Wednesday, April 06, 2016

The Trump Effect

by JASmius



Trumpmania and its pariah-king are becoming a leper colony whose damage may officially become bipartisanly collateral:

Corporations are considering sitting out the Democrat National Convention this summer for fear of looking partisan if they decide to skip the GOP’s event because of Donald Trump.

Major companies that have budgeted money for the quadrennial events are sitting on their cash and weighing their options, with just over three months to go until the Republican convention in Cleveland and the Democrat one in Philadelphia.

“Corporations don’t want their name or brand near Trump, and if they don’t participate in Cleveland, that means they can’t play ball at the Democrat convention. They have to do both or nothing,” said a person planning events at both conventions.

“People who have typically been a part in a big way are just saying no,” the person added. “They’re sitting this one out.”

That could put a big dent in both parties' quadrennial shindigs:

In 2012, the Democrat National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, cost $66 million, which included a $10 million loan from Duke Energy, whose CEO sat on the host committee. The company ultimately wrote off the loan. Republicans spent $74 million on their 2012 convention in Tampa, Florida.

Corporate money usually covers the indirect, "sideshow" events that are part of the convention festivities.  But, not wanting to alienate any of their clientele, corporate donors keep their underwriting "bipartisan".  In this go-round, if they don't want to get Trump's stench on them, it stands to reason that they would be too squeamish to look like overt Democrat partisan hacks, either.  Although probably not by much - right, NFL and Disney?

The aforementioned shindig dents will not be equal, though.  The Dems may have to do their own sanitation (vacuuming up the vomit, urine, and other bodily fluids from the Wells-Fargo Center floor of their quadrennial bacchanalia), and the oxygen tent, iron lung, portable emergency room, and other medical facilities needed to keep Mrs. Clinton (or Weekend Bernie) on her feet will be pricey, but the Clinton Foundation can absorb that bill.  But how is the RNC going to cover the cost of the Ohio National Guard being deployed to keep #BlackLivesMatter and Trumpmaniacs from killing each other and/or joining forces to burn down Cleveland's Quicken Loans Center?  To say nothing of if the ONG fails?  That's going to be pricey.

I threw in mention of the Vermonster above because he won his sixth straight primary/caucus last night in Wisconsin, 56.5%-43.1% over the Empress, and 47-36 in the delegate tally.  Which brings Herself's overall minimum percentage of delegates she needs to clinch the Donk nomination before Philadelphia all the way up (with the SuperDuperDelegates figured in) to....33%, or ten percentage points lower than it would be with just earned delegates.  You think the GOP has an "establishment," Tea Partiers/Trumplicans?  Count your damn blessings.

But, a 43% floor is still well below the 55.4% of the earned delegate total she's amassed up to now, so a contested Donk convention remains highly unlikely.

One thing that is going to be utterly hilarious is the "unifying/ranks-closing" efforts to come in both parties.  On the Republican side, if it's Ted Cruz, he'll do his best, but then it'll be all he can do to get out of Quicken Loans Arena alive.  If Trump is the GOP nominee, he'll just threaten anybody who doesn't knuckle under to him and guarantee that two-thirds of the party will be gleefully watching him go down in Hindenberg-esque flames in November.  Seriously, can anybody picture a Donald Trump attempt at conciliation and fence-mending?  It requires more imagination than even I possess.

Here's the Ugly Dutchess's attempt at it:

“Look, I think it’s exciting to be, in effect, protesting. I remember I did that a long time ago when I was in my twenties, and I totally get the attraction of this.”



Way to go, Hill, you both condescended to the Bern-feeling millennials, amply demonstrated to them that you DON'T "get" them, and accentuated your advanced age.  That'll turn them on and rally them to your saggy banner in no time!

Here are the exit polls by age demographic:

18-24: Sanders 84/16
25-29: Sanders 79/20
30-39: Sanders 69/31
40-49: Sanders 58/44

Oy vey.

Here's how her majesty's press flack tried to clean up the afore-vided mess:

Some of their parents voted for Hillary Clinton.





If we weren't about to nominate the pariah-king, Hillary Clinton would be in heap-big trouble, wouldn't she?

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