I confess that I didn’t watch the Republican debate. I went to dinner with my brother who lives in Florida instead (I am visiting for the weekend). I am not sure I would have watched anyway, because I find their views on everything outlandish and toxic.
But I searched for a news report to see if there was anything new. Indeed there was. I read several news stories, then came upon this astute summary of Trump’s disastrous showing.
Rubio and Cruz went on the offensive and showed Trump for the empty suit that he is. They are not empty suits. All their policy ideas are frightening and would roll back the New Deal and every other legislation that ameliorates the lives of Americans who are not rich. Rubio’s “new American century” sounds like the 19th century.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The Republican establishment is desperate to discredit Trump because they know the damage he will do to the brand, and because he owes nothing to the deep pockets who fund everybody else. He is a true rogue, to borrow Sarah Palin’s expression.
Reams will be written by the establishment about Rubio’s second-place victories and Trump’s frightening lack of substance, and in the end it won’t matter–the very serious people have lost control of their voters, too. Barring something unforeseen, Trump will be the GOP nominee, which is an excellent outcome for Hillary Clinton and a whole bunch of down ticket Dems as well.
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There is a rising tide of disgust with the status quo amongst Rs, Ds, and independents. Trump is almost guaranteed to get the R nomination. This is not an excellent outcome for Hillary Clinton, she would have done best against Jeb Bush.
Bernie Sanders is the only candidate who can go up against Trump and win.
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More recent hypothetical polls of general election matchups are showing Clinton rising and winning against the likely GOP candidates. She has much higher unfavorables than Sanders, but it looks like as the electorate is paying closer attention to the race, their revulsion for what the Republicans are offering is growing.
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And with it all, his ignorance, his inability to focus on any policy issues, his grandiose self aggrandizement….this AM Trump was endorsed by Chris Christie.
Why would Christie avoid endorsing Rubio or Cruz? Does he think they are even worse than Trump?
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Forgot that David Duke also came out for Trump yesterday.
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I’m not a fan of Al Sharpton, but the other day he gave the most succinct summary of Trump that I’ve ever seen: the white Don King.
Technically, the headline writer is responsible for that formulation. The actual quote was only marginally more prolix: “The best way I can describe Donald Trump to friends is to say if Don King had been born white he’d be Donald Trump,”
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/02/sharpton-trump-is-the-white-don-king-219601
Sharpton also offers this wonderful word-painting:
“Don King had me fly with him and Trump to Atlantic [City] in Trump’s helicopter, and it was one of the most memorable things in my life to sit on that big, black Trump helicopter … both of them talking nonstop, not listening to each other,” he recalls. “And I’m sitting there. It was probably the longest ride … I ever was on. Both of them shut me up. I haven’t been quiet since.”
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Great comment. Nails the talking head narcissists. I meet these non-stop ranters all the time… and I too, just give up.
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When Al Sharpton cannot get a word in edgewise, that is really saying something about the other two characters involved.
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Humor, via The New Yorker:
“Christie’s Endorsement of Trump Threatens to Overshadow Equally Prestigious Praise from David Duke”
http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/christies-endorsement-of-trump-threatens-to-overshadow-equally-prestigious-praise-from-david-duke?intcid=mod-latest
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-research_us_56cf2c6de4b03260bf75b395?ir=Politics§ion=us_politicsThis was an interesting piece.
it seems that the candidates never really dug for dirt on Trump, because they misjudged their base, and thought that this clown would disgrace himself. ” The most common is that few campaigns actually thought Trump would last long, making the need to dig into his past rather moot…One operative compared it to not having ammunition at the precise moment when there is a collective realization that a Trump candidacy needs to be shot down. ”
Now its catch-up. Personally I hope he gets the nomination, because the democrats will be sure to pounce on all the poop.
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Dig for dirt? You have to shovel the dirt off Trump just to see him.
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LOL! And, my dear, that is why the campaigns did not do the diligence, so their talking head candidates could not reply to the liar and say , wait minute, You were for the Iraq war intros interview on…”
They figured the public would see this critter for what he was… but the GOP base is so ignorant they loved the crap he shoveled.
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You are in Florida … Where??? There are a boatload of teachers who would love to meet with you in Miami-Dade … Where teachers steps have been frozen then erased, we have been left out in the cold with little recourse.
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Forget it Dade and Broward and their Unions sold out there teachers years ago. You guys just elected a convicted coke head felon as the VP of your Union. Your only option is to leave Dade nothing is ever going to change there trust me I worked for those crooks.
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I watched the debate and some of the follow up interviews. Rubio seemed to squeak, talking non-stop in a high pitched panic. He seemed hysterical, not presidential. Cruz seems to really lack any emotion which is frightening. Trump is a disaster, but he is an outgrowth of years of Republican policy. Trump says what his supporters think. And his supporters are justifiably angry for having embraced conservative ideology all these years only to find out they were played as fools by the Republican establishment.
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It is beginning to feel like there are now two sides of the Republican party willing to play their constituents for fools.
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Trump is playing with the RNC like a cat toying with a mouse. And he hasn’t even dropped the independent run lately. Brokered convention in Cleveland and the end of the GOP as we know it.
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Trump is disgusting on too many levels to count, but we can be grateful that he seems to have broken the taboo preventing public figures from stating that the war in Iraq was based on lies, and from maintaining the fiction that George Bush “kept us safe.”
Thank you, Donnie – as a fellow New Yorker, I feel I can use the diminutive, plus it takes him down a peg- you’re a grotesque slime-ball, but you did perform one useful public service.
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Yes. If the national media was doing its job, Trump would not have a stage.
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Matt Taibbi wrote an excellent (and frightening) analysis of the Trump phenomenon: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/how-america-made-donald-trump-unstoppable-20160224
Hillary Clinton’s insider status, her lifetime of fundraising, her 92 secret paid speeches to banks, industry groups, corporations, and other special interests from 2013-2015 (where she earned a minimum of $225,000 per 1 our speech), the business dealings of the Clinton Foundation that accepted huge donations from disreputable groups doing business with the Clinton State Department–all of this makes her extremely vulnerable against Trump, who touts himself as an outsider, a non-politician, and self-funded.
Bernie Sanders, the only candidate on either side, including Trump, who is running without his own super PAC, who has a 30 year record as an independent populist, is uniquely positioned to beat Trump. I hope Democrats wake up before it is too late.
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BREAKING: the AP reports that Chris Christie has endorsed Donald Trump.
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Trump 2016! Say goodbye to Common Core and, hopefully, the Department of Education.
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And goodbye to decent treatment of women, minorities, LGBT folks, and people with disabilities. Say goodbye to any alliances. Say goodbye to the U.S. being a world.
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Common Core is on its way out. Department of Education has been curtailed. What else can Trump deliver?
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Dear Diane,
I wish the assessment you cite was correct, but for those of us who saw the debate I’m afraid Amy Davidson’s assessment this morning in the online version of The New Yorker is far nearer the mark. And more soberingly thoughtful to boot.
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Did RttT ameliorate the lives of Americans who are not rich? If it did not, and because the impact of its legacy is still lingering, have potential progressive leaders discussed how to move forward with the changes it brought/wrought to our schools.
I’m still waiting to hear candidates at the state level talk about this. Nobody does.
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An excellent summary of the GOP’s impotence and inability to reign in Trump. They are running terrified.
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Diane, because I teach AP US Govt & Politics I watch (and live tweet) most such political events. I am afraid that the debate did not really diminish Trump’s likely hold on the nomination. First, with the exception of Kasich no one on that stage looked or sounded Presidential. As i noted in a tweet in response to Reince Preibus, Chair of the RNC, we were watching a food fight in a clown car. Yes, there are issues about Trump that perhaps SHOULD be valid issues of character, but for most of those voting for Trump they don’t care – and that the ‘establishment” is trying to consolidate around Rubio actually hurt hurts Rubio’s possible appeal. In the way Rubio and Cruz engaged in the food fight they actually attempted to do/be like Trump but not as effectively.
As things stand right now, the only state Trump might lose on Tuesday is Texas, which actually would not hurt him going forward, because that would continue to split the vote against him allowing to possibly/probably win when OH and FL come up on March 15, and are winner take all. As of now, the only state between now and March 15 that Cruz is positioned to possibly win is TX, and Rubio is not positioned to win any, trailing by between 18-20 points even in his home state in FL.
Could things change in the next 17 days? Perhaps. But unless Kasich wins MI and/or OH and/or Rubio wins FL, it will be effectively over on the Republican side when people wake up on March 16.
This was actually not Trump’s worst debate, and how he does in debates has not so far affected his support. The fact that he kept talking over CRUZ/RUBIO will be interpreted as a sign of strength. Trump got far more time in the debagte than anyone else, and far more of the traffic on Twitter than anyone else.
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Ken,
I watched the debate last night, and I agree with you
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Dead on, TeacherKen
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