It's just that on this, like everything else in recent years, the GOP can't make up its mind.
1. A number of leading Republicans are getting behind Ted Cruz now: Lindsay Graham, Carly Fiorina, Mitt Romney promises to vote for him in Utah-though less for Cruz than as a way of keeping Trump beneath 1237.
But Romney and the other GOPers are dismissing Kasich's chances. Romney says that a vote for John Kasich is a vote for Donald Trump. Marco Rubio is now echoing that sentiment.
"Rubio nears Cruz endorsement."
"But the former rivals first have to decide if they think it will make any difference."
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/03/marco-rubio-nears-ted-cruz-endorsement-220952#ixzz43RsQmT7Q
It's' a good question. You would think it could even do more harm than good as it makes Ted Cruz the favorite of the Establishment. With Romney I wonder if he'd help Cruz more by saying he's voting against him.
2. But here's the rub. This might suggest that there is a consensus in the GOP Establishment for Ted Cruz and against John Kasich-that he just helps Trump. But there's not. A bunch of GOP insiders recently told Politico, that Kasich may be the way to go.
Insiders: Kasich could win a contested convention
POLITICO Caucus members say the Ohio governor would be more acceptable to GOP delegates than Ted Cruz or Donald Trump.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/03/john-kasich-contested-convention-insiders-220946#ixzz43Rt5HJFS
3. Then you have other GOPers who say that a contested convention is a terrible idea. I tend to agree with that. But again, the point is: no consensus.
This has been a recurring theme in the recent GOP. We saw this after Boehner stepped down and they failed to nominate Kevin McCarthy. Paul Ryan has done a decent job as Speaker. But on the Presidential race, he has his own opinions but there is no consensus.
http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/paul-ryan/paul-ryan-will-not-accept-gop-nod-contested-convention-n540106
Ryan says a lot of stuff:
A. There is a higher likelihood of a contested convention.
B. But the choice won't be him, it has to be someone running. So just Trump, Cruz, or Kasich?
C. He will support Trump if he's the nominee.
4. Reince Priebus' spokesman says the RNC will support Trump if he's the nominee.
Again, the party can't decide.
http://lastmenandovermen.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-gop-may-be-too-divided-to-decide-to.html
But how is a party that can't decide really a party?
1. A number of leading Republicans are getting behind Ted Cruz now: Lindsay Graham, Carly Fiorina, Mitt Romney promises to vote for him in Utah-though less for Cruz than as a way of keeping Trump beneath 1237.
But Romney and the other GOPers are dismissing Kasich's chances. Romney says that a vote for John Kasich is a vote for Donald Trump. Marco Rubio is now echoing that sentiment.
"Rubio nears Cruz endorsement."
"But the former rivals first have to decide if they think it will make any difference."
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/03/marco-rubio-nears-ted-cruz-endorsement-220952#ixzz43RsQmT7Q
It's' a good question. You would think it could even do more harm than good as it makes Ted Cruz the favorite of the Establishment. With Romney I wonder if he'd help Cruz more by saying he's voting against him.
2. But here's the rub. This might suggest that there is a consensus in the GOP Establishment for Ted Cruz and against John Kasich-that he just helps Trump. But there's not. A bunch of GOP insiders recently told Politico, that Kasich may be the way to go.
Insiders: Kasich could win a contested convention
POLITICO Caucus members say the Ohio governor would be more acceptable to GOP delegates than Ted Cruz or Donald Trump.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/03/john-kasich-contested-convention-insiders-220946#ixzz43Rt5HJFS
3. Then you have other GOPers who say that a contested convention is a terrible idea. I tend to agree with that. But again, the point is: no consensus.
This has been a recurring theme in the recent GOP. We saw this after Boehner stepped down and they failed to nominate Kevin McCarthy. Paul Ryan has done a decent job as Speaker. But on the Presidential race, he has his own opinions but there is no consensus.
http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/paul-ryan/paul-ryan-will-not-accept-gop-nod-contested-convention-n540106
Ryan says a lot of stuff:
A. There is a higher likelihood of a contested convention.
B. But the choice won't be him, it has to be someone running. So just Trump, Cruz, or Kasich?
C. He will support Trump if he's the nominee.
4. Reince Priebus' spokesman says the RNC will support Trump if he's the nominee.
Again, the party can't decide.
http://lastmenandovermen.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-gop-may-be-too-divided-to-decide-to.html
But how is a party that can't decide really a party?
Mike, excellent point. Lindsey Graham and Romney vowing to vote Cruz may well hurt him.
ReplyDeleteYou'd have been proud of me yesterday: I was invited to a St. Patrick's day party... and I think I convinced a lot of people we should vote for Trump in the primary. One or two already had that attitude.
The triumph of the Trump Democrats!
DeleteI'm loving it
DeleteMike you should update your selfie with one of you in your "Make America Great Again" hat.
ReplyDeleteOne of the guys at the party who liked the idea is from Scotland, and his aunt actually met Trump... She has property near his golf course, and Trump's goons invited her over for coffee... Before the coffee was poured Trump was saying he wanted to buy. Over the course of some weeks she refused every offer, and they sent her a letter with an article about an unfortunate person who refused to sell next to one of his casinos, and how Trump built the casino all around it. Lol
ReplyDeleteAlso, I guess she would have sold had Trump made a good offer, but his series of offers just weren't that great. This was in Scotland in case that wasn't clear.
DeleteGreat story. Trump's mom is from Scotland, incidentally. Cruz had tried this to push back on Birtherism. It didn't work.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally my maternal grandfather was two thirds Scottish.
Anyway, sounds like Trumpian business practices. During the general Hillary and the Dems ought to talk about that guy's aunt! LOL
Before he even finished his story I predicted it would end like the story of Crocker's spite wall... Which is a great story if you haven't heard it...
Deletehttp://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Crocker%27s_Spite_Fence
That same Crocker built a series of Mission style houses on a street here in Santa Barbara a short walk from where I'm having breakfast right now.
I have some Scot & English in me too: my dad's half. With a name like "Sax" that harkens back to the Saxons!
DeleteWell, therein lies the irony. 'Sax' is kind of a fake name. My great grandfather and great grandmother were Russian Jews who moved to England in the early 20th century and shortened it from some very long sounding name that was a little more ethnic let us say.
ReplyDeleteI am English but not on the Sax side. The long English routes are twofold
1. My Paternal Grandmother's side goes back centuries in the Mother Country.
2. Though I say my Mother is Jamaican she herself was a Mulatto-mixed race and besides all the Scottish on her Dad''s side her Mother's Father-my great grandfather was actually English-his parents were from England.
Then again, when my mother was growing up Jamaica was a British Commonwealth. She is one of those old school Jamaicans who to a man will insist the island was better off before independence.
Of course, I myself was born in England and only got my US citizenship in 1998-dual citizenship now.
Interesting. Quite a mix you have there!
DeleteMy longest English roots are through my paternal grandmother... A "Beresford"... Supposedly all us Beresfords are related... The name itself supposedly dated to the time of William the Conqueror. They were minor nobility... So I have an "ancestor" who was in the battle of Agincourt (1415) for example... Another is the current Marquis of Waterford in Ireland (they pronounce it mar-kwiss)... I met him and his wife once... I had a cup of "pimms" with them, in the main hall of their run down "house" called Curraghmore in county Waterford there in Ireland (the core structure of which supposedly dates to a 12th century castle built by the Vikings). Both my mom and dad were really into genealogy... But I don't think they ever figured out a definite bloodline connecting me to those more illustrious Beresfords... But there is a Beresford society in England that organizes trips like that every 10 years or so... My dad has done three of them. This last time he and three of my siblings even had a dinner organized to take place in the house of Parliament.
The rest of his English and Scottish roots are far more mundane and harder to trace very far back.
I did one trip with him back in 1997... And it was a lot of fun.
My mom was of Scandinavian decent... She claimed to be able trace her side equally as far... Saying I had ancestors on both sides of the battle of Hastings, and Stamford Bridge as well. I have to take her word for it, since I've never dug into the evidence myself.
BTW, I took a walk by those Crocker houses after my breakfast (built by Crocker's son actually). Modest in comparison to his father's monstrosity on Nob Hill (here with the 40' tall spite wall around the poor hold-out's house labeled). Lol... I guess rich fucks have been like that for a long time.
ReplyDeleteBTW, when I was in college I got interested in the true history of rich people on Long Island back in F. Scott Fitzgerald's time ... back when he wrote The Great Gatsby. I found a wonderful coffee-table book in our library by a woman who grew up on Long Island and had taken all these great photos of abandoned "Gilded Age" mansions (prior to them being bull dozed I suppose). I imagine they were what Fitzgerald had in mind for Gatsby. Some had vegetation growing inside them, etc. They were ruins essentially. One was especially creepy in that one room's floor was made from the headstones of children's graves (I'm not positive about the "children's" part, but that's my recollection... I'm pretty sure about the headstones part... she had a photo of it). Probably all that was long gone by the time you moved to Long Island (I think this book was from the 1970s... and the pictures older still). You haven't seen anything like that there have you?