GOPE, you had best pay attention.
Posted on 03/21/2016 9:08:12 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The best line from any Trump stump speech this year is “Everyone wants Washington to change, and that means changing everyone in Washington.” No, wait — I’m mixed up. Trump didn’t say that. It was Tom Coburn, announcing his retirement from the Senate, who did. Coburn was raging against a corrupt establishment in D.C. back when Trump was still firing people on “The Apprentice.” Such was his despair at what he encountered in the capital that he spent the last few years calling for a convention of the states to fix Washington. He’s a perfect choice in many ways for #NeverTrumpers — conservative yet anti-establishment, experienced yet uncorrupted by his time in the Senate. I’ve never had an opportunity to vote for him, but I’d welcome it.
Would Coburn maximize the anti-Trump vote on the right as a third-party candidate, though? I’m not sure.
But should that effort falter, leading conservatives are prepared to field an independent candidate in the general election, to defend Republican principles and offer traditional conservatives an alternative to Mr. Trump’s hard-edged populism. They described their plans in interviews after Mr. Trump’s victories last Tuesday in Florida and three other states…
Among the recruits under discussion are Tom Coburn, a former Oklahoma senator who has told associates that he would be open to running, and Rick Perry, the former Texas governor who was suggested as a possible third-party candidate at a meeting of conservative activists on Thursday in Washington.
Mr. Coburn, who left the Senate early last year to receive treatment for cancer, said in an interview that Mr. Trump “needs to be stopped” and that he expected to back an independent candidate against him. He said he had little appetite for a campaign of his own, but did not flatly rule one out.
“I’m going to support that person,” Mr. Coburn said, “and I don’t expect that person to be me.”
The best thing about Coburn as the head of the Anti-Trump Party is that it’d be harder to demagogue him as an establishment pawn than it would most other independent challengers. If Romney jumped in, Trump would attack him as a last gasp by the mega-rich country-club set to blow up the GOP after We the People took it over. That doesn’t work with a soft-spoken Oklahoman like Coburn; he’d run as a populist himself, but one who thinks reform requires reducing federal power instead of putting Classier People in charge of it. He could and would critique the system with the jaundiced eye of someone who understands its failings from the inside. He’d do well enough at the presidential debates as a contrast with Trump, making the case against Washington yet sounding like he actually knows what he’s talking about, that he might move some conservative votes from Trump’s column to his. And he’d have a fair shot at winning his home state, which is worth seven electoral votes. (Oklahoma, remember, went for Cruz this year, not Trump.) That’s not much, but which states would Romney flip realistically? Utah? That’s worth just six.
Coburn’s problem is that he might not have enough of a soapbox to muscle in on the debate between Trump and Hillary. Conservative activists know and love him, but that’s a tiny niche. Coburn could jump in, enjoy a week of fanfare, and then slip off the radar for 98 percent of the country. That’s Romney’s key advantage: He has phenomenal name recognition from his 2012 run and he has a network of donors who could bankroll a semi-serious independent effort. He wouldn’t win, needless to say, but casual anti-Trump voters looking to park their votes somewhere are way more likely to hear about it if Romney jumps in than if Coburn does. Arguably Coburn’s also an inferior choice to Rick Perry, who enjoys a bit more name recognition thanks to two failed presidential runs. Perry’s problem is that casual voters may know him mainly as the guy who couldn’t remember the three agencies he wanted to get rid of during his 2012 campaign. He’d start out being viewed skeptically by casual anti-Trumpers, but a few strong media appearances early on could weaken that skepticism. Having backed Ted Cruz in the primaries, Perry might be rewarded by donations from Cruz’s Texas base of wealthy conservatives for his third-party bid. And Perry, probably more than any other independent challenger, could put Texas itself in play in the general election. Even if he didn’t win the state outright, which would be a tall order with Democrats unified behind Hillary and Republicans split between him and Trump, pulling just 20 percent of the vote there would likely turn the state blue, all but ending Trump’s chances. If the #NeverTrump challenge to Trump is a pure spoiler effort than Perry’s probably the best choice for that reason alone.
But it sounds like he’s not interested:
@GovernorPerry has no interest in running as a 3rd party candidate. For the good of the country, he wants the GOP to unite around @tedcruz
— Jeff Miller (@JeffMillerCA2TX) March 20, 2016
Jeff Miller was Perry’s presidential campaign manager last year. Is that a sincere Sherman statement or just a provisional one, to be revisited if/when Cruz loses Wisconsin in a few weeks and suddenly it really does look like Trump’s on his way to the nomination? No third-party aspirant wants to start making noise about running now when Cruz still has a shot to stop Trump in the primary, but if he underperforms in the next few primaries it might be time for righties to start thinking outside the box.
What if the gope demonstrably cheats to shave enough delegates to keep it under? Would turnabout be fair play?
If Trump has 1237 delegates and does not get the nomination, then the GOP deserves whatever happens. If they change the rules to deny Trump delegates he has earned then they deserve whatever happens. But barring that, if Trump goes into the convention with less than a majority of delegates, it will be up to him to try to persuade enough delegates to vote for him on subsequent ballots to give him the majority, or he won't be the nominee.
Tom does not want to lose the corrupt gravy train in Washington. Notice nothing was said about Ted Cruz.
In other words, Tommy wants Hillary to win. No real conservative would want that. But the fake neo-cons would.
Report: Tom Coburn tells allies he’s open to leading a conservative third-party challenge to Trump
More proof that the GOPe wants Hillary as president. Not because of Trump but because of their symbiotic relationship with the Democrat Party.
I’d sooner contribute to the mafia then to the GOPe. At least you know where they stand.
“Trump supporters when Trump threatens to go 3rd Party:
Yeah, you stick it to em Trump. We got your back. Trump Trump Trump!!!
Trump supporters when someone else threatens to go 3rd Party:
Why do you want Hillary to win?”
You are forgetting the deal that GTrump made with the GOP. He is sticking to it but it appears some in the GOP are not.
Tom Coburn and his DickHead Party.
Sounds really appealing.
Don't be too sure about that. I think many Trump supporters would be so fed up they would actually vote Democrat at the state and federal levels in every voting precinct across the USA. At the very least, they would stay home in November. Or maybe write in "Donald Trump" for all the positions that had a Republican incumbent running for office.
If Trump loses fair & square, that's one thing. But if the RNC Rules Committee changes the rules on the fly -- a power they gave themselves in Aug 2012 -- then all bets are off regarding other Republican politicians from the Presidency all the way down to the local city councilman. If anyone thinks I'm exaggerating, spend a day or two on social media. Never in my lifetime have I seen so many pissed off Republicans.
Again, just for you, Mitch McConnell:
If the GOPe is even perceived to be blocking Trump at the convention, then no state or federal Republican seat is safe in November. PERIOD.
GOPE, you had best pay attention.
...hey, I don't want to come out and say it, but uh, we all face some kind of health problem at some point in our lives, it's a thing called mortality.
I mean, the guy retires from the Senate on the pretext of having serious health issues and now he's talking about running for President, and getting all mixed up with Milt Romley and all kinds of other slimy creatures and getting exposed to all the bugs and viruses and bacteria and bad mojo that they carry?
WTF for?
Reagan had to deal with John Anderson, remember that?
At least John Anderson had run in the primaries, albeit he got beaten badly.
So is Coburn supposed to be that "conservative" he's alluding to? If so, HAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAAA!
“Wasn’t Coburn the guy Trump erroneously quoted as slandering Cruz?”
Coburn did criticize Cruz.
Ex-Sen. Tom Coburn Slams ‘Cruz Effect’ For Creating False Hopes About Congress
[snip]Former Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn slammed what he called “the Cruz effect” — saying Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz’s rhetoric and the Texas senator’s inability to follow through on his promises have caused great disenchantment among Americans toward Congress.
“I call it ‘the Cruz effect,’” Coburn, a Republican who retired last year after 20 years in the Senate, told Sirius XM host Pete Dominick on Thursday. The interview was reported by BuzzFeed News.
“When you tell people you can accomplish something that you can’t — for example, shutting down the government over the Affordable Care Act,” Coburn said.
“When, in fact, you promise people in your speeches and your talk that we can do this, and — by dinghy — we’re gonna get rid of the Affordable Care Act, and all we have to do is shut down the government.”
“Well, that’s one thing to tell ‘em that,” Coburn continued. “It’s a whole other thing to be able to accomplish that, and build a coalition that once you shut it, that it doesn’t get opened up till you win.”
Breaking News at Newsmax.com http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/tom-coburn-rips-ted-cruz-effect/2015/10/16/id/696627/#ixzz43YkAGqqR
“I think Trump has already guaranteed that outcome.”
Indeed. Exactly like Reagan’s guaranteed lost to Carter:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3411391/posts
No, Tom Coburn isn't corrupt... one might say that in time he's become very flexible and willing to do the right dad thing to facilitate his daughter Sarah's career as an opera singer:
https://www.google.com/webhp?tab=mw&ei=fAbwVtTuGYXteZbDiOgM&ved=0EKkuCAUoAg#q=sarah+coburn
Tom did not have kind words for Ted Cruz...
He excoriated Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz’s “defund Obamacare” mission that led to a partial government shutdown last year.
Here’s what he said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe program: “To create the impression that we can actually defund Obamacare, when the only thing we control, and barely, is the House of Representatives, is not intellectually honest.”
I consider him a man without a spine or principle. He could care less about his oath of office, protecting and defending the Constitution.... That makes him a crook.
RE: He excoriated Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz’s “defund Obamacare” mission that led to a partial government shutdown last year.
A history of posts here in FR shows deep disdain for Coburn and deep support from Cruz on that issue.
Somehow in this election cycle, people seem to have forgotten that.
Sorry, next time I need one I’ll be sure to end with a sarcasm tag. :)
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