I noted on Friday that what seems very likely to be the Clinton v Trump general election match-up will be a gendered electoral armageddon – an unreconstructed, unabashed and angry male chauvinist against a women of great power and accomplishment who can more than hold her own against him. It will be ugly. But I think it will be Trump’s undoing. Remember, Clinton’s already beating Trump in all the head to head match ups (as is Sanders). So he doesn’t need much undoing. But I think he’ll get it.
But there’s another element of the equation. Just imagine some higher octane version of what we’re already seeing right now – but with a difference. Now every time there’s some new outburst, every Republican candidate from dog catcher to Senator gets asked to denounce or endorse every time. Every time.
It’s hard to be chained to a car like that you can’t control or predict.
We’ve seen … what, dozens of these over the last eight months? The future ones won’t be the same. But at no point in the last year has a woman been Trump’s principal competitor. This will bring out the worst in him. So whatever we’ve seen to date, odds are what’s coming will be more toxic still.
Most Republican elected officials now appear to have very low hopes of gaining the presidency. If Trump’s not a winner, the available options for denying him the nomination seem if anything worse in electoral terms. But down ticket races are another story. What’s the damage?
