GOP ex-national security officials: Say no to Trump

[Stonepounder]

Source: CNN

A group of leaders in the Republican foreign policy and national security community wrote an open letter condemning Donald Trump and pledging to oppose his presidential candidacy.

"We are unable to support a Party ticket with Mr. Trump at its head," they wrote in the letter, first posted Wednesday night on the website warontherocks.com.

The authors of the strongly worded letter include Michael Chertoff, the second director of Homeland Security under George W. Bush; Robert Kagan, a leader of the neoconservative movement and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations; Eric Edelman, former Under Secretary of Defense Policy during the Bush 41 administration and U.S. Ambassador to Turkey; and dozens of other former Republican presidential administration officials and conservative think tank members.

"His equation of business acumen with foreign policy experience is false. Not all lethal conflicts can be resolved as a real estate deal might, and there is no recourse to bankruptcy court in international affairs," they wrote.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/03/politics/donald-trump-neocons-election-2016/index.html

[vdogg]

1. You know it's bad when republicans are so scared

They would rather sink their most popular candidate than let hI'm become president. This should terrify everyone.

[William Seger]

11. I think what they're mainly afraid of

... is that Hillary will easily beat Trump, and it will carry momentum down-ticket. This all seems to be a desperate attempt to field someone who might at least have a shot at winning.

[Cosmocat]

15. right

the next time these assholes do something for the right reason will be the first.

IDK, still a lot of time to shake out.

I had thought they will get behind him because if they take the nomination from him after he wins it out right in popular vote and has more delegates than any other single candidate, which is pretty much a lock now, it will have catastrophic, and that is not hyperbole, effects on the party.

They might suffer in one election if he loses or take hits if he gets elected, but Bush II ran the country into the ground, they took a beating in 06 and 08, then got the idiots in this country to give them the biggest mid term win in decades and have more power now than any time in modern history.

They can get past Trump breaking stuff, but if they take the nomination from him, it will fracture that party for a LONG time.

That seems pretty obvious, and I still sort of think they will come around to it.

BUT, there are SO many elected officials and party operatives like this who are coming out in public and saying things they can't walk back.

IDK ...

[jalan48]

2. Wow-the dump Trump effort really kicked off today.

If it doesn't work I wonder if they will pull a fast one at the convention? I'm glad I'm in a party where this would never happen.

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

13. I don't know but if I were him, I wouldn't climb any tall Trump Towers.

I hear some of the windows are defective.

[Democat]

3. The same people who supported Bush?

Who would trust them?

[Renew Deal]

4. Ahhh yes, the PNAC'ers that want jobs.

[mountain grammy]

5. Oh really, the party of NO..

says NO to their own!

[salinsky]

6. So the neocons are abandoning ship ....

.... let's hope they all drown.

[olddad56]

7. having all of these hated neocons come out against Drumpf will only help him.

[Purveyor]

8. His polling will now go up another 3pts or so... eom

[houston16revival]

9. The Establishments

of both parties are trying to maintain their hegemony and squeeze

out the left and right

MSNBC? Check
Trump? Check

etc
etc
etc

Don't be surprised

[lark]

10. Ouch

I love the snarky line about bankruptcy, so perfect!!

[houston16revival]

12. The Party has used Trump to gin up enthusiasm and hype

I wonder if it was the plan all along ....

Now they switcheroo to ...

I'd bet these 4 are in play

Cruz Rubio Kasich Ryan

A Ryan-Rubio ticket - subliminal RR's to evoque Reagan - is not impossible

Think of the excitement of a brokered convention!

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

14. And what happens to the 40% that are voting for him?

They ARE armed, you know!

[Cosmocat]

16. Dude

if they take the nomination from Trump they will catastrophically fracture the party ...

[houston16revival]

17. So then

we've got them by the short ones?

Trump they have a bad candidate

No Trump they have no party?

Or is that too conventional wisdom to be valid

If it sounds too good to be true .....

So we just worry about hitting all the themes for all voting blocks,
clean up our candidates and drive the ball forward?

This is like a first down?

[Cosmocat]

18. IDk

LOTS left to get through, but if they truly are that dead set against him, at the moment, it does appear they are in a no win situation.