debate crowds not cheering raucously for him and the other nuts onstage. I imagine Reince is regularly having nightmares about that last one.
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Trump should be excluded from any and all election functions/debates. I’m not a republican but even still a politician shouldn’t disparage a persons wife or family member. It’s a question of basic fairness. Bush should be questioned as to his values, not who he is married to.
Trump is an ugly fucking racist no better than those KKK who blew up a church in '64 with four little black girls inside.
Exclude his ass. Any rational human should be able to agree with this.
Cruz will parlay this election into a lifetime of financial security, regardless the outcome. He knows what he’s doing.
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A wife is off limits, call me a caveman but if I were Jeb I’d find Trump and give him the old Edward G. Robinson both sides of my slapping hand and then demand satisfaction pull Trump into a dark alley with only one man walking out without the aid of crutches, wheel chair, cane, or people.
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I just saw the Cruz clip … said that we should applaud Trump on focusing on the immigration, although his language was ‘colorful’.
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What color is rape?
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Actually, Bush hasn’t responded to this yet. This was tossed out by Trump in retaliation for Bush’s remarks (two different ones, too, to the same question…once in spanish and once in english) about the “all mexicans are rapists” comments.
And Bush only responded to that one because he was being hounded, and asked by a Hispanic reporter. That’s why he got a little testy about having to respond to it again in English, and gave an even more lukewarm response.
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In a related story: "Reince Priebus Soils Himself"
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And then what if Hillary Clinton does a John Edwards?
The Donald is finding out that politics is not like a reality show.
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Oh, I stand corrected! And yeah, a sorta-strong comment after days of weaseling doesn’t exactly make him a profile in courage. This particular item’s just surfacing now after a holiday weekend, so I’d expect we’ll get something from Jebya soon – and for his sake, it’d better be scorching.
Alas, he will always find another group of bankers/investors to lend him more millions. If you or I had presided over as many financial fiascos as he has, we wouldn’t qualify for a pre-paid Walmart card. The genius of the market, my ass.
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Jeb doesn’t have the balls, but I’m sure some third-string spokesman type will say something. Someone not officially connected to Jeb.
And like a lot of people in his position, I think Jeb wants the job. He just doesn’t want to work for it. Hell, he’s never had to work for anything before, and he’s never seen anyone else work for anything before. Not up close anyway.
So just give him the job already and stop making demands of him!
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That has been the M.O. of all of the “front runners” for the GOP, Walker being the most noticeable. They sit back and wait for everyone else to say something, then they say “Yeah, me too” after the polling comes in.
Rather striking for the “Big Daddy” party, and one reason why Trump will not be fading away. He actually blurts out the first “thought” that crosses his mind. The base likes that.
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Implode? This guy will never implode. He’s an attention seeking idiot who knows how to attract attention. And if you think he gives a damn about his current losses, meh. He’s amassing something greater to him, so he’s going to go for it. This doubling down is proof this maniac is seriously running. He’ll drown out the news cycle with these antics. Next he’ll ride with the Sons of the Confederacy and talk more about Mexicans, illegals, others, you know “them.” And the media will just be besides themselves to report each and every last syllable. Always giving him a chance to spout more “Do you regret having said any of the things you’ve said Mr. Trump?” Zoom in for the zinger and he’s off to the next show. In the news 24/7 and it goes, revolutions.
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