Time for GOP Panic? Establishment Republicans Worried Carson or Trump Might Win

[eridani]

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/33473-time-for-gop-panic-establishment-republicans-worried-carson-or-trump-might-win

Party leaders and donors fear that nominating either man would have negative ramifications for the GOP ticket up and down the ballot, virtually ensuring a Hillary Rodham Clinton presidency and increasing the odds that the Senate falls into Democratic hands.

The party establishment is paralyzed. Big money is still on the sidelines. No consensus alternative to the outsiders has emerged from the pack of governors and senators running, and there is disagreement about how to prosecute the case against them. Recent focus groups of Trump supporters in Iowa and New Hampshire commissioned by rival campaigns revealed no silver bullet.

In normal times, the way forward would be obvious. The wannabes would launch concerted campaigns, including television attack ads, against the ­front-runners. But even if the other candidates had a sense of what might work this year, it is unclear whether it would ultimately accrue to their benefit. Trump’s counterpunches have been withering, while Carson’s appeal to the base is spiritual, not merely political. If someone was able to do significant damage to them, there’s no telling to whom their supporters would turn, if anyone.

“The rest of the field is still wishing upon a star that Trump and Carson are going to ­self-destruct,” said Eric Fehrnstrom, a former adviser to 2012 nominee Mitt Romney. But, he said, “they have to be made to self-destruct. . . . Nothing has happened at this point to dislodge Trump or Carson.”

Fehrnstrom pointed out that the fourth debate passed this week without any candidate landing a blow against Trump or Carson. “We’re about to step into the holiday time accelerator,” he said. “You have Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, then Iowa and a week later, New Hampshire, and it’s going to be over in the blink of an eye.”

According to other Republicans, some in the party establishment are so desperate to change the dynamic that they are talking anew about drafting Romney — despite his insistence that he will not run again. Friends have mapped out a strategy for a late entry to pick up delegates and vie for the nomination in a convention fight, according to the Republicans who were briefed on the talks, though Romney has shown no indication of reviving his interest.

[LAGC]

1. CNBC: Making the case for a brokered GOP convention

With mainstream Republicans struggling to overcome the rise of outsider candidates, some say the party could face something it hasn't seen in nearly 70 years: a brokered convention.

The term refers to a condition in which no candidate has the required amount of delegates to secure the nomination. The party then takes the battle to the floor where a nominee is decided.

The fractured nature of the race leading up to the 2016 nomination has Greg Valliere, who as chief political strategist at Horizon Investments is one of the leading voices on the Wall Street-Washington connection, thinking that a brokered convention could happen for the first time since 1948.

http://www.cnbc.com/2015/11/11/making-the-case-for-a-brokered-gop-convention.html

[hibbing]

2. I'm shocked ! hasn't made a move

But he is even more stupid than his brother, he needs to stick to a script and not veer away at all. I still think he will get the nomination, call me crazy. Some of it seems to be he thought it would be a cakewalk just like the war in Iraq. I just can't imagine them nominating either of the two that are currently in the lead in the polls.

Peace

[hollysmom]

3. If it weren't for Paris, Trump would be dead after today,

I know I know people have said this before, but calling people from Iowa stupid and kid park bullying of Carson - yes he is an idiot, but for some reason people don't know it yet, and if you do attack him, there are better ways of doing it. maybe it will come back and haunt him, but I think real news has trumped the Trump news for now.

[vadermike]

4. agreed

THis will power Trump all the way to the GOP nomination , bet on it... after tonite... he already was holding his own.. newest polls show him already surging... Now, in a GE i still think he will lose.. becuase of the Latino vote, amongst other reasons... but ya.. I think the GOP is really gonna be shitting themselves now....

[patricia92243]

5. I don't understand why Establishment Republicans are so against Trump. I thought

as long as a Republican won, they wouldn't much care who it was.

Had they rather have us Democrats win rather than Trump? Odd even by the Republicans standards.