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Trump goes off on 'pathological' Carson at Iowa rally"How
stupid are the people of Iowa?" asked Republican presidential candidate
Donald Trump when speaking of rival Ben Carson's popularity in the GOP
race. (AP)
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The rest of the field is still
wishing upon a star that Trump and Carson are going to self-destruct,”
said Eric Fehrnstrom, a former adviser to 2012 nominee Mitt Romney. But,
he said, “they have to be made to self-destruct. . . . Nothing has
happened at this point to dislodge Trump or Carson.”
Fehrnstrom
pointed out that the fourth debate passed this week without any
candidate landing a blow against Trump or Carson. “We’re about to step
into the holiday time accelerator,” he said. “You have Thanksgiving,
Christmas, New Year’s, then Iowa and a week later, New Hampshire, and
it’s going to be over in the blink of an eye.”
According
to other Republicans, some in the party establishment are so desperate
to change the dynamic that they are talking anew about drafting Romney —
despite his insistence that he will not run again. Friends have mapped
out a strategy for a late entry to pick up delegates and vie for the
nomination in a convention fight, according to the Republicans who were
briefed on the talks, though Romney has shown no indication of reviving
his interest.
For months, the GOP professional class assumed
Trump and Carson would fizzle with time. Voters would get serious, the
thinking went, after seeing the outsiders share a stage with more
experienced politicians at the first debate. Or when summer turned to
fall, kids went back to school and parents had time to assess the
candidates. Or after the second, third or fourth debates, certainly.
None
of that happened, of course, leaving establishment figures disoriented.
Consider Thomas H. Kean Sr., a former New Jersey governor who for most
of his 80 years has been a pillar of his party. His phone is ringing
daily, bringing a stream of exasperation and confusion from fellow GOP
power brokers.
“People usually start off in the same way:
Pollyanna-ish,” Kean said. “They assure me that Trump and Carson will
eventually fade. Then we’ll talk some more, and I give them a reality
check. I’ll say, ‘The guy in the grocery store likes Trump. So does the
guy who cuts my hair. They’re probably going to stick with him. Who
knows if this ends?’ ”
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, herself
an outsider who rode the tea party wave into office five years ago,
explained the phenomenon.
“You have a lot of people who were told
that if we got a majority in the House and a majority in the Senate,
then life was gonna be great,” she said in an interview Thursday. “What
you’re seeing is that people are angry. Where’s the change? Why aren’t
there bills on the president’s desk every day for him to veto? They’re
saying, ‘Look, what you said would happen didn’t happen, so we’re going
to go with anyone who hasn’t been elected.’ ”
Before
Tuesday’s debate in Milwaukee, Republican National Committee Chairman
Reince Priebus and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker had a reception at the
Pfister Hotel with party leaders, donors and operatives. There was
little appetite for putting a political knife in the back of either
Trump or Carson, according to one person there. Rather, attendees simply
hoped both outsiders would go away.
There are similar concerns
about Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who is gaining steam and is loathed by
party elites, but they are more muted, at least for now.
Charlie
Black, who has advised presidential campaigns since the 1970s, said he
believes the 2016 contest “will eventually fall into the normal pattern
of one outsider and one insider, and historically the insider always
wins.”
Black said he was briefed on the findings of two recent
private focus groups of Trump supporters in Iowa and New Hampshire that
showed these voters knew little about his policy views beyond
immigration. “Things like universal health care and other more liberal
positions he’s taken in the past will all get out before people vote in
New Hampshire,” he said. Black said the focus groups were commissioned
by two rival campaigns, but he was not authorized to identify them.
One
well-funded outside group, the Club for Growth, has aired ads attacking
Trump in Iowa and more recently came out against Carson as well.
“Donald Trump and Doctor Ben Carson are in over their heads,” said Club
for Growth President David McIntosh, labeling both candidates as
“pretenders.”
Still, the party establishment’s greatest weapon —
big money — is partly on the shelf. Kenneth G. Langone, a founder of
Home Depot and a billionaire supporter of New Jersey Gov. Chris
Christie, said he is troubled that many associates in the New York
financial community have so far refused to invest in a campaign due to
the race’s volatility.
“Some
of them are in, but too many are still saying, ‘I’ll wait to see how
this all breaks,’ ” Langone said. “People don’t want to write checks
unless they think the candidate has a chance of winning.” He said that
his job as a mega-donor “is to figure out how we get people on the edge
of their chairs so they start to give money.”
Many
of Romney’s 2012 National Finance Committee members have sat out the
race so far, including Peter A. Wish, a Florida doctor whom several 2016
candidates have courted.
“I’m not a happy camper,” Wish said.
“Hopefully, somebody will emerge who will be able to do the job,” but,
he added, “I’m very worried that the Republican-base voter is more
motivated by anger, distrust of D.C. and politicians and will throw away
the opportunity to nominate a candidate with proven experience that can
win.”
The apprehension among some party elites goes beyond
electability, according to one Republican strategist who spoke on the
condition of anonymity to talk candidly about the worries.
“We’re
potentially careening down this road of nominating somebody who frankly
isn’t fit to be president in terms of the basic ability and temperament
to do the job,” this strategist said. “It’s not just that it could be
somebody Hillary could destroy electorally, but what if Hillary hits a
banana peel and this person becomes president?”
Angst about Trump
intensified this week after he made two comments that could prove
damaging in a general election. First, he explained his opposition to
raising the minimum wage by saying “wages are too high.” Second, he said
he would create a federal “deportation force” to remove the more than
11 million immigrants living in the United States illegally.
“To
have a leading candidate propose a new federal police force that is
going to flush out illegal immigrants across the nation? That’s very
disturbing and concerning to me about where that leads Republicans,”
said Dick Wadhams, a former GOP chairman in Colorado, a swing state
where Republicans are trying to pick up a Senate seat next year.
Said
Austin Barbour, a veteran operative and fundraiser now advising former
Florida governor Jeb Bush: “If we don’t have the right [nominee], we
could lose the Senate, and we could face losses in the House. Those are
very, very real concerns. If we’re not careful and we nominate Trump,
we’re looking at a race like Barry Goldwater in 1964 or George McGovern
in 1972, getting beat up across the board because of our nominee.”
George
Voinovich, a retired career politician who rose from county auditor to
mayor of Cleveland to governor of Ohio to U.S. senator, said this cycle
has been vexing.
“This business has turned into
show business,” said Voinovich, who is backing Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
“We can’t afford to have somebody sitting in the White House who doesn’t
have governing experience and the gravitas to move this country ahead.”
BLOGGER'S NOTE: I was really enjoying this article, right up to the point where it talked about Trump creating a federal police force to deport people in the country illegally. This anchor baby himself, wants to recreate the Stasi, or the SS in the United States? It's good that we've been supportive of Israel all these years, because if this guy gets elected, we may need their help - to get rid of the Nazis.
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