http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-republicans-ryan-idUSKCN0W61OK In my opinion, the Republican party is shooting itself in its collective foot. The debate antics, @MittRomney's "speech" and @Reince Priebus' unwillingness to make all pull together is causing the party to self-destruct. I think it is too late and too devisive to insert @SpeakerRyan into the election process. Any planks for the convention may well be a battle of wills.
I think the Republicans are going to once again find a way to lose to a very flawed Democrat, despite the fact that Dem turnout has been very anemic.
Yesterday The Hill published a pundit piece, by former Rep. John LeBoutillier (R-NY), titled "Trump or Clinton? Don't bet on it". The writer ticks off 17 points covering the litany of noise why the two front runners may not be standing at the conclusion of their respective conventions. One of the items mentions Speaker Ryan.
As much as I rail on the GOP establishment hacks, I must also criticize the grass roots / conservative base / tea party types who "stay home" because establishment candidates such as Romney and McCain get the nomination. How any non-Dem, independent, conservative, or Republican of any sort in their right mind can think that there is no difference between Hillary or Obama vs Romney, McCain, Jeb, Ryan, or whoever is a mystery to me. One choice is definitely worse than the other, so staying home only helps the greater of 2 evils further and faster send the country on it's highway to hell. [video=youtube;l482T0yNkeo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l482T0yNkeo[/video]
News this afternoon reports Speaker Ryan sending out a letter to the FEC and those trying to draft him for the campaign.
This seems to be too little too late. It took too much of a long time to realise that Donald Trump could be more of a liability than an asset. However at this Trump is still gaining traction so probably the best option is to continue with him and hope for the best, and in any event, the democratic nomination race is not inspiring a great amount of confidence either.
It would be political suicide for him. At this point, almost any non-Trump nominee is going to be seen as stealing it. The Reps can play some convention games and fudge the rules to get someone else the nomination.. but if Trump has the most delegates when that happens, it will rip the party apart. You cannot have Romney and Bush and others in some backroom taking away the nomination from the guy in front. Even if Trump does not reach 1237, his supporters are still going to see it as the establishment stealing the nomination. I still think of 2 of the 3 other candidates get out, the one left will win. There are a ton of delegates still available, and Trump won this past week once again with 35-40% of the vote. I kinda said the same thing with Bernie. If Bernie can catch up with the state delegates, and Hillary only wins because of Super-delegates, you are going to see a huge backlash against her.
I too fear this scenario could happen again. The last few decades, the GOP has manage to find and field some pretty uninspiring candidates who ran mediocre campaigns and then lost in the general. The left may be in full retreat after the train-wreck of the Obama presidency, but I still wouldn't put it past the 'Pubs to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. It is what they do best.
I think you are living in a bubble. Obama has a job approval rating of 50% right now. Compared to baby Bush who was at 34% when he left office. You also have to look at the fact that Hillary Clinton who is winning the nomination uses Obama´s name about every 10 seconds in her stump speech and who wraps herself in every policy decision he made... she is certainly not distancing herself from him, and in fact is trying to use his success as her launching point. Obama´s legacy is a trainwreck that is going to get her 51% of the popular vote.
And you must not follow economic news very closely. Labor participation rates are the lowest since the Carter administration, tens of millions have given up looking for work, economic growth is anemic (to put charitably), entitlement spending is through the roof, 49.2% of all households have to receive some form of government benefits, and the national debt is approaching $20T. How can anyone consider that a success is beyond me.
