Is it just me?

[william the wierd]

I think Trump is suddenly experiencing the reputational equivalent of being fed into a chipper.

Allegations of associating with the mafia and possibly the triads.

Being a major recipient of money from Chinese "investment" immigrants.

Does this look the same to any of you?

[Lady Marva]

Money Pours In as Move to Stop Donald Trump Expands

Does seem he's moved past the low hanging fruit.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/07/us...rump.html?_r=0
Republicans hoping to halt Donald J. Trump’s march to their party’s presidential nomination emerged from the weekend’s voting contests newly emboldened by Mr. Trump’s uneven electoral performance and by some nascent signs that he may be peaking with voters.

Outside groups are moving to deploy more than $10 million in new attack ads across Florida and millions more in Illinois, casting Mr. Trump as a liberal, a huckster and a draft dodger. Mr. Trump’s reed-thin organization appears to be catching up with him, suggesting he could be at a disadvantage if he is forced into a protracted slog for delegates.

And vote tallies on Saturday made clear that Mr. Trump has had at least some trouble building upon his intensely loyal following, leaving him increasingly dependent upon landslides in early voting.

In Louisiana, where Mr. Trump amassed a lead of more than 20 percentage points among those who cast votes before Saturday, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas effectively tied him among voters who cast their ballots on Saturday.

Continued at link.

[william the wierd]

Yeah today he made noises like he would go third party.

[Norm dePlume]

Yeah today he made noises like he would go third party.

Who did? Trump?

[william the wierd]

Who did? Trump?

So, it was reported on Yahoo.
My bad about the late reply.

[Norm dePlume]

So, it was reported on Yahoo.
My bad about the late reply.

That would be nonsensical, even by Trump standards. For one thing, he stands a very good chance of winning the Republican nomination. For another thing, he spent the weekend criticizing a rumored third party spoiler plan that some of the party insiders were reportedly considering as a last-ditch anything-but-Trump move.

Trump Warns Against Third Party Challenge: Gives Clinton "3, 4 Or 5" "Very Liberal" Supreme Court Justices

[william the wierd]

That would be nonsensical, even by Trump standards. For one thing, he stands a very good chance of winning the Republican nomination. For another thing, he spent the weekend criticizing a rumored third party spoiler plan that some of the party insiders were reportedly considering as a last-ditch anything-but-Trump move.

Trump Warns Against Third Party Challenge: Gives Clinton "3, 4 Or 5" "Very Liberal" Supreme Court Justices

Yeah, he also said there was no penalty clause to his loyalty pledge. So:

I believe your assessment and link is accurate.

I too thought he was way too late to set up a third party run. However Cruz has, and possibly Rubio will have, the four state victories required to be nominated at the Republican convention and the way things are going the superdelegates will decide the nomination which will be a huge mess.

[Tom Servo]

The attacks are getting focused on him because he's the frontrunner and it's making the establishment shit themselves in fear because he's not toe-ing the party line.

[william the wierd]

Worse yet he is betraying the party mandarins by threatening to run them out of the party they ran into the ground.

[Moishe3rd]

Who cares What Trump supporters think?

And, something I wrote last week:

There seems to be a grave concern among the people and the pundits as to what will happen if Donald Trump goes to the Republican National Convention with a huge lead in delegate count but, not enough of a majority to win on the first ballot.
The questions appear to be: How will Trump voters feel? What will they do? Will they feel justifiably outraged if the Republicans choose someone else and thereby “stay home” or even vote for someone else other than the Republican candidate?

And my question is: who cares?

There are between 55 million and 75 million registered Republicans in the United States of America.
Thus far, Trump has won approximately 3.2 million votes in the Republican Primaries.
If he continues to win about the same percentage of votes in future primaries, he will end up with between 9 million and 15 million votes from those who voted in the Republican Primaries.
According to Mr. Trump and other news sources, a significant number of those who voted in Republican primaries are not, indeed, "Registered Republicans.”
Mr. Trump claims that there is a HUGE number of voters that are only “joining” the Republicans to vote for Mr. Trump in the primaries.
Being very generous, and positing that 2/3 of the votes for Mr. Trump were cast by Registered Republicans and speculating that he gets at least 15 million votes in the Primaries, then no more than 10 million of those voters are Registered Republicans.

And that would mean that no more than 18% of Registered Republican voters in the United States got up off of their couches to vote for Mr. Trump.

In Minnesota, it is a somewhat tedious and involved process to become a delegate to the Republican National Convention.
First of all, if you are not already ensconced in the Republican Party, you have to care enough to show up at your local Precinct caucus, promise to support the Republican Party, volunteer to be a delegate to the District Convention, get voted in as a delegate, and then go to the District Convention and support the Republican Party.
At the District Convention, you have to compete with all of those other regular Republican Party members to be voted in to be a delegate to the State Republican Convention.
In most State Republican Conventions, a person would already have to have put in enough time and energy to have the political standing to be voted or appointed a Party Delegate to the National Convention. It is extremely unlikely that a newcomer to the Republican Party would be able to become a delegate to the National Convention – there are far too many established Republican Party leaders and workers who have been involved for a very long time for a new person to have much of a chance.

In other words, this is almost certain to be an intensely Partisan process in every state.
Republicans want to appoint established Republican Party members as Delegates to their Republican National Convention.

At the National Convention, each State is required to vote the number of Delegates according to the popular vote of the primaries (and the Republican Party Rules).

If Donald Trump does not “own” a majority of the delegates and no other candidate has a majority then, the Convention will be open where the States are no longer required to vote based on the popular vote in the primaries or their caucuses.

Now, Mr. Trump and others have severely criticized Mitt Romney for now criticizing Mr. Trump after losing to Barack Obama in 2012.
Governor Romney lost to Barack Obama overwhelmingly due to black and Hispanic voters voting for President Obama.
If Governor Romney would have had as many black and Hispanic voters voting for him as voted for George W. Bush in 2004, he would have won that election.

The aim of the Republican Party is to elect a Republican Party member to the position of President of the United States of America.
It is a reasonable presumption that: if only 18% of the members of the Republican Party endorsed Mr. Trump, then he does not have the support of the Republican Party which he seeks in order to be the Republican Party nominee.
If the last Republican Party nominee, Mitt Romney, did not receive enough of the Hispanic and black vote to win, it is a reasonable assumption, based on Mr. Trump’s stated views, that the Donald would receive even LESS Hispanic and black votes as did Governor Romney.

If Mr. Trump does not win enough delegates to get elected as the Republican nominee for the Presidency, it is a reasonable presumption that the Republican Party will NOT elect him as their nominee.
In theory, on their second ballot, the delegates to the Republican National Convention are obligated to vote for the best representative of the Republican Party to be the Republican Party nominee for President of the United States.

If the overwhelming majority of Republican Party members do NOT consider Mr. Trump to be the best representative of the Republican Party to be their nominee to President of the United States, then they will, indeed, vote for someone else to represent – the Republican Party.

[Djharkavy]

If the overwhelming majority of Republican Party members do NOT consider Mr. Trump to be the best representative of the Republican Party to be their nominee to President of the United States, then they will, indeed, vote for someone else to represent – the Republican Party.

If the overwhelming majority if Republican voters feel that Mr.Trump doesn't represent them, then they need to get off their asses and vote in the primaries.

Sent from my phone, using Tapatalk.
All mistakes are caused by the phone.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it...

[william the wierd]

True but the second biggest vote getter is Cruz from the TEA party activist wing of the GOP. He has not yet advocated using the capital as ground zero for an FAE at noon on Wed. when all of the people he wants to get rid of are in town but that is about his only plus relative to Trump in the eyes of the R Mandarins. After Cruz comes the has-beens and never weres of the party.

[Moishe3rd]

If the overwhelming majority if Republican voters feel that Mr.Trump doesn't represent them, then they need to get off their asses and vote in the primaries.

Sent from my phone, using Tapatalk.
All mistakes are caused by the phone.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it...

Apparently, they are.
Currently, about 64% are voting for a Republican other than Trump.

[Moishe3rd]

True but the second biggest vote getter is Cruz from the TEA party activist wing of the GOP. He has not yet advocated using the capital as ground zero for an FAE at noon on Wed. when all of the people he wants to get rid of are in town but that is about his only plus relative to Trump in the eyes of the R Mandarins. After Cruz comes the has-beens and never weres of the party.

As I noted in my screed, the members of the established Republican Party will decide who is best fit to represent their Party - if no one has a majority before the Convention.
This will be all of the Party members who have worked for and sustained the Republican Party.
Their entire involvement in the Party for however long will mean that their interpretation of who is the best nominee to beat the Democrats is what is best for the Republican Party.
So?
Nu?
What's wrong with that?

However, if say, Mr. Trump wins the majority before the Convention then we will have seen the best example of Mob Rule since the French Revolution.
"The People, sir? The People is a Great Beast!" - attributed to Alexander Hamilton.

[Newman]

If the overwhelming majority if Republican voters feel that Mr.Trump doesn't represent them, then they need to get off their asses and vote in the primaries.

Sent from my phone, using Tapatalk.
All mistakes are caused by the phone.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it...

Libs are supposedly baffled by non-liberals, being so smart as they are, and usually conclude that conservatives are just stupid, racist, fascist or some other bad thing.it gets ugly sometimes, as in the nearby thread about the libertarian woman doused with urine by progressive protesters. The great unwashed are sick of it, frankly.

Trump appeals to many not for any particular ideology but for generalities. Quoting Camille Paglia here, herself a Bernie Sanders fan:

Trump’s fearless candor and brash energy feel like a great gust of fresh air, sweeping the tedious clichés and constant guilt-tripping of political correctness out to sea. Unlike Hillary Clinton, whose every word and policy statement on the campaign trail are spoon-fed to her by a giant paid staff and army of shadowy advisors, Trump is his own man, with a steely “damn the torpedoes” attitude. He has a swaggering retro machismo that will give hives to the Steinem cabal. He lives large, with the urban flash and bling of a Frank Sinatra. But Trump is a workaholic who doesn’t drink and who has an interesting penchant for sophisticated, strong-willed European women. As for a debasement of the presidency by Trump’s slanging matches about penis size, that sorry process was initiated by a Democrat, Bill Clinton, who chatted about his underwear on TV, let Hollywood pals jump up and down on the bed in the Lincoln Bedroom, and played lewd cigar games with an intern in the White House offices.

Primary voters nationwide are clearly responding to Trump’s brand of classic can-do American moxie. There has been a sense of weary paralysis in our increasingly Byzantine and monstrously wasteful government bureaucracies.