THE GOP Leadership Vacuum

++The deepest presidential field ever--we were told--is in total disarray because The Donald has dominated the race since he first announced. What's different from this year's "flavor of the month" is that he is setting the agenda that all other competitors are imitating and they are doing it poorly. 

++Greg Sargent of the Washington Post is doing I told you so these days. Sargent had written a column after the 2014 elections that the House had to pass immigration reform as soon as possible and let the base vent if the GOP had a chance in 2016. GOP donors and party operatives had told Sargent that there was an urgency among the business community for this issue to be resolved and then was the perfect time to do it. We were told at various points that draft legislation was being prepared and several times it even looked like it would be introduced. But the teabagger caucus held it up.

++Latin polling firms had projected the % the GOP had to attain of the growing Latino vote. George W. had won with 40%, but Romney fell to the mid-twenties. With the increased Hispanic vote,I indicated the other week they needed 42% but in fact it is probably more like 46% of the vote. How's that going to happen?

++The numerous governors running all know this ,yet they follow the Donald. I blame Marco Rubio's lack of viability to the simple fact that he backed away from his support of the Senate immigration bill. Rubio had no election to run in the near future and should have taken a temporary hit from the base by supporting it. But he folded like a cheap suit. 

++The Donald is shredding the right-wing machines in pieces. He has gone after the hedge fund managers ,which were a suburb part of the GOP, and he has gone after FOX news which is their media organ. And he has gone into the Koch Brothers' Anti-Obama coalition of the tea party and stolen their thunder. The Donald has vented the frustration of the base against the failure of the GOP-led Congress to do anything they promised. Repeal Obamacare? Sure they tried over 50 times and failed. Have a substitute? Only Scott Walker rolled out a weak version that did nothing for the poor, the underinsured. Defund Planned Parenthood? Now they want to close down the government.

++The GOP is splintered in a graphic way that will take the remainder of the campaign to unite,if ever possible. There is reason that Senator Graham said that the Republican Party will disappear if the Donald is elected. 

++The Donald knows what he is doing instinctually. He knows how to dominate the media and play them like a fiddle. He doesn't have to be taught to be a media presence like the others. If you think throwing the most influential journalist in America--Jorge Ramos-out of a press conference is damaging, think again. It's not for nothing that the Donald is in the World Wrestling Federation's Hall of Fame. He knows what sells.

++Progressives are beginning to sense that the Donald ,as repugnant as his views are on immigration are, his other positions are less toxic than  his competitors. He's for strengthening Social Security. He promises The Greatest Health Care system in the world. He will repair the crumbling infrastructure in the country. None of the others promise any of these things. So he can't massively deport 11 million people but it is reasonable that he could rebuild the infrastructure.

++If you want to listen to the real Donald Trump, I advise you to listen to his appearances on the Howard Stern show. He is amazed as the pundits are that he leads in the polls in the first three states. He also dodged the question on whether Megyn Kelly is a 10 or not. The relationship with Howard goes back many years and so you get a flavor of the New York boys shooting the breeze.

++The Republican Party in Virginia and in North Carolina are trying to pass a loyalty oath that the contestants in their primaries are pledged to back the party's winner. This is clearly aimed at the Donald.

++The destruction on the rest of the field by Hurricane Donald is shown by the self-diminishing of JEB! JEB! decided to step away from referring to anchor babies as Hispanics and lamely said he worried about the Asian immigrants. Last election,I thought Obama did amazingly among the Asian-American voters because traditionally it has been only males in that community who voted. The GOP once had a built-in advantage among this demographic. So JEB! is just floundering around. Some political operatives thought his first anti-Trump ad was effective, I did not. Especially when you are stuck for two days explaining what you meant by anchor babies.

++Roger Stone, king of the ratfuckers,gave a very effective interview on Huffington Post about the Donald and pointed out what he is tapping into. 

++Conservatives who e-mail me their screes regularly and tilt to the national security side believe the Donald is exploiting a deep anger that has built up  during the Obama years by conservatives. However, this group is relatively silent on the Donald as their political choice. I can sense a deep reticence. Some of the people like Ted Cruz, who is alien to anything I think.

++In watching the Donald break away from the pack,it seems to me the GOP is so damaged by the W years and their obstructionism during the Obama years that it doesn't know how to cope with the Donald. He doesn't play well with the conservative "elite". You can sense that he intimidates them. For example, Frank Luntz, the pollster/ad man for the GOP,got badly bruised in his exchange with Trump, then turns and has another focus group about why people support him. The reasons he presented to the Koch Brothers forum.

++The Donald is frontally taking on all the opinion-makers in the conservative media world, including Roger Ailes who he says is a wonderful guy. I tend to agree with Sam Seder who appeared of "Ring of Fire" radio and said that you have to enjoy how The Donald is destroying the conservative infrastructure. 

++While the Donald says things that are obnoxious, he doesn't come across as mean. The other candidates come across as mean and ugly,the dark side of America, not the "Shining City on the Hill". 

++The Donald is weirdly optimistic. something he shares with Ronald Reagan. What comes across is that he appeals to a sense of the "Can Do" spirit. The others are about what we can't do ,except blow up any country we want. 

++Part of the Donald's appeal actually lies in the Ron Paul Love Revolution, which generated a parallel grassroots organization that challenged the Romney campaign in 2012. Rand Paul has tried to exploit this base but has failed miserably. The Donald seems to be their newest love. 

++Deeply disturbing to party functionaries is that the Donald is polling very well across the demographics in the party--cultural conservatives,the religious right,and economic conservatives. That has them worried. They have lost control. 

++People forget the Donald has been around a while and has generated policy positions since the 1990s. The man is in his late 60s and basically figures he has nothing more to really prove. He comes across as authentic as a reality television star can be. None of the other candidates exude that sense of self. So we accept the hyperboles and exaggerations and the downright falsehoods as part of his persona.

++It will take a while to figure out whether his flamboyance is Theodore Roosevelt or Huey Long. 
It is funny that the two candidates who exude authenticity are the Donald and Bernie Sanders, both New Yorkers.