PRESIDENT Donald J. Trump

Instinctively, Hillary Clinton has long seemed by far the more electable of the two Democratic candidates. She is, after all, an experienced, pragmatic moderate, whereas Sanders is a raving, arm-flapping elderly Jewish socialist from Vermont. Clinton is simply closer to the American mainstream, thus she is more attractive to a broader swath of voters. Sanders campaigners have grown used to hearing the heavy-hearted lament “I like Bernie, I just don’t think he can win.” And in typical previous American elections, this would be perfectly accurate.
 
But this is far from a typical previous American election. And recently, everything about the electability calculus has changed, due to one simple fact: Donald Trump is likely to be the Republican nominee for President. Given this reality, every Democratic strategic question must operate not on the basis of abstract electability against a hypothetical candidate, but specific electability against the actual Republican nominee, Donald Trump.
 
Here, a Clinton match-up is highly likely to be an unmitigated electoral disaster, whereas a Sanders candidacy stands a far better chance. Every one of Clinton’s (considerable) weaknesses plays to every one of Trump’s strengths, whereas every one of Trump’s (few) weaknesses plays to every one of Sanders’s strengths. From a purely pragmatic standpoint, running Clinton against Trump is a disastrous, suicidal proposition.
 
Her supporters insist that she has already been “tried and tested” against all the attacks that can be thrown at her. But this is not the case; she has never been subjected to the full brunt of attacks that come in a general presidential election. Bernie Sanders has ignored most tabloid dirt, treating it as a sensationalist distraction from real issues (“Enough with the damned emails!”) But for Donald Trump, sensationalist distractions are the whole game. He will attempt to crucify her. And it is very, very likely that he will succeed.
 
This campaigning style makes Hillary Clinton Donald Trump’s dream opponent. She gives him an endless amount to work with. The emails, Benghazi, Whitewater, Iraq, the Lewinsky scandal, Chinagate [15], Travelgate [16], the missing law firm records [17], Jeffrey Epstein [18], Kissinger [19], Marc Rich [20], Haiti [21], Clinton Foundation tax errors [22], Clinton Foundation conflicts of interest [23], “We were broke when we left the White House,” [24] Goldman Sachs [25]… There is enough material in Hillary Clinton’s background for Donald Trump to run with six times over.
 
Even a skilled campaigner would have a very difficult time parrying such endless attacks by Trump. Even the best campaigner would find it impossible to draw attention back to actual substantive policy issues, and would spend their every moment on the defensive. But Hillary Clinton is neither the best campaigner nor even a skilled one. In fact, she is a dreadful campaigner. She may be a skilled policymaker, but on the campaign trail she makes constant missteps and never realizes things have gone wrong until it’s too late.
 
Everyone knows this. Even among Democratic party operatives, she’s acknowledged [26] as “awkward and uninspiring on the stump,” carrying “Bill’s baggage with none of Bill’s warmth.” New York magazine described her [27] “failing to demonstrate the most elementary political skills, much less those learned at Toastmasters or Dale Carnegie.” Last year the White House was panicking [28] at her levels of electoral incompetence, her questionable decisionmaking, and her inclination for taking sleazy shortcuts. More recently, noting Sanders’s catch-up in the polls, The Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin said [29] that she was a “rotten candidate” whose attacks on Sanders made no sense, and that “at some point, you cannot blame the national mood or a poor staff or a brilliant opponent for Hillary Clinton’s campaign woes.” Yet in a race against Trump, Hillary will be handicapped not only by her feeble campaigning skills, but the fact that she will have a sour national mood, a poor staff, and a brilliant opponent.
 
Every Democrat should take some time to fairly, dispassionately examine Clinton’s track record as a campaigner. Study[30] how the ‘08 campaign was handled, and how this one has gone [31]. Assess her strengths and weaknesses with as little bias or prejudice as possible. Then picture the race against Trump, and think about how it will unfold.
 
It’s easy to see that Trump has every single advantage. Because the Republican primary will be over, he can come at her from both right and left as he pleases. As the candidate who thundered against the Iraq War [32] at the Republican debate, he can taunt Clinton over her support for it. He will paint her as a member of the corrupt political establishment, and will even offer proof: “Well, I know you can buy politicians, because I bought Senator Clinton. I gave her money, she came to my wedding [33].” He can make it appear that Hillary Clinton can be bought, that he can’t, and that he is in charge. It’s also hard to defend against, because it appears to be partly true. Any denial looks like a lie, thus making Hillary’s situation look even worse. And then, when she stumbles, he will mock her as incompetent.
 
Charges of misogyny against Trump won’t work. He is going to fill the press [34] with the rape and harassment allegations[35] against Bill Clinton and Hillary’s role [36] in discrediting the victims (something that made even Lena Dunham [37] deeply queasy.) He can always remind people that Hillary Clinton referred to Monica Lewinsky as a “narcissistic loony toon [38].” Furthermore, since Trump is not an anti-Planned Parenthood zealot [39] (being the only one willing to stick up for women’s health in a room full of Republicans), it will be hard for Clinton to paint him as the usual anti-feminist right-winger.
 
Trump will capitalize on his reputation as a truth-teller, and be vicious about both Clinton’s sudden changes of position (e.g. the switch on gay marriage [40], plus the affected economic populism of her run against Sanders) and her perceived dishonesty. One can already imagine the monologue:
 
“She lies so much. Everything she says is a lie. I’ve never seen someone who lies so much in my life. Let me tell you three lies she’s told. She made up a story [41] about how she was ducking sniper fire! There was no sniper fire. She made it up! How do you forget a thing like that? She said she was named [42] after Sir Edmund Hillary, the guy who climbed Mount Everest. He hadn’t even climbed it when she was born! Total lie! She lied about the emails [43], of course, as we all know, and is probably going to be indicted. You know she said there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq! It was a lie! Thousands of American soldiers are dead because of her. Not only does she lie, her lies kill people. That’s four lies, I said I’d give you three. You can’t even count them. You want to go on PolitiFact, see how many lies [44] she has? It takes you an hour to read them all! In fact, they ask her, she doesn’t even say she hasn’t lied. They asked her straight up [45], she says she usually tries to tell the truth! Ooooh, she tries! Come on! This is a person, every single word out of her mouth is a lie. Nobody trusts her. Check the polls, nobody trusts her. Yuge liar.”
 
Trump will bob, weave, jab, and hook. He won’t let up. And because Clinton actually has lied, and actually did vote for the Iraq War, and actually is hyper-cosy with Wall Street, and actually does change her positions based on expediency, all she can do is issue further implausible denials, which will further embolden Trump. Nor does she have a single offensive weapon at her disposal, since every legitimate criticism of Trump’s background (inconsistent political positions, shady financial dealings, pattern of deception) is equally applicable to Clinton, and he knows how to make such things slide off him, whereas she does not.

Nor are the demographics going to be as favorable to Clinton as she thinks. Trump’s populism will have [47] huge resonance among the white working class in both red and blue states; he might even peel [48] away her black support. And Trump has already proven false [49] the prediction that he would alienate Evangelicals through his vulgarity and his self-deification. Democrats are insistently repeating their belief that a Trump nomination will mobilize liberals to head to the polls like never before, but with nobody particularly enthusiastic for Clinton’s candidacy, it’s not implausible that a large number of people will find both options so unappealing that they stay home.

Trump’s various unique methods of attack would instantly be made far less useful in a run against Sanders. All of the most personal charges (untrustworthiness, corruption, rank hypocrisy) are much more difficult to make stick. The rich history of dubious business dealings is nonexistent. None of the sleaze in which Trump traffics can be found clinging to Bernie. Trump’s standup routine just has much less obvious personal material to work with. Sanders is a fairly transparent guy; he likes the social safety net, he doesn’t like oligarchy, he’s a workaholic who sometimes takes a break to play basketball [50], and that’s pretty much all there is to it. Contrast that with the above-noted list of juicy Clinton tidbits.
 
Trump can’t clown around nearly as much at a debate with Sanders, for the simple reason that Sanders is dead set on keeping every conversation about the plight of America’s poor under the present economic system. If Trump tells jokes and goofs off here, he looks as if he’s belittling poor people, not a magnificent idea for an Ivy League trust fund billionaire running against a working class public servant and veteran of the Civil Rights movement. Instead, Trump will be forced to do what Hillary Clinton has been forced to do during the primary, namely to make himself sound as much like Bernie Sanders as possible. For Trump, having to get serious and take the Trump Show off the air will be devastating to his unique charismatic appeal.
 
Trump is an attention-craving parasite, and such creatures are powerful only when indulged and paid attention to. Clinton will be forced to pay attention to Trump because of his constant evocation of her scandals. She will attempt to go after [51] him. She will, in other words, feed the troll. Sanders, by contrast, will almost certainly behave as if Trump isn’t even there. He is unlikely to rise to Trump’s bait, because Sanders doesn’t even care to listen to anything that’s not about saving social security or the disappearing middle class. He will almost certainly seem as if he barely knows who Trump is. Sanders’s commercials will be similar to those he has run in the primary, featuring uplifting images of America [52], aspirational sentiments about what we can be together [53], and moving testimonies [54] from ordinary Americans. Putting such genuine dignity and good feeling against Trump’s race-baiting clownishness will be like finally pouring water on the Wicked Witch. Hillary Clinton cannot do this; with her, the campaign will inevitably descend into the gutter, and the unstoppable bloated Trump menace will continue to grow ever larger.
 
Of course, the American people are still jittery about socialism. But they’re less jittery [55] than they used to be, and Bernie does a good job portraying socialism as being about little more than paid family leave [56] and sick days (a debatable proposition, but one beside the point.) His policies are popular [57] and appeal to the prevailing national sentiment. It’s a risk, certainly. But the Soviet Union bogeyman is long gone, and everyone [58] gets called a socialist these days no matter what their politics. It’s possible that swing voters dislike socialism more than they dislike Hillary Clinton, but in a time of economic discontent one probably shouldn’t bet on it.
 
But even if it was correct to say that Sanders was “starting to” lose (instead of progressively losing less and less), this should only motivate all Democrats to work harder to make sure he is nominated. One’s support for Sanders should increase in direct proportion to one’s fear of Trump. 
 
And if Trump is the nominee, Hillary Clinton should drop out of the race and throw her every ounce of energy into supporting Sanders. If this does not occur, the resulting consequences for Muslims and Mexican immigrants of a Trump presidency will be fully the responsibility of Clinton and the Democratic Party. To run a candidate who can’t win, or who is a very high-risk proposition, is to recklessly play with the lives of millions of people. So much depends on stopping Trump; a principled defeat will mean nothing to the deported, or to those being roughed up [59] by Trump’s goon squads or executed with pigs’ blood-dipped bullets [60].

http://beforeitsnews.com/opinion/2016/04/trump-the-republican-nightmare-maybe-its-just-begun-2456221.html

TRUMP: THE REPUBLICAN NIGHTMARE: Maybe It's Just Begun…
(Before It's News)
By Marilyn MacGruder Barnewall
April 10, 2016
NewsWithViews.com


… Maybe It’s Just Beginning
Though the Republican National Committee may think it is going to survive the nightmare of what Donald Trump could do to the established power base of both political parties if he became President of the United States, the nightmare may be just beginning.


With the shortsightedness for which politicians and bureaucrats are known, Reince Priebus and the rest of the power-based Republican establishment have only begun to feel the anger from abused constituents they were either elected or appointed to serve. Rather than serving, they have ruled… or tried.


What might the future hold?


If Donald Trump loses the Republican presidential nomination because of rules changes at the 2016 convention, the Republicans will lose the election. Period. Zero chance of it being otherwise. Why? Because voters around the country who, as good citizens voted in primaries and caucuses, have learned that their votes are meaningless. They have now been told by the Republican Party that it, not the people, chooses the Republican candidate for President. 

Keep this in mind in the future. We don’t have to take our valuable time to let the RNC and DNC continue their soap opera scripting designed to gain political contributions and voter support for “the big November election” wherein a company owned by George Soros counts the votes. The RNC and DNC control who will be their nominees and do not need our votes.

I just watched a Sean Hannity Fox News segment. Two women were discussing how the rules that govern the Republican presidential nomination will be determined at the 2016 Convention and they will be determined by the delegates. One woman repeated at least twice that a majority of the delegates voting on the rules for the 2016 Convention will be Trump and Cruz delegates because they have the largest percentage of votes via the caucus and primary process. She is wrong… she probably knew she was wrong as the words passed her lips.


Delegates are chosen by state and national Republican committees and those selected will very likely support a candidate favored by the party – and that is not Trump or Cruz. Their first ballot votes taken at the Cleveland Convention must reflect the number of delegates earned by each of the candidates in each state via primaries and caucuses. I wrote an article two months ago explaining how the party puts the fix in to achieve whatever candidate result the party wants. 
That’s why there were 17 candidates when the race began: Fiorina to pull the woman’s vote away from any populist candidate (which the RNC thought would be Ted Cruz, not Donald Trump). Dr. Ben Carson was there to attract the Black vote (and the vote of the faithful – Carson is known as a strong Christian and was a much stronger candidate than the RNC thought he would be). Governor Mike Huckabee is a former Pastor and has a television following (and would make the best vice president). Former Senator Rick Santorum was supposed to attract the Catholic vote; Kasich who positions himself as part of the Reagan team is in reality part of the Bush neo-conservative cabal (according the news articles during April’s first week, perhaps Kasich appeals to gay voters, too – he lived with an openly gay man for over a year when he was a Congressman and his campaign manager is openly gay… which is a plus for him in NYC and California).


The delegates selected by various Republican committees (county and state) are committed to vote on the first ballot for the candidate who won a specific number of delegates in a particular primary or caucus election, but the delegates are hand-picked by the State Republican parties (which is dependent for financial support on the RNC). They may be selected because they oppose either Trump or Cruz. Some delegates will have to vote for Trump and Cruz on the first ballot because they won the right to those delegate votes. But if no candidate gains the required 1,237 votes on the first ballot, delegates can vote for anyone they (or the RNC) choose.

Without the conservative vote, the Republicans cannot win any election against any Democrat. The Party really doesn’t care because the elitist political establishment from both parties has only one objective: Power. They could care less about political philosophy and principles that flow from the philosophy. As you read the rest of this article, keep that in mind.


Should there be shenanigans at the Cleveland Convention that deprive Trump and/or Cruz from becoming the nominee, we will likely have a Democrat President. When we know the Republicans will lose the Presidency to Democrats, it becomes critically important for conservatives not voting for the Republican nominee for President to vote for Republican Senators and Congressmen.
No, Republicans are not much better than Democrats when it comes to budgeting or passing common sense legislation that benefits the people and a sovereign nation. But a Republican Congress would have never passed Obamacare. They will maintain some control over whom gets seated on the Supreme Court… and four or five Justices will likely be named by the 2016-2020 President. The Republican establishment intends to hold those very important Supreme Court appointments over the heads of conservative voters to keep them from withholding their votes from the Republican candidate if it isn’t Donald Trump or Ted Cruz. In the RNC view, pending appointments to the Supreme Court will force conservatives to vote for their presidential choice. It is their trump card… or, better said, their non-Trump card.


It is extremely important that conservatives vote this year. Eliminate voting for President if you want. If Trump gets “unliked” by the RNC at the Convention, I will. But make sure Republican Senators and Congressman are elected so there is a wall of protection built between a Democrat President and the Congress. It won’t be much of a wall, but it will be a wall.


Most conservatives will throw yet another surprise to Priebus and his elitist Sheriff of Nottingham associates. Conservatives realize that our nation has already been sold out and that Donald Trump represents the only chance the people have to restore our Republic. Many of us don’t like his personality but we understand he is the only candidate who can save our nation. We the People know the Republican Party is as firmly committed to a New World Order – a world government – as the Democrats. It was, after all, neo-conservative Republican President George H.W. Bush who first used the words “new world order.” 


Thus, it really doesn’t matter who appoints Supreme Court Justices. It was George W. Bush who gave us Chief Justice Roberts, the guy whose vote forced Obamacare on the nation.

While the RNC has Trump nightmares, I have dreams. My dream of what will happen is this:
Donald Trump does not run as a third party candidate. It would tear the nation apart and after seven years of Obama we are already pretty badly damaged. And, it would harm his status as a Patriot, too. Instead, Trump behaves like the Patriot he is and he waits until after the election to do what his wife Melania says he does when he is hit unfairly by an opponent: He hits back ten times harder than he was hit.


Donald Trump, if a brokered convention removes him from the top spot he’s earned and he is not chosen to be the Republican nominee, will on the day after the November election make an announcement that he is establishing a third political party… let’s call it the Politically Incorrect Common Sense Party (PICS) for the moment. He will publish a list of cities he will visit in each state and the dates he will be there for a Town Hall Meeting to enroll members into PICS. He will have to rent football stadiums to hold the numbers of people who will want to attend. In a full page newspaper ad in papers across the nation, he will particularly invite Libertarians and Independents and Democrats who oppose socialism to join with Conservatives to make our nation great again.


All it will take to fill the stadiums will be a full-page ad inviting people to attend. All of those tweet and email addresses will also be available to receive invitations. Press releases should be sent to every newspaper in the nation. It is news, after all.


In Colorado, he would visit Denver, Colorado Springs and, on the West Slope, Grand Junction., all on the same day. Attendees will receive an Elections Commission form to fill out so it can be filed with their local authorities. Zap! A new political party is born.


What that effectively does is destroy the establishment Republican Party. It will cost them at least one-third of registered voters. Reince Priebus and his establishment pack rat elitists will be a thing of the past. That, in and of itself, will fulfill Melania’s prediction that when unfairly attacked Donald Trump hits back ten times harder than he was hit.


After all 50 states have established a solid base for the PICS political party the party must immediately identify good, solid, honest candidates to run for Congress and the State Legislatures must quickly be identified. All candidates agree to attend a PICS school that teaches a course on the Constitution. Experts like Michael Badrnarik, Krisanne Hall and Michael Gaddy, known for their writings and classes on constitutional law, will teach the classes. Members of the media will be invited to attend the classes free of charge. New members of the new political party can attend, too.


The objective will be to get enough pro-constitution PICS candidates elected to office that they will provide a back-up to the few truly conservative members of Congress in getting legislation either passed or defeated. That can be achieved by the 2018 elections.

“Now it’s just an oligarchy, with unlimited political bribery being the essence of getting the nominations for president or to elect the president. And the same thing applies to governors, and U.S. senators and congress members.”
– Former President Jimmy Carter

“[U]nder the Democratic Party’s oddball delegate system, Sanders’ winning streak — he has won seven out of the past eight contests — counts for little.
 
“In fact, despite his win, he splits Wyoming’s 14 pledged delegates 7 to 7 under the caucus calculus.
 
“Clinton, meanwhile, also gets the state’s four superdelegates — who had already pledged their allegiance to her in January. So despite ‘losing,’ she triumphs 11-7 in the delegate tally.”

“Colorado GOP leaders canceled the party’s presidential straw poll in August to avoid binding its delegates to a candidate who may not survive until the Republican National Convention in July.
 
“Instead, Republicans selected national delegates through the caucus process, a move that put the election of national delegates in the hands of party insiders and activists — leaving roughly 90 percent of the more than 1 million Republican voters on the sidelines.”

Trump's campaign manager will NOT be charged in reporter-battery case as investigators say he was reacting after she touched Trump first and 'did what he needed to do'

How has the ‘system’ been working out for you and your family? No wonder voters demand change.

ENLARGE
[size=11]PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES/BLEND IMAGES

** More primary wins (17)
** More overall state wins (20)
** The highest percentage of primary wins (81%)
** The highest percent of overall state wins (63%)
** The highest percent of primary delegates (65%)
** The highest percent of overall delegates (58%)
** And Trump ties Hillary for the highest percent of overall votes (57%).

In the mean time, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) is in 3rd place and trailing Ohio Governor John Kasich in the critical New York primary.