Donald Trump and the New 50 State Strategy

It's very simple. If you are a Democrat running against a Republican in any national or state race across the country, don't run against your opponent, run against Donald Trump.

Harry Reid showed how to do it yesterday with a brilliant take down of Mitch McConnell on the Senate floor.

"Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid ridiculed Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on the Senate floor Thursday for embracing Donald Trump as the Republican Party’s presumptive presidential nominee, saying the Kentucky senator must also think women are “dogs and pigs.”

"Reid's feisty comments come as the real estate mogul is in Washington for a series of conclaves with House Speaker Paul Ryan, McConnell and other congressional and party leaders."

“It’s just the latest sign that Republican leaders in both houses are marching lock step with Donald Trump,” Reid said.

"Reid continued tying the Senate leader to the billionaire, accusing both of being obstructionists when it comes to acting on President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee and anti-women."

“Since Sen. McConnell has so enthusiastically embraced Trump, we can only assume he agrees with Trump’s view that women are dogs and pigs. We can only assume that the Republican leader is not repulsed by Donald Trump’s vulgar behavior toward women,” Reid said, pointing to an infamous interview Trump gave to Howard Stern as an example of how he views women.

"Reid added that Trump and McConnell can discuss their anti-immigration views, too. Trump has called Mexicans “rapists” and vowed to build a wall on the southern border that Mexico will pay for. He also wants to deport some 11 million undocumented immigrants. He has, however, taken a step back from his proposal last year to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the U.S."

Uh, no, Politico, he has not. Sheesh.

“I assume that they can have a long discussion about the wall: how high it should be, how they’re gonna get the Mexicans to pay for the wall, even though most people think the idea’s insane,” Reid said. “Let’s not forget, Republicans have demagogued Latinos and immigrants for decades. They’re doing it today.”

"Reid derisively argued that Trump and McConnell will have plenty to talk about when they meet Thursday, including why the businessman should thank McConnell for his ascent to the top of the party."

“Donald Trump and the Republican leader should have a long, long conversation. They have a lot to talk about,” Reid said. “At some point in their conversation, Donald Trump should thank the senior senator from Kentucky. Trump owes his candidacy to the Republican leader and to the policies he’s led. It was an obstructionist, anti-woman, anti-Latino, anti-Muslim, anti-middle class, anti-environment and anti-Obama and anti-everything Republicans during the last eight years have made Donald Trump a reality.”

http://lastmenandovermen.blogspot.com/2016/05/does-mitch-mcconnell-think-women-are.html

Or Chuck Schumer, Harry Reid's likely successor:

"New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, Reid's expected successor as Democratic leader, said Republicans hesitate to embrace Trump because of the very blunt, not "politically correct" style that has attracted many of his supporters – not because they disagree with him."

"Thursday's highly anticipated summit with Ryan and other GOP lawmakers was a piece of theater, Schumer said, was "not just because of the spectacle of cameras and protesters," but because "when it comes to the policy differences that need to be worked out between the nominee and congressional leaders, there really aren't that many."

"The fact is Senate Republicans have been governing from the Trump textbook for years," Schumer told reporters. "They may not be proud of how their nominee expresses himself or pleased with the tone of his campaign and the name-calling, but on policy, Donald Trump and Republicans are singing from the same hymnal."

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-05-12/democrats-relish-gop-colleagues-discomfort-with-trump

Or checkout former Governor Rod Strickland against his GOP opponent in the Ohio race for the US Senate:

"It’s no surprise that Donald Trump wants Sen. Portman to be his vice president because on many issues Trump and Portman share the same toxic agenda," Strickland spokeswoman Liz Margolis said in a statement. "And by refusing to do his job and consider the Supreme Court nominee, Portman has also made it clear that he’s happy to let Trump reshape the Supreme Court for generations."

- See more at: http://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/strickland-hits-portman-interest-trump-vp-spot#sthash.zVrJCNWa.dpuf

Call it the Trump Effect. It will give the Dems the ultimate 50 state strategy. Between the Trump Effect and the Merrick Garland card, the Dems are going to have a very formidable one-two punch in every Senate race.

Why Mitch McConnell-who Harry Reid so effectively battered in that floor speech-insists on refusing to even give Merrick Garland-even if he has no intention of confirming him-is a mystery.

I've been just a little bit indignant, that while the Beltway talks about how no one predicted Trump could win, I had been doing it since last July as Tom Brown confirms:

"Mike, I'll back you up on this: you definitely were there first. BTW, Dana Milbank apparently was one of the naysayers on Trump: I just caught a clip of him last night on Hardball, during the "Tell me something I don't know" segment, informing Chris that he's going to be a man of his word, and he's going to go ahead and eat his column, as he promised to do, should Trump win the nomination. Milbank is having a chef prepare it for him: here's the menu."

http://lastmenandovermen.blogspot.com/2016/05/why-beltway-media-all-missed-trump.html?showComment=1463080876975#c6679043619063491484

Tom then takes away a little with the other hand. LOL

"Well I don't know about "first" (like I wrote above), but you were definitely there correctly predicting that Trump had a real chance right from the beginning."

Well who was first then? LOL. Actually I haven't said first-though I may have been. I didn't' get the idea from anyone-so if anyone got there first I didn't' come across them before getting there-and the MSM didn't even entertain the idea that he could win until this year; and most of them still thought he wouldn't be until late April. But I had to be one of the first as I came to this conclusion after he had been running for just 3 weeks.

I have said that the other folks I'm aware of calling it for a long time are Scott Adams the author of Dilbert Comics-though his reasoning is a bit different than mine. He thinks Trump is a Master Persuader, I just think the Republican party is a dysfunctional mess.

If you look at timelines, though, me and Adams are pretty close.

Also Norm Ornstein got it early-but then he, like, I has long recognized that: the GOP is a dysfunctional mess.

But when you look at how all these Dems are all tying every GOP candidate and leader to Donald Trump, I'm reminded of what William F. Buckley once asked.

Did you ever see a dream walking?

http://www.amazon.com/American-Conservative-Thought-Twentieth-Century/dp/B000NREEO8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1463147198&sr=8-1&keywords=william+f+buckley+did+you+ever+see+a+dream+walking

This is the dream walking of a Trump Democrat:

"Democrats Relish GOP Colleagues’ Discomfort With Trump."

"They hope tying the party to their soon-to-be nominee could pay down-ballot dividends in November."

"Congressional Democrats were gleeful Thursday as their Republican colleagues welcomed Donald Trump to Washington and prepared to embrace him – some through clenched teeth – as their party's presidential nominee."

Like the song says: 'Did you ever see a dream walking? Well I did.'