They [media is] using Trump to preempt all of Bush III's conservative challengers at the same time that they're vilifying Trump personally - in essence, The Donald is their designated "conservative," that they plan to spend the next nine months parodying while Jeb cruises on to Cleveland a year from now and his crushing defeat next November.-Me, nine days ago
Here we go:
While Republican Party mandarins wring their hands over Donald Trump's presidential bid, the celebrity real estate mogul's untethered political approach may actually be buoying Jeb Bush, the target of his most frequent attacks, and making the former Florida governor’s moderate approach to immigration more palatable in the process.
That's the case for a least some New Hampshire voters who were impressed by Bush's performance at a town hall meeting this week and offered favorable — and unprompted — comparisons to Trump.
"He seemed to really get into the weeds talking about issues," Dennis Hogan, the Hillsborough County Attorney, said after listening to Bush. "And he says it in a sellable way. Not like Trump, where you’re saying something and you're losing as many people as you're gaining. We don’t need that in a nominee."
You see, all my Tea Party friends who are currently on the Trump bandwagon because The Donald has convinced you that (1) he's on our side and (2) he's willing to "Fight! Fight! Fight!," this is why it is ALWAYS a terrible idea to damn the torpedoes and bull frontally, full-speed ahead on "controversial" issues on which a softer and defter stylistic touch is desperately called for. And also when you don't have the numbers or strength to back up your emotional belligerence. The idea is to attract voters to our banner, not drive them into the waiting arms of the our opponents. And that can be done without changing the substance of our beliefs, stances, and platform one jot or tittle.
You want an example?
Case closed.
You have to realize, people, that "independents" aren't impressed, and are usually alienated and repulsed, by angry berations. They are attracted to sunny, happy optimism that makes them feel better about themselves, and therefore about listening to and considering what a sunny, happy, optimistic conservative candidate has to say to them. Effective campaigning, in short, cannot be all "red meat preaching to the choir". You have to build an election-winning majority, and that has to include people who don't agree with us on everything and aren't as passionate about the areas of concurrence as we are.
This is why "purity" fetishism is a political death warrant and a self-consignment to permanent political irrelevance.
And besides, Trump really isn't on our side:
***He called President George W. Bush "evil" in 2008
***He gushed all over then-President-Elect Barack Obama very shortly thereafter
***He was all for what eventually became ObamaCare as long ago as 1999
***He was pro-"comprehensive immigration reform" as recently as three years ago
As Jim Geraghty concludes in his Morning Jolt today, "Donald Trump has been a conservative for about ten minutes."
And he's Jeb Bush's stalking horse for the 2016 Republican nomination, and the Ross Perot of the 2016 general campaign for Hillary Clinton.
Please, reap the benefit of my wisdom and experience borne of thirty-five years of following American politics, my Tea Party Trumpsters: Pull your heads out of your asses and stop being so Goddamned gullible.
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