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Donald Trump

Special Bulletin. Stupor Tuesday.

The results of the Super Tuesday balloting may not have been all that surprising, but on the Republican side they were grimly depressing. The nightmare of Donald Trump continues to unfold as a major portion of the Republican base remains in a Trump-induced stupor, unreachable by fact or logic. The New York Times is no friend of the Republican Party, but in its Wednesday editorial we think they had it about right: “The Republicans seem to be reeling, unable or unwilling to comprehend that a shady, bombastic liar is hardening the image of their party as a symbol of intolerance and division.”

If Trump emerges as the Republican nominee, as now seems likely, the consequences are hard to imagine, but among them may well be the end of the Republican Party. When we founded RINOcracy.com three years ago, our motto was “RINOs, let us unite and put our hides on the line to save our party from itself!” At the time, we looked at saving the Republican Party as a daunting task to which we could make only a minor contribution at best. But it is now questionable whether saving the party remains a rational objective or whether it now belongs in a form of political hospice.Read More »Special Bulletin. Stupor Tuesday.

Special Bulletin. The New York Times Endorsements and the Iowa Caucuses

On January 31, The New York Times published endorsements of Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination for president and John Kasich for the Republican nomination.  The Clinton endorsement was ringing and enthusiastic while that of Kasich was a bit grudging and in the “best of a bad lot” genre. Predictably, neither endorsement had any perceptible effect in Iowa, although Clinton’s “victory” over Bernie Sanders was so tiny that one cannot exclude the possibility that the endorsement could have tipped the balance. On the Republican side, Kasich finished well toward the bottom and, to the extent that Republican voters noticed the Times editorial at all, any endorsement from that source might well have counted more as a negative than a positive. (The last Republican endorsed by The New York Times in a general election was Dwight Eisenhower in 1956.)Read More »Special Bulletin. The New York Times Endorsements and the Iowa Caucuses

Blog No. 91. Donald, Sarah and the Weimar Republic

PIC Trump and Palin 2 cards v3The news of Sarah Palin’s endorsement of Donald Trump seemed quite unsurprising, almost inevitable.  It immediately brought to mind an expression I heard long ago from a fellow soldier at Fort Benning. From time to time, Tom would remark with mild derision, “What a pair to draw to.” I have no recollection of the particular persons or things that inspired the comment, but a quick look on Google renewed my understanding of what he meant. As one writer put it:

One memory I have of my father is a saying he would use whenever we would encounter two people–usually two men, but sometimes a couple–who looked as if they were up to no good. My father, an inveterate poker player, would indicate with a nod and say, “There’s a pair to draw to.”

In the metaphor of poker, of course, the pair to which he was referring would have to be seen as a low pair, deuces or treys. Fours, fives. So in fact they were not a pair to draw to at all. It would be best just to fold before the draw and sit this hand out. But also there was the implication that trouble was just around the corner and was being drawn to the energy of the pair even at the moment, and if we wanted to wait around we probably could see it arrive.

Read More »Blog No. 91. Donald, Sarah and the Weimar Republic

Blog No. 89. Trump and Cruz: Republican Scylla and Charybdis

We had hoped to begin 2016 on an optimistic note, but after waiting until the eleventh hour and beyond, it seems to have eluded us. For RINOs, the continued presence of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz atop the Republican leaderboard is singularly depressing. We do not accept that the nomination of either is inevitable, but it is more of a risk than we can understand or accept.Read More »Blog No. 89. Trump and Cruz: Republican Scylla and Charybdis

Blog No. 88. Teflon Don: Did He Really Say That?

Through some magical power, Donald Trump has managed to enter a fact-free zone that can only be the envy of his competitors. Unlike the statements of the other candidates, Trump’s are not scrutinized for accuracy, and indeed they are generally assumed to be unprovable or flatly wrong. No, Trump’s pronouncements are assessed primarily on the degree unpleasantness with which they are delivered. (We imagine a campaign logo: “The Surly Bird Gets the Worm.”) He appears to have succeeded John Gotti to the title of the Teflon Don.

Other candidates have attempted to pick him up on this or that fact, and Glenn Kessler has depleted his inventory of Pinocchios in making multiple awards to the Donald. But no one, so far as we know, has made a comprehensive review of Trump’s claims and observations, even within the limits of a single debate. We though it might be a useful experiment applied to the Fifth Debate. Confined to that debate the experiment is obviously limited and will omit any number of his more noxious expostulations. Nevertheless, one has to start somewhere. What follows is the entirety of what Trump had to say at the Fifth Republican Debate, omitting only various personal comments directed at other candidates or the moderators. We have supplied headings and questions and comments in bold.Read More »Blog No. 88. Teflon Don: Did He Really Say That?

Special Bulletin. Donald Trump: Again and Still and What to Do?

The New York Times on December 2 carried yet another story of Republican leadership fretting about Donald Trump, “Wary of Donald Trump, G.O.P. Leaders Are Caught in a Standoff.” The article quoted among others, Senator Lindsey Graham on the effect of a Trump nomination. As a candidate himself, and one who is trailing Trump by a wide margin in the polls, Graham is not exactly a disinterested observer. Yet his succinct precis bears repeating:

“It would be an utter, complete and total disaster,” Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, himself a presidential candidate who has tangled with Mr. Trump, said of his rival’s effect on lower-tier Republican candidates. “If you’re a xenophobic, race-baiting, religious bigot, you’re going to have a hard time being president of the United States, and you’re going to do irreparable damage to the party.”

Read More »Special Bulletin. Donald Trump: Again and Still and What to Do?

Blog No. 78. The CNN Debate and the GOP Outsiders

A CNN poll taken after last week’s debate on CNN showed the three top spots held by candidates who have never held elective office: Donald Trump (24% ), Carly Fiorina (15%), and Ben Carson (14%). An NBC poll had similar results with Trump (29%) leading Carson (14%) and Fiorina (11%). Although that development may have come as a surprise to some, it was consistent with a Washington Post/ABC poll taken earlier this month that found 58 percent of Republicans and 64 percent of conservative Republicans want the next president to be an Outsider, “someone from outside the existing political establishment.” For our own part, we are hopeful that the romantic attraction with Outsiders will pass and that cooler heads will prevail. As a general proposition, we believe that a true conservative should regard significant experience in elective office as a qualification—and not a disqualification—for presidential candidates. More specifically, Ms Fiorina might make an effective candidate for Vice President but, in our view, does not belong at the head of the ticket. We are doubtful that Dr. Carson should have any place on the ticket and certain that Donald Trump does not.Read More »Blog No. 78. The CNN Debate and the GOP Outsiders

Blog No. 77. Embattled John Boehner: The Oozlum Caucus and the Trumpian Virus.

It has been obvious for some time that this autumn would be a contentious period in Congress. The most significant, and most immediate, issues to be resolved were approval or disapproval of the nuclear deal with Iran and the passage of a Continuing Resolution to keep the government in operation past September 30. Not much further down the road are the need to increase the debt ceiling and the issue of highway funding. All of that would have been quite challenging enough for the Republican leadership, John Boehner and Mitch McConnell, dealing as they must, with not only the White House and Congressional Democrats, but the obstreperous rebels on their own right flanks. As long-time readers of RINOcracy.com will recall, our term for the latter group is the Oozlum Caucus, named for the legendary bird that flies in ever decreasing concentric circles until it flies up into itself and disappears. (See, e.g., Wikipedia.) That is, we have suggested, the kind of flight plan the Congressional Oozlums would dictate for the Republican Party.Read More »Blog No. 77. Embattled John Boehner: The Oozlum Caucus and the Trumpian Virus.

Special Bulletin. Kim Davis and the GOP.

We had not intended to post anything about Kim Davis, the Kentucky County Clerk now in jail for defying a court order to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Earlier, Ms. Davis had declined an offer of release on a condition of non-interference with her Deputy Clerks, but licenses are now being issued by her Deputies without her sanction. Although Lyle Denniston, a respected commentator for Scotusblog, has noted that the validity of such licenses could be questioned, we doubt that they will be successfully challenged. In the meantime, The New York Times reported on Friday that Davis was continuing to stand her ground, and that Kentucky politicians were pondering possible legislative solutions. One way or another, it is inevitable that, at some point, the embarrassing controversy will be resolved with same-sex couples continuing to be issued licenses, and the matter will mercifully disappear from the front pages.Read More »Special Bulletin. Kim Davis and the GOP.