1 hour ago, william.scherk said:

Douhat is a weird choice for a NYT columnist.  I take everything he says as dipped in stoopid.  The GOPer inside him, like a parasitic worm, considers Trump beneath contempt. It is good that he gets so much contempt for his contemptible assassin 'joke' ... Douhat can be funny on other topics, but his drunk tweet pushed him further into the dip for me..

Meanwhile, reality imposes on others.  

Donald Trump on VP pick: We need a political insider

Washington (CNN)Who would be Donald Trump's vice president?

He still won't say -- but the GOP front-runner divulged Wednesday that it would likely be an insider in contrast with his outsider status.

"I do want somebody that's political, because I want to get lots of great legislation we all want passed," Trump said Wednesday in a Q&A at Regent University. "We're going to probably choose somebody that's somewhat political."

-- good new for Mr Trump.

First congressman to back Trump: 'We need a chief executive'

Collins had previously endorsed former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who dropped out of the race after a poor showing in the South Carolina primary, following months of Trump badgering and name-calling the former Florida governor.

Collins touted his own three decades-long career in the private sector and said voters were hungry for someone with the experiences of a business executive, not a politician.

Collins said Wednesday on CNN that Trump is "the guy that has been signing the front of a pay check and not the back."

-- from Daily Beast Latino-beat boneworm Ruben Navarette, who has been quoted in this thread at least once so far. He leans right, and is almost in the bag for Rubio, but his perceptions are striking, and seem to represent a wide scope of investigation of the 'Latino vote' this year ... 

Yes, Donald Trump Won Latinos Over Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz. Here’s Why

Why the Republican frontrunner just might be able to build on his success with Latino voters in Nevada—and win the White House as a result.
We know about the Reagan Democrats. In the 1980’s, union members in blue states defied their leaders in organized labor to vote for the 40th president.
Well, in Nevada, the first of the early primary or caucus states with a significant number of Latino voters, we’ve caught a glimpse of a similar phenomenon—one that few could have imagined when Donald Trump entered the race for the Republican presidential nomination.

-- this is also by Navarette

Hey, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio: Tone It Down, Already!

More unites than divides the GOP’s top two Cuban-American politicians. And if each one would stop trying to kill the other over immigration, our country would be much better off.

These days, it seems every time either Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz—both of them 44-year-old, well-spoken, intelligent, Cuban-American, sons of immigrants, lawyers, and first-term senators elected with support from the Tea Party—opens his mouth, it’s all about stressing the differences between them. 

-- this Politico piece is in the tank for the Demonic party, probably, but the numbers in the article are good sweet news for a Trump supporter, I imagine.  The bottom line is he outpolls Hispanics over Cruz. Candidacide?  Nooooop.

Poll: Clinton crushes Trump among Hispanics

Donald Trump has often boasted that he would win with Hispanic voters in a general election.
Now comes some new data to test that dubious theory: Hillary Clinton is leading the 2016 presidential field among Hispanics, according to the results of a new poll of registered Hispanic voters out Thursday morning from Univision and The Washington Post.

The former secretary of state is the top choice of Hispanic voters overall — Democratic, Republican and independent — with 39 percent, with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders behind her at 19 percent.

--  then again, another bonewormy take:

Latinos no quieren a Donald Trump: 8 in 10 Hispanic voters have negative view of billionaire

Eight in 10 Hispanic voters have an unfavorable view of GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump – including seven in 10 reporting a “very unfavorable” opinion – according to a poll released Thursday.

Eighty percent of Hispanic voters reported an unfavorable opinion of Mr. Trump in the Washington Post-Univision New poll, compared to 16 percent who said they have a favorable view of him.

The GOP has been working to narrow the party’s deficit among Hispanic voters from 2012, when President Obama carried Hispanics by a 71 percent to 27 percent margin over Republican nominee Mitt Romney, according to exit polls.

But Mr. Trump, who has repeatedly pledged to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and says drugs and criminals are streaming across into the United States, would lose the Hispanic vote by an even greater margin than Mr. Romney - 73 percent to 16 percent to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and 72 percent to 16 percent to Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont.

-- cue the Ukelele Crow Orchestra.

At long last, the media moves toward Trump

Las Vegas, Nevada (CNN) The press is coming around to Donald Trump.

After nine months of doubt -- doubting that he would run, doubting that he would stay in the race, doubting that he could win a single primary -- Trump's victories in New Hampshire, South Carolina and most recently a landslide win in Nevada have convinced some pundits and reporters that he is racing toward the nomination.

"The Nominee," Drudge Report declared on Tuesday night, after Trump's first-place showing in Nevada. "It's over; Trump is going to be the Republican nominee," Mel Robbins, the legal analyst, wrote for CNN. "Trump Marches Toward Nomination After Nevada Win," a Bloomberg Politics headline declared in big headline on Wednesday, although it was on the site by Thursday.

Some, such as NPR's Mara Liasson, remain reluctant to crown Trump just yet. But even they acknowledge that any other presidential candidate who had pulled off this three-peat, all while leading national polls by double digits, would likely already have received such a coronation.

-- this is bent by the Guardian's leftward tilt, but contains a bit of spoiled cabbage on Cruz, whose messaging seems ever more theatrical and could I say shrill?  I mean, the question underneath is worthy: what would DT do as Prez? -- but Cruz just mashes it in with his usual Grandpa Munster scenery-eating.   Candidacide?  Not likely this week.

Ted Cruz: 'Who knows what the heck Donald Trump would do as president?'

Absent Trump still the focus at Fox News voter summit, as Republican rivals vie to cast themselves as best bet to beat the frontrunner

Once again, Donald Trump stole the show without actually appearing on the show.

During Fox News’ two-hour voter summit on Wednesday night, the four Republican hopefuls working frantically to keep pace with Trump took turns pitching themselves as the best alternative to the billionaire frontrunner.

Texas senator Ted Cruz positioned himself as the best general election candidate, citing polling that showed he would beat former secretary of state Hillary Clinton should she capture the Democratic nomination.

“Donald consistently loses to Hillary. I consistently beat Hillary,” Cruz told Fox News’ Megyn Kelly during the live interview in Houston.

“And so the question right now is how do we prevent nominating a candidate who loses the general election – or, for that matter, if Donald wins the general election, who the heck knows what he’d do as president?”

-- yeahbut Rafael, Rafael, did you read this one, from the self-same bent source? It even talks about the same things as you do -- the Wall, Syria, China, Immigration, VP pick ... stop talking and read, Rafaelo!

What President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office would look like

Supreme court

The contours of the road after inauguration on 20 January have also become clearer after the death of supreme court justice Antonin Scalia, whose replacement Republicans in Congress have vowed to block until then.

Two names Trump has already floated to fill the vacancy on the bench – Bill Pryor Jr and Diane Sykes – are orthodox conservatives who are opposed to abortion and voter rights protection, and give a glimpse of what the overall court might look like if he is able to fill three further vacancies in the coming years.

Support from Senate Republicans, never mind Democrats, is far from guaranteed of course, and Trump is almost certain to spend much of the first few months in office trying to get his preferred nominee through bumpy confirmation hearings and a possible filibuster.

-- bent, but.  Even the red-hot commies at the Guardian can do simple arithmetic. Rafaelo!  Rafelito, Felito, Ted!  Read the Guardian, pepito mio. LIke, hey, think about it -- DT's support is broad within the GOP, compared to yours. Would you like to hold my electoral pistol? Bang.  

Candidacide.

'I won everything': just who are Donald Trump's supporters?

The Republican frontrunner has bragged about picking up support in nearly every demographic – and he’s not far off base. Now Trump supporters could reshape the country’s political map

“Actually, I won everything,” Donald Trump said this week, after his victory in South Carolina and before his rout in Nevada. “I won short people, tall people. I won fat people, skinny people. I won highly educated, OK educated, and practically not educated at all. I won the evangelicals big and I won the military.”

The Republican presidential frontrunner was, broadly speaking, correct. After his third consecutive victory, one that puts him on course to win the Republican nomination for the White House, it is less useful to ask who is voting for him than who isn’t.

The only state he didn’t win was Iowa, where he came second.

In New Hampshire, South Carolina and, on Tuesday, Nevada, Trump did not just win resoundingly by leveraging one or two types of conservative voters. Entrance polls reveal he triumphed by drawing on a pool of voters as wide as it was deep.

Who are Trump supporters? Insofar as the Republican electorate goes, the answer, for the moment at least, seems to be everyone.

-- finally, for the one or two Big Bad Haters, a scrap.  Feast on it, you dogs. You will be poorly fed from here on in, so don't gulp, savour.

Donald Trump Keeps Winning. Here’s What Could Make Him Lose.

Liasson said before the Nevada vote that another candidate who had achieved what the billionaire developer has would have been dubbed "the prohibitive front-runner."

"Were it anybody else besides Donald Trump, he would be considered a lock for the nomination," said NBC's Hallie Jackson.

The Washington Post editorial board penned an anti-Trump piece that posted on Thursday, which also begrudgingly accepted Trump's hold on the race.

"THE UNTHINKABLE is starting to look like the inevitable: Absent an extraordinary effort from people who understand the menace he represents, Donald Trump is likely to be the presidential nominee of the Republican Party. At this stage, even an extraordinary effort might fall short," the Post wrote.

Trump hasn't suffered from a lack of press attention: No single candidate has benefited from as much free coverage. He drives more headlines and appears on television more often than anyone else in the race.

But Trump's historic achievements -- winning three of the first four states by double digits, leading the Republican field while spending relatively little money, defying political gravity while redefining acceptable political discourse -- haven't translated into the declarations of victory that would likely have greeted an establishment-approved candidate.

-- and the dude Rinsed Previously, in this  excerpt from an interview on CNN. He seems high on elite-only gas. The full interview shows the same turgid thought processes.

-- more love, with a media-type slow-burn caustic about other media-types, from the same CNN story about 'facing reality.' 

The media's lingering doubt surrounding Trump is driven not just by conventional political wisdom about Trump's limitations, but also by a continued unwillingness of the press to face reality, journalists and strategists said.

"The media continues to either underestimate or misunderstand Trump's strength in this campaign," said Dan Pfeiffer, the former senior adviser to President Barack Obama and CNN contributor.

"Although some of us are coming around to the possibility he could be the nominee and even win a general (election), many believe we are watching a horror movie where we have to suspend our disbelief or that God is punking us," Jon Ralston, the veteran Nevada political journalist, told CNN in an interview.

Liasson said in an email that "so many Republicans think he (magically?) won't or can't end up being the nominee or that if he does it will be a disaster (and maybe that's why their wishful thinking is so strong)."

There are political arguments, as well: Some pundits have focused on Trump's high negative ratings: More than four in 10 GOP primary voters say they could not see themselves supporting Trump for president, according to a recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

Others argue that the GOP establishment has only recently begun to coalesce behind Marco Rubio, and believe that once the other candidates drop out of the race the Florida senator will be able to win over a majority of GOP primary voters.

 

 

On 2/24/2016 at 9:12 PM, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

Obviously Trump won Nevada.

Large margin, too.

I hear a lot of Bush supporters went to Trump...

Michael

On 2/24/2016 at 10:13 PM, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

Adam,

Rush Limbaugh said something very interesting a few weeks ago. He said his show helped flush out a lot of big-government and progressive people who had been infiltrating the conservative movement.

I think Trump is flushing out a lot of people, too. Except I'm not so sure the issue is big-government and progressivism and the infiltration is not just in the conservative movement.

I think Trump is flushing out those who perceive themselves as masters of the masses. Those who think they are entitled to be in the ruling class or in an elite of some sort. I'm not talking about merit-based elites. I'm talking about snotty condescending groups and a sense of superiority over the masses just for being born. (They like to think this, anyway.  )

I'm serious.

Not all wealthy and/or powerful people are like this and not all who are like this are wealthy and/or powerful. It's the attitude--a default elitist mindset.

The USA has started forming a royalty class and it is not pretty...

Except they are not just in politics. They are infiltrated in all walks of society right now.

Trump is flushing them out wherever they are because they can't stand him. They are afraid of him. 

Good.

Michael

On 2/24/2016 at 3:05 AM, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

Adam,

I had another thought about this.

If you notice, the biggest fear the people who tend toward an elitist mindset have about Trump is that he will become a dictator (if not Hitler). Go on Facebook and you will see this over and over.

I have lived long enough to know that people fear the most what is in themselves. If they fear Trump becoming a dictator so much, whereas a crapload of Trump supporters do not, it is because how to become a dictator is on their minds a lot. That's what they think about. Such thoughts are very present in their lives. Maybe they don't use the word dictator when thinking about themselves, but how to rule others more efficiently is on their minds day in and day out. So that's the first thing they fear in others.

Michael

On 2/24/2016 at 8:56 AM, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

Brant,

I don't think so.

Granted, there are a lot of people who don't care for Trump because they get caught up in the way their sundry tribes move, so there's even some macho-like echoes about how bad he is, but I'm not talking about those.

I'm talking about people who constantly try to express how clever they are by talking about how stupid or pathetic or damaged or furious or anything except rational Trump supporters are.

Kinda like me talking about them right now.

Except I'm right.

Michael

On 2/24/2016 at 9:25 AM, william.scherk said:

Here is the height of wonkery, making a case that the Nevada victory is big and broad and meaningful:

The result underscores that preventing Trump from winning the nomination is likely to require both that anti-Trump Republicans coalesce around an alternative and that they adopt a much more aggressive strategy in probing Trump for signs of weakness. On the first point, anti-Trump Republicans have made some progress: Rubio, who narrowly finished second in both South Carolina and Nevada, has received a cavalcade of endorsements in recent days as Republican “party elites” have increasingly rallied around him as the top alternative to Trump.

But there are not yet many signs of a concerted effort to attack Trump. Instead, reports from Politico and other news organizations suggest that potential conservative donors are largely sitting on the sidelines. Remarkably little advertising money has been spent against Trump so far, especially given his position in the race. Rubio has also conspicuously avoided attacking Trump. [...]

Lastly, we should keep in mind that this was just one state. Trump won 46 percent of the vote, blasting through his 33 percent (or thereabouts) ceiling, right? Not totally. It’s been clear for a while that Nevada Republicans loved Trump. As far back as October, polls have had Trump beating his national averages in Nevada. Meanwhile, Morning Consult polls, which have had Trump averaging 36 percent nationally over the course of the Republican primary, had Trump at 48 percent in Nevada. Believe it or not, states are not all the same! Recent polls have shown Trump getting anywhere from 50 percent of the Republican vote in Massachusetts to 18 percent in Utah. It’s certainly possible that Trump uses his momentum from Nevada to propel himself to even greater heights. But sometimes what’s billed as “momentum” is really just demographic and cultural variance among different states.

___________________________

** "AN EPIPHANY ABOUT THE APPEAL OF MR. TRUMP.

I've read and heard many theories from clueless pundits, pollsters, politicians, and ponderers who are trying to wrap their heads around the Trump phenomenon. Why he, an impious secularist, is drawing more support from evangelical Christians than Cruz or Carson. Why he, with a remarkably elastic view of constitutionally limited government, polls better among self-described "conservatives" than those with far more claim to being principled constitutionalists. Why he, a man who buys politicians in order to turn the power of government to his own ends, is the leading candidate in a party nominally committed to free enterprise, beating even those vocally opposing crony corporatists like himself. Etc.

I've tried to wrap my head around all this myself, and until recent days, found myself at a loss. I find bits of truth in many of the proffered theories, but regard most of them as inadequate. The "Parable of the Blind Men and the Elephant" keeps coming to mind: Each theorist seizes only a part of the beast that is Trumpism, then assumes that the part defines the whole of it.

Well, here's my stab at it."

23 hours ago, Brant Gaede said:

I suspect it's going to be a brokered convention.

22 hours ago, Roger Bissell said:

Hmmm, have you checked out this theory with Holocaust survivors? Probably not. You no doubt have a rationally founded fear of what they might (wish to) do to you, if you uttered such a thing.

But who knows? Maybe Holocaust survivors *love* Trump, and think he would be just the cat's meow. Kinda doubt it, but hey, I loves me some empirical data.

REB

P.S. - Maybe Trump Haters have watched too many movies about the Holocaust. Yet another theory for pollsters to check out.

21 hours ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

Roger,

Holocaust survivor certainly have good reason to fear Nazis.

I have never heard of a single Holocaust survivor who has been injured by Trump. In fact, I can't think of a single anti-semitic thing that has his name attached to it.

Trump seems to do a lot of highly lucrative business with Jews.

Michael

2 hours ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

Adam,

Count Glenn Beck in:

Glenn Beck Says Breitbart's Stephen K. Bannon Wants To Be Donald Trump's Goebbels

This is on Real Clear Politics video. 

I'm not going to embed it because it's just too embarrassing.

The amount of hatred and spite spewing out of Glenn Beck's mouth hits me like hard slaps on the face. I used to love this guy. But now he is selling love by demonizing, with focus on the demonizing.

I only listened to 2 1/2 minutes of the video and I had to stop. I didn't get to the part about the Nazi reference, but the amount of sheer hatred and loathing that he was expressing gave me the creeps so much that I didn't need a Nazi reference.

Pause…

I've gotta be fair, so I just went to the link and read the transcript. Actually, the words themselves are not as spiteful as what I'm saying in this post, although some of them are. The part that gives me the creeps is Beck's tone. It is dripping with rage and frustration.

But, as I was able to read the full transcript, it occurred to me that this is nothing but the outpourings of a sore loser. Beck is pissed that Trump crashed his caucus speech and upstaged him in a manner that was embarrassing. Trump left Beck talking to about 12 people. Also, Beck is envious of Breitbart, Steve Bannon in particular. And, of course, his guy (Ted Cruz) is losing.

That's it.

Not end of times. 

Vanity.

Oh, I don't doubt Beck's religious sincerity, but I have to note that, right now, it is mighty tied up to his own interests as an influential celebrity. Beck doesn't mind being hated, but when he becomes irrelevant, he goes apeshit.

I would never have thought the following before, but now I do.

If Donald Trump were assassinated, Glenn Beck would love nothing better than to be able to put on the show of praying over Trump's soul and sermonizing on how we have to love each other, how we are tearing each other apart, and so on. But since Trump will not assassinated (I hope), I don't expect Beck ever to be praying for his soul. I expect Beck to be praying for his destruction. And, although Beck would never admit it out loud, to him assassination would be just fine as a form of destruction.

What's more, he would say God did it and feel correct and righteous.

And I sit here in wonder and awe. How did I ever love this man? Was my vision so lacking before or did he change?

As I now seek wisdom more than winning any argument, let's say that it was probably both. I'll go with that for now.

Michael

 

EDIT: I just listened to the whole thing and the hatred was only at the beginning. After that, it was pettiness on steroids.

Beck thinks Trump is grooming his supporters as the paramilitary Brownshirts of Hitler. Why? Because he got heckled in a classroom at the caucus by some women.  I'm serious. You have to hear it to believe it, but it's there.

Also, in his beef against Bannon, you get to see a perfect example of a strawman argument. Beck started out by saying that maybe Bannon thinks he wants to be the next Roger Ailes. Then he goes on a tirade about how Bannon could never be Roger Ailes as if that were what Bannon wanted. But Bannon never said he wanted that.

I'm glad I listened to the rest because of an honesty thing I try to uphold. I try to be sure of what I'm talking about--by seeing it for myself and not just hearing about it--when I blast something.

Also, in a weird manner, I'm now a bit relieved about Beck. Instead of thundering madness, I detected the petty vanity of a celebrity with an ego owie. That actually gives me hope for Beck. Celebrities have vanity issues all the time and they generally come back when they go too far. It's much harder to come back from thundering madness.