2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumThe silent stampede away from Trump is about to begin
By Paul Waldman October 20 at 1:30 PM
The final debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump wasnt exactly the end of the 2016 presidential race, but it was awfully close. Now that there are no more major events before the election, just the daily slog of rallies and organizing and charges and countercharges, youre going to be less and less able to find Republicans not in Trumps direct employ who will pretend that they think hes going to win.
The result will be a kind of silent stampede away from him. Without drawing too much attention to what theyre doing, Republicans everywhere are now going to accept that Hillary Clinton is going to be the next president of the United States, and reposition themselves accordingly.
It wasnt just the debate itself, at which Trump not only refused to say that hell respect the results of the election but effectively sealed his fate with women voters (such a nasty woman, he said about Clinton). And it isnt just the fact that hes trailing in the polls by a margin from which no candidate has recovered at this stage of the race. Its also that Republicans look at the candidate himself and the bumbling incompetents with whom hes surrounded himself, and rightly conclude that the chances that they could come up with a stratagem so brilliant it would reverse the trajectory of this race are rapidly approaching zero. If anything, Clintons margin is likely to grow as Trump shoots himself in the foot a few more times and her formidable ground operation keeps banking early votes; meanwhile the Trump campaign thinks it doesnt need much more than rallies to get its supporters to the polls.
So if youre a Republican, what do you do now? You save your own skin, and begin thinking about how to deal with a second President Clinton.
Republicans are already hearing that advice from their allies. Today at the National Review, John Fund tells them to begin laying the groundwork for all the investigations they plan to do of Clintons administration, which might help them stay in Congress. It shouldnt be too hard to make a case to independent and even some Democratic voters that handing Hillary Clinton blank check control of Congress would be imprudent and even reckless. Karl Rove writes much the same thing, saying that holding Congress may be the best Republicans can hope for. Funds colleague Kevin Williamson writes an article about the future of gun policy entitled Some Advice for President Clinton.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2016/10/20/the-silent-stampede-away-from-trump-is-about-to-begin/?utm_term=.1862c42cb5b4&wpisrc=nl_popns&wpmm=1
Chemisse
(30,813 posts)Some will be disinclined to be associated with a big loser and vote for Clinton, a handful will be cured of their 'Trump Fever' once and for all, and quite a few will just not bother to vote because Trump said it was all rigged anyway.
At least that is my hope!
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)Qutzupalotl
(14,318 posts)emulatorloo
(44,133 posts)Another one of those Republicans who 'loves and respects women.'