DEMS FEAR DON – AT 10:55 A.M. ET: While Republicans tear their party apart over Donald Trump, Dems are getting nervous. Their political operatives don't see Trump as a pushover. They see him as a serious threat. From NRO:
Listen for a few minutes to Republicans in the “Never Trump” camp, and you’d think the outcome of November 8’s election a foregone conclusion. Donald Trump’s unfavorables are so high, they argue, his bridges to minority voters so thoroughly burnt, that Hillary Clinton will inevitably trounce him in a landslide akin to Lyndon Johnson’s historic victory against Barry Goldwater in 1964.
But talk to Democratic strategists and you’ll hear a different story. Despite Clinton’s persistent lead in the polls, many of them are far from sanguine about her prospects against the presumptive Republican nominee. They view Trump’s ability to harness the anger of America’s dispossessed white working class as a powerful threat in several Midwestern swing states, especially now that he’s openly courting Bernie Sanders supporters and aping the Vermont senator’s rhetoric on trade. They worry the New York real-estate mogul’s brash, bullying campaign style could throw the easily flustered Clinton off balance, upending her campaign at a crucial moment. And they fear that a relentlessly negative campaign would turn women voters away from politics altogether, depriving Clinton of the votes she’ll need to overcome Trump’s likely advantage with white men.
“Ted Cruz and almost any other Republican would’ve been much easier, because they’re conventional politicians,” says Mary Anne Marsh, a veteran Democratic strategist from Boston. “Donald Trump was always going to be the hardest candidate, because he is so unconventional. . . . I think this has the potential to be as close as the 2000 election.”
COMMENT: I agree. No matter what you may think of Trump, he's pulled off a political miracle. No one knows if he can mine that to pull off a second miracle, victory in November. But I'd never underestimate him. He may appeal only to anger, but if 50% plus one of Americans are angry, he's president.
May 6, 2016 |