Updated and updated again and again and the post title changed for Donald Trump’s possible self-destruction.[1]
Hurricane Matthew
Matthew came ashore in South Carolina and its remains now besiege the Tidewater region.
Columbia
For those of us—yeah, this includes me—who haven’t been paying especially close attention, Omar Encarnación’s article will help to fill in a few gaps.
Omar G. Encarnación, “Colombia’s Failed Peace: Why It Failed, and What Comes Next,” Foreign Affairs, October 5, 2016, https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/colombia/2016-10-05/colombias-failed-peace
British Broadcasting Corporation, “Nobel Peace Prize for Colombia’s Juan Manuel Santos,” October 7, 2016, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-37585188
Donald Trump
It has become clear to party leaders and strategists over the past 24 hours that [Donald] Trump’s chances of winning the presidency are less than 20 percent, if not less than 10 percent. Now their main concern is saving the Senate Republican majority.[2]
Right now, Republican National Committee members are denying it,[3] but in fact the party is studying the possibility of replacing Donald Trump at the head of the ticket.[4] Apparently, this is possible if Trump steps aside,[5] which he has denied he will do,[6] but which I suspect is more a question of what inducements Republican Party leaders manage to offer. The first part of the headline on Andrew Prokop’s story, “Leading Republicans are furiously denouncing Trump,”[7] is really what you need to know—and that’s just what they’re saying in public.[8] Imagine what they’re saying in private. Even without that imagination, there is a lengthening list of Republicans, admittedly mostly (but not entirely[9]) vulnerable Republicans, who are calling for Trump to step down.[10]
The possibility of Trump’s demise as a candidate raises a new wrinkle in what was beginning to look like a walkaway win for Hillary Clinton: What if she has to run against somebody else? She’s been running mostly as the anti-Trump, so in this case, she loses her thesis and my earlier forecast comes back into full force. I do not believe she can win.[11]
Mike DeBonis and Abby Phillip, “Ryan calls off plans to campaign with Trump; GOP-ers rush to distance themselves,” Washington Post, October 7, 2016, Ryan calls off plans to campaign with Trump; GOP-ers rush to distance themselves
David A. Fahrenthold, “Trump recorded having extremely lewd conversation about women in 2005,” Washington Post, October 7, 2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-recorded-having-extremely-lewd-conversation-about-women-in-2005/2016/10/07/3b9ce776-8cb4-11e6-bf8a-3d26847eeed4_story.html
Politico, “Sen. Mark Kirk calls for Trump’s ’emergency replacement’ on GOP ticket,” October 7, 2016, http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/mark-kirk-donald-trump-comments-women-229328
Andrew Prokop, “Leading Republicans are furiously denouncing Trump for his leaked comments about women,” Vox, October 7, 2016, http://www.vox.com/2016/10/7/13207610/trump-leak-women-romney-bush
Meg Anderson and Amita Kelly, “Here Are The 30+ Republicans Calling For Trump To Step Aside,” National Public Radio, October 8, 2016, http://www.npr.org/2016/10/08/497225589/here-are-the-30-republicans-calling-for-trump-to-step-aside
Alexander Bolton, “Senate Republicans wrestle with dumping Trump,” Hill, October 8, 2016, http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/300036-senate-republicans-wrestle-over-dumping-trump
Bridget Bowman, “Which Republican Lawmakers Have Dumped Trump So Far?” Congressional Quarterly Roll Call, October 8, 2016, http://www.rollcall.com/news/which-republican-lawmakers-have-dumped-trump-so-far-video-women-comments
Kyle Cheney, “Why Trump won’t get dumped from the GOP ticket,” Politico, October 8, 2016, http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/donald-trump-gop-ticket-229339
Lauren Fox, “GOP Sen. Mike Lee Urges Trump To Step Aside As Republican Nominee,” Talking Points Memo, October 8, 2016, http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/gop-senator-mike-lee-urges
Janet Hook, Beth Reinhard, and Reid J. Epstein, “GOP Scrambles to Salvage Election After Donald Trump’s Latest Imbroglio,” Wall Street Journal, October 8, 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/gop-scrambles-to-salvage-election-after-donald-trumps-latest-imbroglio-1475969203
Alex Isenstadt, “GOP panics as outrage with Trump boils over,” Politico, October 8, 2016, http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/donald-trump-comments-women-gop-republican-reaction-229329
Harper Neidig, “Pence: ‘Cannot defend’ Trump lewd remarks,” Hill, October 8, 2016, http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/299999-pence-cannot-defend-trump-lewd-remarks
Harper Neidig and Jonathan Easley, “Chaos in GOP: Calls grow for Trump to drop out of race,” Hill, October 8, 2016, http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/300005-chaos-in-gop-calls-grow-for-trump-to-drop-out-of-race
Louis Nelson, “Condoleezza Rice on Donald Trump: Enough!” Politico, October 8, 2016, http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/condi-rice-donald-trump-229385
Alex Roarty, “Joe Heck Says He Won’t Vote for Trump,” Roll Call, October 8, 2016, http://www.rollcall.com/news/nevada-joe-heck-wont-support-donald-trump-president-senate
Ben Schreckinger, “RNC lawyers look at options for replacing Trump,” Politico, October 8, 2016, http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/republicans-replace-trump-229352
Elliot Smilowitz, “GOP senator unendorses Trump, urges him to leave ticket,” Hill, October 8, 2016, http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/299984-gop-senator-unendorses-trump-urges-him-to-leave-ticket
Elliot Smilowitz, “Trump: ‘Zero chance I’ll quit,'” Hill, October 8, 2016, http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/299988-trump-zero-chance-ill-quit
Jeff Stein, “Here’s what happens if Trump drops out,” Vox, October 8, 2016, http://www.vox.com/2016/10/8/13211050/what-happens-trump-dropout
Glenn Thrush and Katie Glueck, “Is Trump’s campaign over?” Politico, October 8, 2016, http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/is-trumps-campaign-over-229341
Melanie Zanona, “No. 3 GOP Senate leader says Trump should withdraw,” Hill, October 8, 2016, http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/300000-no-3-gop-senate-leader-says-trump-should-withdraw
Melanie Zanona, “Pence drops out of Ryan campaign event,” Hill, October 8, 2016, http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/299992-pence-drops-out-of-ryan-campaign-event
- [1]David A. Fahrenthold, “Trump recorded having extremely lewd conversation about women in 2005,” Washington Post, October 7, 2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-recorded-having-extremely-lewd-conversation-about-women-in-2005/2016/10/07/3b9ce776-8cb4-11e6-bf8a-3d26847eeed4_story.html; Alex Isenstadt, “GOP panics as outrage with Trump boils over,” Politico, October 8, 2016, http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/donald-trump-comments-women-gop-republican-reaction-229329; Glenn Thrush and Katie Glueck, “Is Trump’s campaign over?” Politico, October 8, 2016, http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/is-trumps-campaign-over-229341; Andrew Prokop, “Leading Republicans are furiously denouncing Trump for his leaked comments about women,” Vox, October 7, 2016, http://www.vox.com/2016/10/7/13207610/trump-leak-women-romney-bush↩
- [2]Alexander Bolton, “Senate Republicans wrestle with dumping Trump,” Hill, October 8, 2016, http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/300036-senate-republicans-wrestle-over-dumping-trump↩
- [3]Kyle Cheney, “Why Trump won’t get dumped from the GOP ticket,” Politico, October 8, 2016, http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/donald-trump-gop-ticket-229339↩
- [4]Ben Schreckinger, “RNC lawyers look at options for replacing Trump,” Politico, October 8, 2016, http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/republicans-replace-trump-229352↩
- [5]Jeff Stein, “Here’s what happens if Trump drops out,” Vox, October 8, 2016, http://www.vox.com/2016/10/8/13211050/what-happens-trump-dropout↩
- [6]Elliot Smilowitz, “Trump: ‘Zero chance I’ll quit,'” Hill, October 8, 2016, http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/299988-trump-zero-chance-ill-quit↩
- [7]Andrew Prokop, “Leading Republicans are furiously denouncing Trump for his leaked comments about women,” Vox, October 7, 2016, http://www.vox.com/2016/10/7/13207610/trump-leak-women-romney-bush↩
- [8]Alex Isenstadt, “GOP panics as outrage with Trump boils over,” Politico, October 8, 2016, http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/donald-trump-comments-women-gop-republican-reaction-229329↩
- [9]Melanie Zanona, “No. 3 GOP Senate leader says Trump should withdraw,” Hill, October 8, 2016, http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/300000-no-3-gop-senate-leader-says-trump-should-withdraw↩
- [10]Meg Anderson and Amita Kelly, “Here Are The 30+ Republicans Calling For Trump To Step Aside,” National Public Radio, October 8, 2016, http://www.npr.org/2016/10/08/497225589/here-are-the-30-republicans-calling-for-trump-to-step-aside; Bridget Bowman, “Which Republican Lawmakers Have Dumped Trump So Far?” Congressional Quarterly Roll Call, October 8, 2016, http://www.rollcall.com/news/which-republican-lawmakers-have-dumped-trump-so-far-video-women-comments↩
- [11]David Benfell, “Updated (again and again and again): Damnation by faint praise: Sanders claims to be more electable than Clinton,” Not Housebroken, March 6, 2016, https://disunitedstates.org/?p=8529↩
The Nobel Peace Prize as a consolation? Daily Bullshit, October 7, 2016 https://cybernude.org/url/29288
This entry has been significantly updated with Donald Trump’s possible demise. I think that if they can, Republicans will move to replace Trump as their nominee.
This has been significantly updated a couple times more as more has come in about Donald Trump. He’s almost certainly done and Republicans may even move to push him out of the nomination.
@benfell The population of US is more than 322 million people and for “president” the have only Trump or Clinton. No, please, this campaign can’t be reality – this is the pure absurdity.
@hikerus and no leader of any other country has the impact upon the entire world that the U.S. president has. I was hoping Trump would self-destruct so Clinton would have to run against a real candidate, but at this moment, that appears less likely.
@benfell And I really can’t believe that this very bad, ugly and absurd second-rate theater represents the reality. What does it hide? What is its function?
@hikerus it’s not just theater. It’s the outcome of a two-party system in which voters are repeatedly informed over the course of numerous elections that they must accept the lesser of two evils. And so now evil is the totality of what we’ve got.
@benfell And they call it “democracy”.
@hikerus but it isn’t democracy, as James Madison was very careful to make clear. It’s a republic, he trusted the rich to govern, and he was concerned to protect the minority rights not of any subaltern group but the property rights of wealthy white men.