Note the precise language, though. If Donald Trump gets the nomination, he would then proceed to lose the general election – and the people who run stuff for the rest of the Republican party would never, ever forget that. And since they’d themselves be on the hook for the loss*, well, best to have a sacrificial victim at hand, yes? And look: there are a bunch, right there.
Seriously, and contra Politico: it doesn’t matter if Donald Trump has a long memory of slights or not. He’s old, and won’t be the next President. But the people who work for him had best understand that their best hope is that Trump doesn’t get the nomination. Because they’re the ones who will be blamed for the loss. But people can be forgiven for youthful indiscretions…
Moe Lane
*Not by me, because if Donald Trump got the nomination I’d be out of this business anyway, out of sheer revulsion for the prospect. Retribution would thus be somebody else’s problem, because it certainly wouldn’t be mine.
And one of his hires was, apparently, the guy who ran Walker’s campaign. That seems… fitting.
St. Reagan, back in the day, would routinely leave openings in his campaign staff .. and would hire staffers from campaigns that lost to him.
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This gave him the cream of the staffers, obviously, but it also meant any residual hard feelings over a loss could be scrubbed away with ca$h.. a very *pragmatic* position.
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Put another way, it seems just as strange to criticize Trump for hiring his former opponents’ staffers as it does to laud Cruz for playing Ron Paul-style delegate games.
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To be clear, I’m not saying any of this from a pro-Trump standpoint – I didn’t and won’t be voting for him – rather I’m coming at it from an intellectual consistency standpoint.
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This argument appears to be *in*consistent with successful *conservative* campaigners of the past.
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Mew
Wiley was very lucky Walker finished his campaign when he did.
My point was that Wiley was awful at his job.
That, unfortunately was true.
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Mew
Eh, if the guys running the Bush campaign can find work, I have no doubt that the guys running the Trump campaign will do so.
.. if the guys who ran the McCain campaign and the Romney campaign can find work .. yeah.
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Just which staffers have *ever* been drummed out of the business? Ever?
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Short of a staffer dying, I don’t believe it’s an achievable goal to drive them out of the business, which .. makes this whole statement of Moe’s seem .. odd.
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Mew
Folks, it’s real simple. We will win the election if Trump is not the nominee. You will lose the election if he is. SOMEONE will have to take the fall for that.
I do not dispute anything you wrote here, Moe.
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I do, however, note that it does not actually answer what I asked.
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*IF* a political consultant has been successfully driven out of that line of work, then there should be a scalp available for pointing and mockery, for a “we did that to X, you’re next”.
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As the *only* scalp I can think of offpaw is Lee Atwater’s, and cancer got him, I .. don’t think I can accept your statements above at face value.
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Mew
Sorry, I was imprecise. The mid-level people are generally going to be the ones who will have the most problems. The top dudes never get hammered for their poor life choices, sure.
We will have a fighting chance if Trump is not the nominee, because “Hillary Clinton” is possibly marginally more unpopular than “movement conservative” in the general population. But it’s nothing close to a sure thing (In the alternate universe where Trump and Jeb decided not to run and Rubio has wrapped up the nomination by now, yeah, the general election is pretty close to a sure thing. But we don’t live in that universe.)
Rather begs the question .. “What is ‘Peak Hillary’?”
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http://www.salon.com/2016/04/21/enough_with_the_hillary_cult_her_admirers_ignore_reality_dream_of_worshipping_a_queen/
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Mew
Moe, just in case nobody else is saying it, the idea that you’d quit if Trump gets the nom is … disappointing. I don’t believe you; I think you’re made of sterner stuff than that.
Just like a hobbit.
I will not vote for, or support, a God-damned 9/11 Troofer. Let me be blunt: the option is not “Support Trump, or quit.” The option is “Support Clinton, or quit.” I choose to quit, and go to the West, and remain Moe Lane. I humbly suggest that nobody try to change my mind.
…But let’s nominate Ted Cruz instead.
My theory is that taking medicine becomes downright appealing when your other options are arsenic and cyanide.
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Of course, that’s demonstrating a faith in our citizenry that is not backed up by recent experience. It’s very possible I’m wrong.
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(And I would be forced to acknowledge that being a minor political commentator under either the Trump or Hillary administration would be contraindicated.)
Well, you could have a lot of fun throwing barbs from the peanut gallery, if either of those wastes of skin gets inaugurated.