I suspect that the main purpose is just to get someone on Sunday morning talk-shows who can give the Frum/Kristol/Romney line on what Republicans are about, rather than have that discussion be totally dominated for the next three months by whatever crazy thing Trump said that day. A lot of voters only tune in around the election, so the obvoius fear is that for the establishment GOP is that Trump is the main such voters will associate the GOP with for the next four years.
Agree even if he gets on a few ballots, it will make zero difference electorally. His name will just get lumped in with the Prohibition candidate party nominee, Vermain Supreme, and all the other randoms. But the fact that he’s on a few state ballots will give any press venues an excuse to invite him on during their election coverage (and for the next three months, almost all coverage will be election coverage).
You say that like people only ever have good strategies and cunning plans.
Their strategic purpose is to put up a “true establishment conservative” type, so that they can distance themselves from Trump’s sideshow and prop up their failing self-identity which is threatened by seeing the Republican brand associated with naked racism and stupidity.
They won’t say that last bit out loud, usually, but it’s what’s driving, for example, mild-mannered David Brooks to declare that Donald is psychologically damaged and that the time is come for Republicans to stop standing by him, even in embarassment.
I quoted Eldridge Cleaver’s famous IF-THEN statemenet a few days ago. I can’t help thinking that’s symptomatic that Brooks decided to paraphrase him rather than quote him, because quoting him would point out that the #NeverTrumps are not really part of the solution (which is - vote Hillary).
The point is - #NeverTrump conservatives aren’t trying to win the election. They just want someone they can feel good about supporting, who will hopefully get conservatives to the voting booth in enough numbers that down-ticket races aren’t a blowout. It also gives them mental permission to resist the call to do something productive to stop Trump - namely, vote Democrat.
Kinda funny that Kristol et. al. have gone from saying they were going to put Romney on the ballot in 50 states to oppose Trump, to (maybe) putting some random House staffer on the ballot in Utah.
By October they’ll be trying to push an intern at the Heritage Foundation as a write in candidate. And the intern will turn them down.
That definitely makes sense. I was just assuming that it took Better for America that long to find him, since they probably spent a while begging/trying to persuade Romney, then other high profile Republicans, then other smaller profile Republicans, then very small profile Republicans, then total non-politicians who would fit the bill, before finding and working things out with McMullin. I don’t know much about Better for America, but a lot of Never Trump people were still hoping for things to change at the convention, and since that didn’t work out maybe they only began their desperate search for an independent run after that.
But I’m just speculating. If we don’t ever hear anything about McMullin again, then you’re right about the campaign not being at all serious. But if there are ads and endorsements, then it might be at least somewhat serious, even if it’s still questionable how successful it will be.
If his purpose is to be a draw for #NeverTrumpists to bother voting so as to save down ballot candidates then he has very little time, at least as far as Senate battles go. Looking at the crystal ball, there’s about 6 “toss up” seats held by Republicans. Florida, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Indiana’s deadlines have all passed. Ohio and New Hampshire are tomorrow. There’s always court action, I suppose.
I find it somewhat interesting that with the “deepest bench of qualified candidates ever” in the primary, they couldn’t find one occupant of the clown car who was willing to throw him or herself into the breach.
The bolded part is the whole problem in a nutshell. This is just another desperate stunt from a party that is circling the drain with increasing speed. They’ve spent the last eight years being obstructionists, alienating non-white voters, and cozying up to their donors to the detriment of their constituents and Trump is the result. The party leaders have lost control and they don’t want to admit it yet.
The books that will be written about this election are going to be spectacular.
Since he has zero chance anyway he should have just rolled with it and not admitted it was a place holder. Not like anyone would pay enough attention to discover that ol’ Nathan is his favorite bartender.
This isn’t actually a real presidential campaign. It’s just a hobby for disaffected Republican consultants who are pissed that Trump won the nomination without paying them millions of dollars in the process. They deserve to run a presidential campaign so they’re gonna do it even without a real candidate. It could be totally fake names and it would be just as meaningful.
According to the last link, McMullin’s gotten on the ballot in nine states. Since this is more than I expected out of him and his supporters, I’ll grudgingly give him credit for that. Not that it will makie the slightest difference.
