Delaware Liberal

The October 12, 2016 Thread

Delaware Dem

This is the most succinct explanation of Trump’s popularity within the GOP:

UTAH–Desert News–CLINTON 26, TRUMP 26, McMullin 22, Johnson 14
NEW HAMPSHIRE–Greenberg Quinlan Rosner–CLINTON 46, Trump 38
OHIO–Baldwin Wallace Univ.–CLINTON 43, Trump 34

Wall Street Journal: “Political analysts are watching for signs that Republicans in tight races who had earlier broken with Mr. Trump now face greater odds of being swept out of office on a wave of anti-Trump sentiment. The problem is that waves that are big enough tend to sweep out candidates in races further down the ballot, as too few voters distinguish between the presidential nominee and his or her colleagues in downballot races.”

Meanwhile, CNN reports that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi “told House Democrats on a conference call Tuesday that if the election were held today, Democrats would regain control of the House of Representatives.”

“Donald Trump’s intensifying battle with his own party is tearing open the nation’s political map, pulling Republicans across the country into a self-destructive feud that could imperil dozens of lawmakers in Congress and potentially throw conservative-leaning states into Hillary Clinton’s column,” the New York Times reports.

“Mrs. Clinton’s campaign has concluded that at least two traditionally Republican states, Georgia and Arizona, are realistic targets for her campaign to win over. And Republican polling has found that Mr. Trump is at dire risk of losing Georgia, according to people briefed on the polls, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.”

The Fix: “And we are adding Utah and Indiana to our list of competitive states with ratings of ‘lean Republican.’”

We all know there is a tape out there were Trump uses the N or C words or both. It is only a matter of time.

Josh Marshall on facing the abuser’s rage:

To say that Trump can’t lose gracefully or graciously in the grandest of understatements. He’s driven by a need to dominate – not to be the best but to be recognized as the best, the richest, the smartest, the strongest. This also means needing to win always. All of this means he gets angry quickly and lashes out in the face of sleights.

Being shamed by nearly every Republican in the country is a profound ego injury. Looking at the prospect of a shattering electoral defeat is another. That has to be channeled somewhere and it looks like it’s going to be channeled against the GOP. Trump needs someone to blame. He’s already blamed news networks, blacks, debate moderators, the Khans, Alicia Machado, Judge Curiel. But Paul Ryan and the GOP now seem like the target of his most intense rage.

Will that rage settle as the intensity of the final weeks builds and the prospect of defeat gets closer? I would think not.

Remember, Trump is a bully. Bullies seek out people they can hurt. Trump has done everything he possibly can to hurt Hillary Clinton. But he doesn’t seem to be able to do so. The chance to do the one thing that would truly hurt her – defeating her in the general election – looks to be slipping beyond his grasp. That is almost certainly the root of his increasingly open threats to jail and punish her. But there is someone else he can hurt profoundly, even as he falls behind in the general election: the Republican party. All the better since they are his best argument to justify his defeat as a betrayal rather than a personal failure.

The Wall Street Journal says Trump’s new strategy is not to win over new voters to his campaign, but to suppress the Clinton vote: “Mr. Trump, in fact, is trying to use his break with many party leaders as a lever to ramp up support among his base, which includes many voters who feel equally estranged from the party establishment.”

“The decision means that a campaign already marked by intensely personal attacks is primed to grow even uglier in the remaining four weeks. Mr. Trump plans to keep up a relentless assault on Mrs. Clinton, including her use of a private email server and allegations about her husband, former President Bill Clinton, with the intention of keeping some of her supporters home on Election Day, his advisers said.”

“It remains questionable whether Mr. Trump’s strategy can turn around the electoral math.”

I have bad news for Donald. There is not a thing you can say or do to dissuade Clinton’s voters from voters from voting for her.

A USA Today survey shows 26% of Republican governors and members of Congress are refusing to endorse Donald Trump.

“It is an extraordinary demonstration of the fracture Trump’s candidacy has revealed in the Republican Party. There is no precedent in modern American political history for elected officials of either party to refuse en masse to support their presidential nominee. It shows that Trump will have to wage a national campaign without the fleet of surrogates and supporters that every other presidential contender has relied on for decades to help bring voters to the polls. And it illustrates how hard it will be for the GOP to rebuild if Trump loses.”

What enthusiasm problem?

President Obama relished the GOP civil war that has broken out over Donald Trump, “openly mocking Republicans who are refusing to rescind their endorsements even as they condemn the nominee for talking cavalierly about sexual assault,” Politico reports.

Said Obama: “The fact that now you’ve got people saying: ‘Well, we strongly disapprove. We really disagree. We find those comments disgusting, but we’re still endorsing him. We still think he should be president.’ That doesn’t make sense to me.”

He added: “You can’t have it both ways here. You can’t repeatedly denounce what is said by someone and then say, ‘But I’m still gonna endorse them to be the most powerful person on the planet and to put them in charge.’”

Donald Trump took aim at Speaker Paul Ryan in an interview on Fox News. Said Trump: “I wouldn’t want to be in a foxhole with a lot of these people that I can tell you, including Ryan…especially Ryan.” Trump also accused Ryan of having “opened borders and amnesty,” and he charged that Ryan had promoted “bad budgets by the way, very, very bad budgets.”

Al Gore hit the campaign trail for Hillary Clinton today and said that his near miss in the 2000 presidential election is “exhibit A” for why it’s so important to vote, Politico reports.

Said Gore: “Your vote really, really, really counts — a lot. You can consider me as an exhibit A of that group. Now, for those of you who are younger than 25, you might not remember the election of 2000 and what happened here in Florida and across the country. For those of you older than 25, I heard you murmuring just now. But take it from me, it was a very close election/”

Meanwhile, supporters began to chant “You won! You won!”

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