Talking Points This Week

++Chris Weigant writes that we should expect a weekend of extreme viciousness from the GOP as they are moving to Super Tuesday. 

++Today saw "Tony"--his mother's name for him--Rubio say Trump wet his pants at the debate. As Josh Marshall wrote,the Valet had about 11 hours of winning the news cycle and then the Donald squashed him like  a bug. The Donald parodied Rubio's water bottle speech and said that Rubio was a nervous wreck before the debate. Then he unveiled his prize endorsement Chris Christie, who happens to be the President of the Republican Governors' Association. 

++The GOP donors have freaked out en masse. They have hired a Miami consultant firm to plan an independent run for President is the Donald wins the nomination. Slight problem is that Texas and North carolina have high bars for signatures and a date rapidly approaching. 

++The Bloomberg poll of the SEC primaries shows the Donald with commanding leads over anyone-clocking in the 40s, while Rubio and Cruz are stuck in the early twenties. Polls indicate that Cruz will win Texas but not necessarily all of their delegates. 

++Weigant says that three candidates are depending on basing their delectability on winning their home states. Cruz-Texas, Kasich Ohio and Rubio Florida. But the problem is that Kasich is losing to Trump in Ohio and Rubio is way behind in Florida.

++Reporters in the Beltway are asking how long did it take for the GOP to get hip to the Donald and why didn't they have opposition research on his before. The good news is that the Democrats apparently have ample opposition research on the Donald. The conclusion was that the GOP lives in its own bubble and pundits were convinced that the Donald would fade or say something that would destroy him.

++Robert Kagan ("former Repubican and neoconservative) writes today why the GOP can't be saved but the country can be. He supports Hillary Clinton for that fact. Kagan riffs through the long list of the GOP's failings in the Obama era and how this all led to the creation of the Donald.

++The Donald won't accept an endorsement from the "Penguin"--Mitt Romney, who has been trolling him on his taxes.  Let's face it--Romney got skewered by Harry Reid, fellow Mormon, who got tipped off by Jon Huntsman,Sr., another fellow Mormon who was pissed at Romney for not tithing to the Church of Latter-Day Saints and maybe he was pissed because his son was not getting traction in the GOP primaries. What does Romney know about Trump's IRS audit--absolutely nothing. It may or may not be anything but Romney certainly would not know.

++"Tony" Rubio has his own tax issues and he didn't release anything but the first two pages of his returns. Not confidence building.

++Chris Weigant says the Democrat of the week was Hillary Clinton for her win in Nevada and her tomorrow win in South Carolina.He also points out that Harry Reid endorsed her. After Super Tuesday, Hillary should be wrapping things up. A poll came out today,that she has a monster lead in Florida.

++While Senator Shortpants aka Tony Rubio is Nate Silver's anti-Trump, let's not pretend. Marco wants the government to teach children "Christian values",the same he applies his mistress Amber the Lobbyist. He is anti-abortion and would not have an exception for rape,abortion or the health of the mother. "I would rather lose an election than give up my pro-life position." Well, he's going to get his wish! He ignores climate change even though Miami should disappear into the sea within two decades. His Tax Plan gives huge tax breaks to the wealthy and guts the social welfare system. He's for cutting Medicare and Social Security. He will rip up the Iran nuclear deal,will wage war against Russia and China--good trick. He will keep GITMO open and restore torture. He would commit ground troops to fight ISIS wherever they are. He is for the FBI making Apple give them backdoor entry to this computer and cellphones. He adopted the mid-1990s platform of the New American Century which planned for the invasion of Iraq and Dick Cheney's energy empire.  And that's your winning candidate.

++But Democrats should be warned about the Trumpeteer phenomenon. Yes, the Donald is supported by people angry with the Republican party. They are angry with the bank bailouts by Bush,the failure of Iraq,the ignoring of the tea party,the dysfunction of the Republican Congress. 

++But as two Scandanavian reporters talk about on a liberal American talk show they having been following the Trump rallies and interviewed the audience. They found a good deal are former Democrats who lost their jobs when the factories left the country--hence Trump's mention of companies leaving the country. And they found many independents. The anger they found was similar to Bernie Sanders' labor, blue collar supporters. They also said that it did not matter whether Mexico paid for the Wall,the audience liked the idea. Anytime facts were brought up,the Trump supporter didn't care--it was just the emotion. The moderator asked whether the Trump supporters realized that it was the Trump's of the world who kept them down. The women replied that this did not matter. It was the "Other" who was at fault.

++The dangerous dynamic was set when the GOP did not condemn Trump's rhetoric from the beginning and set some semblance of civility in the process. Instead,they thought he would burn out. And, besides,I Have written they abandoned their Autopsy Report and made a full court effort to go all white. So why condemn the KKK or the White Supremacists?

++Steve Benen , now at RachelMaddowblog and formerly at the Washington Monthly,pointed out early on in the Obama years that the GOP was now practically policy-free and their obstructionism led to this day.

++There is still the bull your way to victory strategy which looks weak. Josh Marshall analyzes this this week on the GOP Senators insisting they won't even shake hands with someone Obama nominates to the court. It sounded fierce until political writers have been pointing out that this single act could lead to the GOP losing the Senate. Then mutterings were heard from various Senators that "well, they really didn't mean it." Now Senators won't take questions on the subject.

++The House Republicans wrote a prologue about what kind of healthcare system they want when they repeal Obamacare. Nothing new here that wasn't said ten years ago. And nothing that makes any economic sense or positively affects healthcare in this country.

++As we saw last night, the mainstream Republicans would allow Americans to die in the streets. This was a positive virtue while Trump was weak because he wouldn't.

++The conservative movement I knew in my middle age is Kaput. Your can sense it when you listen to these debates--no guiding principles, no ideology that makes sense--nothing. The National Review's indictment of The Donald had a hodgepodge of people who claimed to write as conservatives but are almost post-modernists in their identity. Glenn Beck? Throughout this campaign you have seen how they have come undone.

++This is a time we need Andrew Sullivan back dissecting the collapse of American conservatism. 

++If you want ideological coherence,try Bernie Sanders' campaign. It makes sense but like all ideology it isn't political practical. Frank Luntz woke up today to find millennials are far more liberal than he ever dreamed. They don't believe in what made America great--which I don't know what Luntz means. 
The most popular and admired figure is Bernie Sanders. My man President Obama comes in a distant second. Hillary barely registers but does manage to be more popular than Donald Trump. The rest of the GOP are no where.

++If you look at millennial broadcasts like The Young Turks, the complaint about President Obama was that he didn't go far enough,that he bowed down to the national security state, and that he only implemented half measures. The argument is against incremental change because it never becomes irreversible. This opens a fertile field for political discussion, where I find myself on both sides of the fence.

++But I find an almost anti-Obama animus on the Left deeply disturbing but also self-defeating. We couldn't have this discussion before he was elected. 

++I understand there is no patience with the minutiae of the political process and how Obama has to weave his way against truly reactionary forces. But dismissing him is a bit rough. 

++The Supreme Court fight has triggered a discussion--again--of how the Republicans still try and delegitimize our first Black President. I find the authors mostly late 40s to my age, who remember the civil rights movement. But anyone younger doesn't respond to this.

++What worries me is that political activism will be seen as a subculture in our society. The lifestyle chose of a few personality types with little effect on real issues.