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Donald Trump did not wait to reply. Less than two hours after Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol sent out a tweet that said there would soon be news of an “impressive” independent presidential candidate, the presumptive Republican nominee went on the attack. In a series of tweets, the real estate mogul called Kristol a “dummy” and an “embarrassed loser.” He then said Republicans can “say good bye to the Supreme Court” if an independent contender does materialize.
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Well, sometimes I agree with Trump.
But I actually think running someone like Romney* as a third party Candidate helps Trump win. It’s all a question of who the votes come from. In a two way race there are people who will go Clinton over Trump and people who will go Trump over Clinton. Some of each group would really rather be voting for an independent right-wing candidate.
Romney>Clinton>Trump is a group composed of Republicans who just can’t stomach Trump and are going to support Clinton to save the country from a Trump nightmare.
Romney>Trump>Clinton is a group composed of Republicans who can stomach Trump but would have rather the party picked a different candidate.
Which of those groups sounds more likely to be able to get over the “taboo” of voting third party - the ones who stuck with the party even when it picked someone they didn’t like, or the ones who already jumped ship? Of course you could argue that R>T>C is just a bigger group than R>C>T so even if a small portion move it still benefits Clinton.
* Using “Romney” as a stand-in here, I’ve got my palm hovering inches from my face, just waiting in case it really is Romney.
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That hasn’t happened for me yet.
Plus, how to know if the agreement wasn’t with “John Miller” or 1996 Trump or WWE Trump or, say, last Thursday Trump? There’s no way to know because he doesn’t even know.
Fun. It’s like reading tea leaves at this point.
But … how will $27 and corporate dems align or not after the dem convention? If it’s going to happen, it needs to be progressive, grass roots outreach to working voters. Bill Kristol and Romney have never met any of the 47% folks ASFAIK.
And if the unifying dem GOTV strategy is to mobilize Romney* supporters (???), then aren’t there more fundamental problems to solve?
And let’s don’t forget the libertatians. It’s still their Ron Paul “revolution” moment in some ways.
That in itself is an impressive feat considering how many times he’s completely reversed his stance on major issues depending on which way the political winds were blowing.
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Maybe I should have said, “Well, sometimes the random words Trump says coalesce into a truthful statement much like a stopped clock showing the correct time.” rather than saying I agree with him.
Yeah, I think trying to run actual Romney at this point would be a lot like admitting that you’ve got literally nothing to add or to offer. If it is literally Romney then Kristol is definitely a “dummy”, shortly to become an “embarrassed loser”.The only worse choice I can think of would be a Bush (a bush would be just fine, maybe blackberries).
Anyway, even if I overstate my case, I feel like history instructs that third parties don’t really “split the vote” but rather pull their own group of support that isn’t really that interested in either of the first two options. Trump’s assertion that running a third party would be given the win to the Democrats is wrong if you ask me.
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Compared to the rest of his GOP colleagues, Kristol is no dummy. He certainly has Trump scared.
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I think that Billy Kristol might actually be able to pull it off. He did, after all, play a miracle worker in that one movie.
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