In a race that continues to
devolve by the minute, is it little surprise the candidates are getting
increasingly desperate in their attempts to stave off a Trump nomination. Among
the many absurdist strategies used to date: 1. Stacking the most recent debates
with Bush supporters to try to stifle Trump and show him in a negative light (Breitbart),
2. Bush actually turning to his brother, one of the most unpopular two-term
presidents in history, to join him on the campaign trail in South Carolina (Guardian),
3. Ted Cruz using porn stars in an ad after claiming there were no actors in
any of his ads (YouTube)
and then spoofing Office Space to
continue feeding the largely dead story of Clinton and her emails (YouTube), 4. All of the
candidates pretending they cared about women in New Hampshire, after they
determined that more female than male voters were undecided (NYT),
even as they have essentially been attacking the interests of women throughout
their campaigns (including this peach
from Cruz) 5. Cruz telling voters that Ben Carson had dropped out of the race
in Iowa even as that wasn’t true (NYT),
on the road to victory … though maybe it is good advice for the short-lived
candidate of the moment some months back.
Yet even as an Internet
Poll from the Bush supporting Super PAC “Right to Rise” shows Trumps lead
cut to a mere two percent over Cruz, a more reliable Politico poll shows him up
almost 20 percent on Cruz and 27 percent on Bush. Ultimately, it appears the
negative campaign tactics that served his father (Willie Horton Ad) and
brother (Swift Boat
Veterans for Lies) so well are a Hail Mary by Jeb to try to save his
flagging campaign, the desperate move of a desperate man who seems to have even
less charisma than his brother, and less of a command over the English
language. Cruz, on the other hand, seems willing to say or do just about
anything to snatch momentum from Trump after his Iowa victory was subsumed by
Trump’s in New Hampshire. Rubio and Kasich have been less likely to delve into
the mud, but that shows in their pitiable polling numbers. They may be the
sensible alternatives to the madness of Trump and Cruz and the turgidity of
Bush, but it unclear that the Republican base is ready to give another “moderate”
a shot at an establishment Democrat.
Of course, whether they will
be facing an establishment Democrat or a self-proclaimed socialist is still to
be decided, and Clinton herself seems to be getting increasingly nasty as she
tries to stave off the fate that befell her eight years ago. Ironically, this
includes tying herself to the very man who bested her in that race, criticizing
Sanders not only for his “radical” and “unrealistic” proposals, but for
deigning to chastise the President’s record. We are just getting started in
this primary season and the gloves are already off; expect the ugliness to
amplify as the most open race in recent memory continues to heat up. On the
Democratic side, this at least still involves some specific proposals to
address real issues, while the GOP continues to slog in the muck of jingoistic
nationalism, anti-choice misogyny, fear mongering and race-bating white
supremacism. At least it’s keeping cable news ratings up …
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