Month: August 2016

Go-Along Republicans Hurting Their Party, Reputations

Buck Banks

Mr. Ryan is doing his personal reputation and his party’s fortunes no favors with these evasions. The central issue in this election isn’t Mr. Trump’s ideas, such as they are. It’s his character, such as it is. The sin, in this case, is the sinner…. Mr. Ryan and other Go-Along Republicans should treat the Khan episode as their last best hope to preserve political reputations they have worked so hard to build.

— Wall Street Journal

Obama Urges GOP Leaders to Withdraw Trump Support

Buck Banks

The question they have to ask themselves is: If you are repeatedly having to say in very strong terms that what he has said is unacceptable, why are you still endorsing him? … This isn’t a situation where you have an episodic gaffe. This is daily. There has to be a point at which you say, this is not somebody I can support for president of the United States, even if he purports to be a member of my party. The fact that that has not yet happened makes some of these denunciations ring hollow.

— President Obama, in his strongest denouncement of Donald Trump so far, said Trump is “unfit to serve as president” and urged the leaders of the Republican Party to withdraw their backing for his candidacy, the New York Times reports.

Clinton More Trusted on Foreign Policy

Buck Banks

59% to 36%

Spread by which Hillary Clinton has widened her edge over Donald Trump as being perceived as more trusted to handle foreign policy, and she has pulled even with Trump on handling terrorism, 48% to 48%, just as foreign policy has come to the forefront of the campaign, a new CNN/ORC poll finds. “And on the most prominent foreign policy issue of late, Russia and its relationship with the US, nearly 6-in-10 see the country as unfriendly, and about half say they think the Russian government is attempting to influence the outcome of the US presidential election.”

Trump Senses He’s Losing

Buck Banks

Plenty of candidates make gaffes, though these actions amount to more than that. They veer between reckless, careless, and just plain mean. The only through-line is Trump being Trump, with no apparent strategy greater than that. At this post-convention time for party consolidation, with everything magnified in the final 100 days before Nov. 8, this looks like a candidate who senses he is losing and is not happy about it.

— Rick Klein

Trump Destroying the GOP

Buck Banks

Things have deteriorated for the GOP because Donald Trump’s comments about Russia and Vladimir Putin have further shredded the Republican Party’s historically greatest strength: national security and defense themes. Add to that Trump’s — and GOP delegates’ — performance at their convention (‘Lock her up!’) and Trump’s positions on trade, taxes, spending and entitlements, which also contradict the long-standing Republican message, and the party is nothing short of a mess

— Stuart Rothenberg