Wednesday, August 10, 2016

US Presidential Election: The Republican dilemma: Donald Trump - FURTHER UPDATES


New: Will the GOP Replace Donald Trump?

Having secured the Republican nomination for President in June four weeks ahead of his Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump has had a rocky and often chaotic campaign. Trump’s undisciplined and off-the-rails campaign has many Republicans nervous about his chances in November, and there are more than a few murmurs about possibly replacing him on the GOP ticket. Read More
Rules set up by the Republican National Committee in filling vacancies in nominations state in Rule 9: 'The Republican National Committee is hereby authorized and empowered to fill any and all vacancies which may occur by reason of death, declination, or otherwise of the Republican candidate for President of the United States or the Republican candidate for Vice President of the United States, as nominated by the national convention, or the Republican National Committee may reconvene the national convention for the purpose of filling any such vacancies.'

How would the Republicans proceed if Trump withdraws or is forced out by the Republican Party? In a Daily Beast article by Jay Michaelson, Nathaniel Persily, a Stanford law professor and a preeminent scholar of election law, describes three distinct strategies that the Republican Party could use to force Trump out of the election.
John Ubaldi, Homeland Security
Unforced Errors: Donald Trump Misses on Two Hillary Clinton Stories

Hillary Clinton's campaign should be reeling from two unflattering news stories this week that play right in Donald Trump's hands.

But instead, the GOP candidate missed an opportunity by diverting attention away from the Democrat with another unforced error about himself.

Clinton is running a highly disciplined campaign that gives Trump precious few openings to attack. Yet he missed two this week. Read More

New: After Donald Trump's 'Second Amendment' Comment, Is There Anything He Can't Say?

Amid a primary where blaring controversy bloated Trump's appeal, the question was often, What will he say next? Now the question has become: Is there anything Trump can say that will unequivocally earn rebuke? Is there a line, and if so, where is it?

"And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin got assassinated," New York Times opinion writer Thomas Friedman warned in a stinging editorial that linked Trump's hint-hint to the demonizing rhetoric used in a political campaign against ahead of Rabin's death.

For some, the line was there — and it was crossed yesterday. Read More

New: Rieder: Under fire, Trump always blames media

Trump has raised blaming the media to a new level. He is like the basketball coach who whines after every foul call that goes against his team. Read More
"In a piece on the right-leaning blog Red State titled 'Dear Trump: Drop The Media Bias Crutch, Put On Your Big Boy Pants, And Do Better,' Leon H. Wolf wrote Wednesday, 'Trump himself is responsible for the virtually endless stockpile of ammunition that he has given to both the media and the Democrats to use against him. People don't dislike Trump because the media told them to, they dislike him because he keeps saying and doing stupid things.'" Rem Reider, USA Today
New: Why Trump Is Moaning About the Debates

So he has an excuse if he loses. Read More
Don’t be fooled. He’s going to do them. Well, at least he’ll do one of them, and see how much he likes it. What he first needs is some face-saving adjustment to the schedule, the debate rules, the debate hall, or whatever. It doesn’t matter what it is, and it doesn’t even have to be an alteration that’s tactically advantageous. The whole point of his debate moaning is just to act as another dominance play to demonstrate his ability to wield leverage in negotiating a deal. Jim Newell, Slate
New: For Republicans, a Vote for Trump Is a Wasted Vote

Not voting for a conservative at all. Read More
A. Barton Hinkle gives two reasons why for conservative Republicans a vote for Donald Trump is a wasted vote. An interesting read.
New: When Principle Takes a Back Seat to Politics

The Ryan re-election is one of a number of contests in which incumbents are threatened, either by an unexpectedly strong primary challenger or in the general election, or both, to the point where Republicans may lose their majority in the Senate, and possibly even the House.

Oddly enough, Ryan is the one candidate secure enough to have stood up to Trump and still win. He bucked Trump at first, but then buckled. Yes, there’s the cover story of honoring the will of the people who nominated Trump, but Ryan is also thinking ahead. He wants to run for president after four years of Hillary Clinton in the Oval Office and he will need a united party to win.

That explains the calculations taking place across the country. Ryan is like other politicians inspired by, well, politics, more often than principle: The degree to which you are willing to break with Trump depends on how soon, and where, you will be having an encounter with the Republican base he’s ignited. Read More

New: Trump Is In Fourth Place Among Black Voters

Trump is polling worse among black voters than almost every single Republican presidential nominee since 1948 in polls taken between the party conventions and Election Day. Read More

Clinton's goal: Erase Trump's advantage on the economy

Hillary Clinton has a singular goal as she lands in Detroit on Thursday to deliver a major economic address: Erase what’s left of Donald Trump’s once-significant advantage on the economy.

It’s the critical issue that has ultimately determined nearly all recent elections, as her husband’s former campaign adviser, James Carville, explained in 1992 with the phrase: “It’s the economy, stupid.” Read More

Anti-Trump Republicans struggle with how to best reject nominee

High-profile Republicans and rank-and-file voters on Wednesday struggled with how to best reject Donald Trump's divisive candidacy, as the nominee dealt with fallout from his remark that gun rights activists could stop Hillary Clinton from nominating liberal U.S. Supreme Court justices. Read More

Former GOP senator pleads with RNC to replace Trump

A former U.S. senator from New Hampshire and vehement Donald Trump critic is pleading with national Republican leaders to invoke their authority to remove him from the ticket, arguing that his comments Tuesday hinting at using gun violence to stop Hillary Clinton is "the last straw." Read More

Donald Trump Acts Like Words Don't Matter. They Do.

The candidate's defense of his Second Amendment remark is just the latest time he 's tried to shrug off responsibility for his words. Read More

The defenses of Donald Trump’s ‘Second Amendment’ comment don’t make sense. Here’s why.

The biased media is out to get Donald Trump again, it seems. Another at-best-careless and at-worst-dangerous Trump comment about "Second Amendment people" stopping Hillary Clinton from appointing judges has led the usual cycle of outrage, headlines and denial. Lots and lots of denial, in fact.

The problem, though, is that the defenses offered by his campaign in the hours since Tuesday afternoon just don't make much sense, for one very important reason. Read More

Secret Service spoke to Trump campaign about 2nd Amendment comment

A US Secret Service official confirms to CNN that the USSS has spoken to the Trump campaign regarding his Second Amendment comments.

"There has been more than one conversation" on the topic, the official told CNN.

The campaign told USSS Donald Trump did not intend to incite violence. Read More

GOP squirms amid latest Trump firestorm

The Republican nominee’s Second Amendment comment has allies scrambling to explain what he meant. Read More

Trump’s loaded words fuel campaign freefall

Detouring off script again lands the GOP nominee in perilous territory. Read More

Trump team tries to knock down suggestions he joked about Clinton assassination

Donald Trump’s rapid response team on Tuesday tried to walk back the candidate’s suggestion that Second Amendment enthusiasts could stop Hillary Clinton, remarks interpreted widely as the GOP nominee joking about an assassination. Read More

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