Sunday Open Thread [8.9.15]

Matt Taibbi notes “there are plenty of Tea Party-type voters out there who hate the Republican Party establishment almost as much as they hate the Democrats. There are also plenty of right-wing voters who think George Will and Charles Krauthammer are smug media weasels only slightly less disgusting than the Rachel Maddows and Keith Olbermanns of the world. A know-it-all is a know-it-all.”

“Trump’s followers are a gang of pissed-off nativists who are tired of being laughed at, belittled, dismissed, and told who to vote for. So it seems incredible that the Republican establishment thinks it’s going to get rid of Trump by laughing at, belittling and dismissing him, and telling his voters who they should be picking.”

“These hysterical critics are making one of the world’s most irredeemable bullies look persecuted and like a victim, a difficult feat. The desperation to get rid of him may just feed more and more into the right wing base’s crazy victim complex, and in turn get Trump even more support.”

And yet….

Washington Post: “Republican leaders who have watched Donald Trump’s summer surge with alarm now believe that his presidential candidacy has been contained and may begin to collapse because of his repeated attacks on a Fox News Channel star and his refusal to pledge his loyalty to the eventual GOP nominee.”

Politico: “Fallout from a crude attack on Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly and the departure of a top political adviser roiled Donald Trump’s campaign Saturday, leading Republicans to question whether the laws of political gravity have finally caught up with the real estate mogul.”

This is why I am not predicting anything. Last time we predicted Trump was over, when he attacked the honor of all POWs and John McCain, his numbers increased 10%, from 14% to 24%. Remember, nativists and racists are also sexists and misogynists.

Paul Krugman looks at the GOP’s “deep bench.”

This was, according to many commentators, going to be the election cycle Republicans got to show off their “deep bench.” The race for the nomination would include experienced governors like Jeb Bush and Scott Walker, fresh thinkers like Rand Paul, and attractive new players like Marco Rubio. Instead, however, Donald Trump leads the field by a wide margin. What happened?

The answer, according to many of those who didn’t see it coming, is gullibility: People can’t tell the difference between someone who sounds as if he knows what he’s talking about and someone who is actually serious about the issues. And for sure there’s a lot of gullibility out there. But if you ask me, the pundits have been at least as gullible as the public, and still are.

For while it’s true that Mr. Trump is, fundamentally, an absurd figure, so are his rivals.

Eugene Robinson explains why Trump won the debate.

It was billed as The Donald Trump Show, and the Republican front-runner delivered. He mugged. He pouted. He projected outrage without being troubled by specificity or fact. When he got punched — and the moderators threw haymakers all night — he stuck out his chin and punched back.
Trump made it through the first Republican debate by avoiding the one mistake that could have seriously damaged his insurgent campaign: sounding like a professional politician. For that reason alone, he seemed to me the clear winner. …

It was impossible this week to walk anywhere in this lakeside city’s revivifying downtown without bumping into members of the Republican Party’s political elite, and conversations with them suggested a kind of magical thinking: Somehow, they assume, this whole Trump thing will go poof and disappear. Order will be restored to the GOP universe.

Ann McFeatters offers the only reason Biden should get in the race:

There aren’t many people who think Vice President Joe Biden could be elected the next president. But he is said to be thinking about running because Hillary Clinton is conducting a terrible campaign and Biden’s beloved son Beau urged his father to run shortly before he heartbreakingly died of brain cancer.
If Biden has the stomach for it, he should run because he would make the Democratic race more interesting — much more interesting — and he would make Clinton a better candidate.

With the Republican race currently Trumpified, the American people are getting short shrift. Too few candidates are talking seriously about issues that really matter, including Clinton.

She refuses to give her views on such vital matters as the pending trade deal and Keystone XL pipeline on grounds that this is up to the Obama administration. How infuriating! She parrots the phrase “Black lives matter,” which is the same as saying “Honesty is the best policy.” Well, duh. Of course! But we’re still waiting for a bold vision from her on anything.