The same pundits that have buried him countless times before buried him again after his Wisconsin loss despite the fact that it was always going to be a bad state for him.
I was skeptical. After all, these are the same pundits who have been wrong so many times before about his demise. There is just so much overeagerness here.
I was skeptical that the things that were supposed to kill him-Corey Lewandowski, etc-really would. It seems to me that many of his supporters see him as loyal in not throwing him under the bus.
The abortion thing was one of the few things I thought possibly could hurt him as it might rob him as his rightful place as the GOP moderate on abortion.
But if anything, it underscored that his prolife bonafides are pretty shallow. Not only had he said women need penalties but he admitted this would lead to back alley abortions-the official prolife position is that back alley abortions are pure mythology. In the end, it won't hurt Trump at all in the nomination. It has however given Hillary Clinton a perfect attack line in the general. But that's more about hurting the GOP long term. It also really hurts the prolife movement-which is another reason, don't listen to anyone, if you''re a Democrat you have to want this to be Hillary-Trump.
Anyway, it's clear now that Trump has his mojo back as Chris Cillizza rightly documents:
"Don’t look now, but Donald Trump has made moves in the past week that are, wait for it, actually quite smart."
Consider:
● Trump announced the hiring of Rick Wiley, who managed Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s presidential campaign, as his national political director this past week. Wiley joins the likes of other longtime GOP operatives, including Paul Manafort, Don McGahn, Ed Brookover and Rick Reed, in Trump’s inner circle — evidence that Trump rightly assessed that his loyal core of staffers wasn’t equipped to handle the knife-fightbattle for delegates between now and July 18, when the Republican National Convention is to begin.
●Trump has leaned hard into the idea that the whole process is “rigged” against him, pointing to what happened in Colorado two weekends ago —where he was out-organized and lost all 34 of the state’s delegates to Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas — as evidence that party leaders are trying to silence him. (More on Trump’s delegate problems below.)
"This is a terrific message for Trump and may be the second act he needs to push himself over the delegate threshold by June 7, when California votes. He always runs best as the aggrieved outsider, the guy whom the establishment is trying to control but who keeps slipping out of its grasp. He has struggled of late because he became the very clear front-runner and didn’t really have anything or anyone to run against. Now that he can rail against the rigged system, he is right back in his messaging wheelhouse."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-had-a-pretty-good-week/2016/04/17/7a37002a-04a6-11e6-b283-e79d81c63c1b_story.html
I agree. As the first bullet shows, he's got some real GOP guys who know the delegate system now and that in concert with damning the process is a great one-two punch. And his agitating against the RNC trying to steal the nomination from him seems to be working. Most GOPers believe that if Trump gets a plurality-eve if not a majority he should get the nomination.
Reince Priebus wants to argue otherwise:
"the article reporting the results quotes RNC chief Reince Priebus on Meet the Press saying the following: "If he was winning the majority of votes, he'd likely have the majority of delegates. But that's not actually what's happening. He's winning a plurality of votes, and he has a plurality of delegates. And under the rules and under the concept of this country, a majority rules on everything."
"But of course this isn't true. Very, very few elections in the United States have run-off voting. The "rule and ... concept of this country" is that the candidate with the most votes wins, regardless of whether they get an absolute majority. This isn't just a gotcha aimed at Priebus since obviously the rules of both parties are clear that you need to get a majority of delegates to support you to become the nominee. But the audience for this decision isn't the RNC or the delegates at the convention. It's the national electorate the nominee has to target with his campaign. Here the "rule and concept of this country" - whoever gets the most votes wins - is clearly what the great majority of the national GOP electorate is thinking in terms of."
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/the-lines-are-hardening
While the GOP Establishment can split hairs on a majority vs a mere plurality, if this were anohter candidate than Trump they would nevertheless give the candidate with the plurality the nomination.
"At issue: a controversial proposal that would drastically alter how the convention would function, changing the underlying rule book for proceedings — and potentially affecting whether party insiders could draft a so-called white knight at a deadlocked convention."
"Rules Committee Chairman Bruce Ash criticized RNC Chairman Reince Priebus and his allies in an email Saturday to his panel, accusing them of working to scuttle the proposal and prevent it from getting a hearing at this week’s RNC spring meeting in Hollywood Beach, Florida."
"The proposal in question would switch the rule book governing the convention from the rules of the U.S. House of Representatives, which have been used at Republican national conventions for decades, to Robert’s Rules of Order, which is common in civic and organizational meetings."
“It became apparent to me during the discussions with Reince and others at the RNC that there might be an underlying political result that adherence to the House Rules achieved, and that Roberts made more difficult,” Ash wrote in the email, which was first reported by The Associated Press. “Reopening the nominations for President during the balloting to permit a more acceptable candidate to be nominated other than Donald Trump or Ted Cruz.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/04/republican-rules-clash-convention-222063#ixzz46BkCEo3I
Bottomline GOPers: no cheating, if you know what's good for you.
"Trump Says He Hopes A Contested Convention 'Doesn't Involve Violence'
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-contested-convention-no-violence
Hope is a powerful strategy.
I was skeptical. After all, these are the same pundits who have been wrong so many times before about his demise. There is just so much overeagerness here.
I was skeptical that the things that were supposed to kill him-Corey Lewandowski, etc-really would. It seems to me that many of his supporters see him as loyal in not throwing him under the bus.
The abortion thing was one of the few things I thought possibly could hurt him as it might rob him as his rightful place as the GOP moderate on abortion.
But if anything, it underscored that his prolife bonafides are pretty shallow. Not only had he said women need penalties but he admitted this would lead to back alley abortions-the official prolife position is that back alley abortions are pure mythology. In the end, it won't hurt Trump at all in the nomination. It has however given Hillary Clinton a perfect attack line in the general. But that's more about hurting the GOP long term. It also really hurts the prolife movement-which is another reason, don't listen to anyone, if you''re a Democrat you have to want this to be Hillary-Trump.
Anyway, it's clear now that Trump has his mojo back as Chris Cillizza rightly documents:
"Don’t look now, but Donald Trump has made moves in the past week that are, wait for it, actually quite smart."
Consider:
● Trump announced the hiring of Rick Wiley, who managed Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s presidential campaign, as his national political director this past week. Wiley joins the likes of other longtime GOP operatives, including Paul Manafort, Don McGahn, Ed Brookover and Rick Reed, in Trump’s inner circle — evidence that Trump rightly assessed that his loyal core of staffers wasn’t equipped to handle the knife-fightbattle for delegates between now and July 18, when the Republican National Convention is to begin.
●Trump has leaned hard into the idea that the whole process is “rigged” against him, pointing to what happened in Colorado two weekends ago —where he was out-organized and lost all 34 of the state’s delegates to Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas — as evidence that party leaders are trying to silence him. (More on Trump’s delegate problems below.)
"This is a terrific message for Trump and may be the second act he needs to push himself over the delegate threshold by June 7, when California votes. He always runs best as the aggrieved outsider, the guy whom the establishment is trying to control but who keeps slipping out of its grasp. He has struggled of late because he became the very clear front-runner and didn’t really have anything or anyone to run against. Now that he can rail against the rigged system, he is right back in his messaging wheelhouse."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-had-a-pretty-good-week/2016/04/17/7a37002a-04a6-11e6-b283-e79d81c63c1b_story.html
I agree. As the first bullet shows, he's got some real GOP guys who know the delegate system now and that in concert with damning the process is a great one-two punch. And his agitating against the RNC trying to steal the nomination from him seems to be working. Most GOPers believe that if Trump gets a plurality-eve if not a majority he should get the nomination.
Reince Priebus wants to argue otherwise:
"the article reporting the results quotes RNC chief Reince Priebus on Meet the Press saying the following: "If he was winning the majority of votes, he'd likely have the majority of delegates. But that's not actually what's happening. He's winning a plurality of votes, and he has a plurality of delegates. And under the rules and under the concept of this country, a majority rules on everything."
"But of course this isn't true. Very, very few elections in the United States have run-off voting. The "rule and ... concept of this country" is that the candidate with the most votes wins, regardless of whether they get an absolute majority. This isn't just a gotcha aimed at Priebus since obviously the rules of both parties are clear that you need to get a majority of delegates to support you to become the nominee. But the audience for this decision isn't the RNC or the delegates at the convention. It's the national electorate the nominee has to target with his campaign. Here the "rule and concept of this country" - whoever gets the most votes wins - is clearly what the great majority of the national GOP electorate is thinking in terms of."
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/the-lines-are-hardening
While the GOP Establishment can split hairs on a majority vs a mere plurality, if this were anohter candidate than Trump they would nevertheless give the candidate with the plurality the nomination.
Meanwhile there are all kinds of problems over at the RNC:
"Rules Committee Chairman Bruce Ash criticized RNC Chairman Reince Priebus and his allies in an email Saturday to his panel, accusing them of working to scuttle the proposal and prevent it from getting a hearing at this week’s RNC spring meeting in Hollywood Beach, Florida."
"The proposal in question would switch the rule book governing the convention from the rules of the U.S. House of Representatives, which have been used at Republican national conventions for decades, to Robert’s Rules of Order, which is common in civic and organizational meetings."
“It became apparent to me during the discussions with Reince and others at the RNC that there might be an underlying political result that adherence to the House Rules achieved, and that Roberts made more difficult,” Ash wrote in the email, which was first reported by The Associated Press. “Reopening the nominations for President during the balloting to permit a more acceptable candidate to be nominated other than Donald Trump or Ted Cruz.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/04/republican-rules-clash-convention-222063#ixzz46BkCEo3I
Bottomline GOPers: no cheating, if you know what's good for you.
"Trump Says He Hopes A Contested Convention 'Doesn't Involve Violence'
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-contested-convention-no-violence
Hope is a powerful strategy.
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