[nathanbedford]

Dump Trump!

The dynamic of the race has changed, Donald Trump is now the problem.

Heretofore, we could agree that Donald Trump had broken ground because he had broken rules and gotten away with it. He opened the fundamental question in this election, immigration, and made it legitimate to actually oppose unrestrained immigration. This is the most important issue of this election, and Donald Trump should be thanked as he exits.

The exit of Donald Trump is only a question of time. Meanwhile his role has changed, he no longer serves as a shock force opening the debate to matters favorable to the conservative base, he now acts as an impediment to nominating a real conservative who can stop the real threat, Rino Marco Rubio.

Of the top candidates presently in this race, Trump, Rubio, Carson, Fiorina and Cruz only Cruz is a conservative. Trump's biography is a conservative nightmare. Fiorina is vulnerable on her tenure at HP, and her indisputable histrionic skills cannot compensate on the presidential level for these deficiencies, although she might make a splendid vice presidential candidate. Carson, as I predicted, will continue to make gaffes and see his boomlet fade away.

That leaves Marco Rubio as the most dangerous candidate in the field after Trump. Rubio is a snake and he must not be permitted to deceive unwary conservatives, he has discredited himself and disqualified himself by virtue of is treachery on amnesty. Rubio is a deceiver who gained office by seducing the tea party and then immediately sold out to the Mitch McConnell establishment. He has slipped between the sheets with the likes of Chuck Schumer. He has failed us on immigration the key issue in this election.

However, Rubio is possessed of matinee idol good looks, he is facile on his feet or in an interview, he has a compelling biography which he tells compellingly. He is a very dangerous candidate. And he is all the more dangerous because Jeb Bush is clearly yesterday's news.

Donald Trump is not our salvation. So long as Donald Trump's lead exists, even as it deteriorates with one gaffe after another, (also as I predicted), conservatives desperate in honest fear for the Republic will cling to him as to a golden calf. He is not the answer to Jeb Bush, he never was, that fear was unfounded and unnecessary. Similarly, he is not the answer to Marco Rubio.

It will take a real conservative to defeat Marco Rubio and will take a real campaigner who can generate respect as well as attention to himself while on his feet. Ted Cruz has never put a foot down wrong. Cruz is not a walking gaffe machine. His body is not a life-support system for his ego. He is an intellectual and forensic match for Marco Rubio. Ted Cruz's and adding establishment fighter who, unlike Trump, has never bribed politicians and, unlike Marco Rubio, has never betrayed the tea party.

The longer we flirt with The Donald the stronger Marco Rubio will be. Dump Trump now!

[odawg]

“So long as Donald Trump’s lead exists, even as it deteriorates with one gaffe after another, (also as I predicted)...”

It is not deteriorating as of today, and cite the gaffe that has not caused it thus far.

[Beagle8U]

Trump is the only one that can get the slugs ( Bush, Rubio) out of the race, because he can out last them.

Trump will drop out after he clears the field for Cruz.

[FreeReign]

Interesting comment, thanks.

[Catsrus]

Sounds like your crystal ball might need polishing. Trump isn’t a conservative nightmare - it’s apparent you don’t know a thing about his past with Ronald Reagan.

[ek_hornbeck]

ubio is a deceiver who gained office by seducing the tea party and then immediately sold out to the Mitch McConnell establishment. He has slipped between the sheets with the likes of Chuck Schumer. He has failed us on immigration the key issue in this election.

However, Rubio is possessed of matinee idol good looks, he is facile on his feet or in an interview, he has a compelling biography which he tells compellingly. He is a very dangerous candidate. And he is all the more dangerous because Jeb Bush is clearly yesterday's news.

You're exactly right about Rubio. His views are identical to Jeb's, but Rubio is worse than Jeb in the following way: nobody takes Bush seriously as a conservative, everybody knows that he represents the (currently unpopular) Rove-McConnell-Boehner wing of the GOP establishment. In contrast, Rubio managed to sell himself as some kind of anti-establishment conservative, and still seems to have some conservatives fooled into thinking that he's to the right of Bush.

The GOP establishment is starting to realize that the SS Jeb is sinking fast, and that they have a Bush clone in a much slicker package to throw their weight behind.

Where I disagree with your analysis is in your hope that Trump tanks. I don't trust him or particularly like him, but let's face it, Cruz isn't going to break single digits anytime soon. Only movement conservatives and political junkies pay any attention to him at all, most GOP voters have barely heard of him. Cruz seemed to fade into the background during both GOP debates.

This means that Trump, his many warts and all, is the only one standing in the way of one of the GOP establishment's pet candidates (Jeb, or, if that fails, Rubio). I'm not even counting Carson or Fiorina, Carson is a flavor of the month among GOP voters who dislike the establishment but also dislike Trump, while Fiorina is entirely a media creation - a non-politician who still thinks and acts like a Karl Rove Republican.