It’s a bit hard to judge since CPAC or any conference would be hard pressed to command much media attention in the face of the current implosion of the GOP. But it’s hard not to sense that the diminished prominence of CPAC this year is not part of the more general crack up of the current GOP coalition, elites and establishment versus voters, changing definitions of conservatism, different gatekeepers, etc.
After TPM’s pioneering work identifying the new metrical form of the Trump attack haiku, readers came through with a more extensive examination of Trump’s work …
I’ve noted this several times today in different contexts. But it’s worth repeating clearly and on its own. Romney, Rubio and a slew of other Republicans are denouncing Donald Trump as someone who cannot be allowed to become President. He’s a danger to the country, a danger to the Republican party, a danger to conservatism. Yet none of these people is willing to rule out supporting him in November. Even Mitt Romney today clearly did not rule out supporting Trump in the fall. That is too big a contradiction to stand. The essence of what people are calling the #NeverTrump hashtag ‘movement’ is that it’s Twitter based, and in the nature of Twitter people can’t be pressed on this elemental question. Rubio is trying to be this ‘movement’s’ leader; but tonight he said he’d support Trump as nominee.
Because of this the #NeverTrump movement will likely soon collapse under the weight of its own ridiculousness.
This was the first GOP debate where I saw them make Donald Trump bleed. I really don’t know whether he ‘won’ or ‘lost’. I suspect his support is too ingrained at this point to be easily shaken. But this time Rubio and Cruz and mainly the moderators knocked Trump off his stride.
It’s not a matter of catching him in some logical contradiction or baloney answer. That’s happened a hundred times and it’s irrelevant. The issue is that his opponents are sharpening a number of attack lines that are commonsensical, direct and understandable: the scam of Trump University, importing foreign labor for the ‘short season’ at Mar-a-Lago. It’s hard for him to smack people down on these attacks with a single broadside.
I don’t know if you just saw O’Reilly’s post-game interview with Trump immediately after the debate. We’re going to have some quotes and maybe some video momentarily. (Here’s video.) But it was a thing of hideous beauty. Whatever you can say about O’Reilly, he’s the same kind of nasty, taunting bully as Trump. He gets Trump and has his number. And it showed.
Trump was tired coming off the two hour debate. He went toe to toe with O’Reilly. But unlike everyone else who’s been on the stage with him, O’Reilly has Trump’s number, knows how to deal with him. A Trump who wasn’t a bit worn down would have handled it better. But he was tired.
Here’s where we get the real story. We can’t afford a dangerous figure like Donald Trump, not the country or the conservative movement. But I’ll definitely back him if he’s the nominee.
Shorter GOPers: Trump is a disgrace who doesn’t share our values and may doom America and who I will be supporting in November.
So here’s the part where Megyn Kelly bludgeoned Donald Trump over Trump University.
10:44 PM: I’ve always thought it’s hard for Marco Rubio to lecture Trump about not knowing anything about national security when Rubio himself has only learned any of it in the last couple years and is basically just speaking from talking points.
10:12 PM: A phase here where Trump may have been ill-advised to attack and slash at Megyn Kelly for months.
10:14 PM: This is definitely the worst I’ve seen Donald Trump come off in one of these debates. But it’s such an unholy mess I’m really not clear the others are going to benefit.
10:23 PM: Notable that none of the issues in the word cloud are remotely part of any of the GOP debates.
10:35 PM: Actually, it’s not the second amendment because it’s the second in line of priority. No.
10:37 PM: If I were Trump I would have positioned Chris Christie on the stage just behind him with that “dog worrying where the bone is” look. Felt like that gave Trump an edge.