More to the point, where is the Knesset?
How many do you know?
If the early primaries proved anything at all, it’s that neither Jim Webb nor Rick Perry have any ability to gain anyone’s trust.
I think this is pretty much on target.
And apparently the anti-Trump forces are now hoping to stop Trump just three dozen delegates short of 1237:
If they think that’s going to suffice, they must be crazy. If Trump got to 1200 and was denied the nomination, it would be war.
There is no such person. If Trump comes in with a plurality of delegates, a good third of the GOP electorate will find no other candidate acceptable, and stay home (if he doesn’t launch an independent bid) or vote for him anyway (if he does).
The [noparse]TL:DR[/noparse] version: Even if all the stars line up perfectly against him, Trump gets 97% of the way to an outright majority. The NeverTrumpkins have no margin for error.
There could be two or three such parties until they finally coalesce. The same problems that are afflicting the GOP now would delay that coalescence (though the electoral system would drive it toward happening eventually).
I am amused by the thought that this number will start popping up all over the place in politics much like pi and e pop up all over the place in mathematics. 
I just don’t see ANY way the Republicans can allow Donald Trump to be their nominee. Can you imagine? The Republican nominee for President would be actively and vociferously opposed by half of the Republicans in the house and Senate, pretty much all previous Republican candidates, and two thirds of the party. It would be like if some old Democratic Klansman somehow came out of the woodwork and picked up enough votes in a many-candidate primary season to come out on top. Even if he won mathematically, there’s no way the Democrats could ever allow such a person to be the face of their party.
If you’re worried about the Republicans breaking up at a contested convention, imagine what it will be like if Trump actually wins. Those of you who think the Republicans will just all coalesce around him… I don’t think so. Not all of them, anyway. There are too many who have made definitive and rather extreme statements about him that they really can’t walk back - unless somehow a new Trump emerges who starts acting presidential and seems to know what he’s talking about, but I don’t think Trump has it in him to do that.
George Will hinted on Sunday that the Republicans are preparing a massive PR push against Trump, to start very soon. Apparently a number of Senators and Congressmen have agreed to take part in anti-Trump ads. If they’re half as harsh as what Mitt Romney said, there’s no way those people will be able to easily go back to supporting Trump. And movers and shakers in the movement like Will, the staff of National Review, the people at Commentary Magazine and other conservative outlets will be in a total uproar if Trump is the nominee.
The best hope for Republicans is to stop him before or at the convention. Any result other than beating him soundly in the delegate count is going to be bad, but the worst situation of all is to allow Trump to be the face of the Republican party going against Hillary.
Trump is the left’s caricature of a Republican. He’s Steven Colbert in character. If the Republicans back him and make excuses for him, it will validate every negative stereotype of the right. If they were actually trying to inject a false flag candidate who intentionally made Republicans look as bad as possible, they could hardly do better than Donald Trump.
For that reason, if Trump becomes the Republican nominee, I could see the party break up, and the Republicans would leave Trump alone with a rump of the old party consisting of his nativist/protectionist yahoo supporters.
I know, it’s a two party system. What are you going to do? Don’t blame me: -I- voted for Kodos.
It would also give Trump a perfect excuse for losing, a grudge against the GOP establishment and a good reason to go third party if he loses the nomination next time. If Trump ends up with the nomination any effort to sabotage him from the GOP just guarantees he comes back to hurt them again.
And if they DO allow him to become the nominee, he will tar the Republican brand for a long, long time. So there are no good outcomes here unless he’s beaten before or at the convention.
And of course, if he somehow won the general election (not inconceivable), the U.S. will have an actual fascist strongman-wannabe as their President.
Instead of hoping he becomes the nominee, Democrats should be worrying that he might be it, because he will attack Hillary viciously, and he may pull enough blue-collar voters from the Democrats to actually win the election. And that would be a disaster for America. For that matter, just having him in the Presidential election against Hillary will make America look bad.
Trump will turn seventy before this year’s convention; you figure he’d come back for another try at the White House at age seventy-four? When the other candidates will know what happens if they don’t start coming after the guy hard at the start?
If he has a grudge? you bet. And it wouldn’t be a try at the white house, it would be a revenge run against the GOP. He wouldn’t need to win, just get enough support that his third party run leads to a crushing GOP loss.
What do you mean, start? I think we all remember the popularity of ‘47 percent’ in the last Presidential election. 
You mean like Rubio’s endorsement of #NeverTrump? Apparently that meant that Rubio wouldn’t vote for him in the primaries, IOW, it didn’t mean jack shit.
Maybe some politician-emeritus types like Romney, who no longer have to worry about how actual Republican voters might vote in a primary, have been willing to say some pretty harsh things. But let’s hear some names of Republicans who plan to go before the voters again, who’ve said these unwalkbackable things.
The party may not be enthusiastic about Trump, but with scant exceptions, if he wins the nomination, they’ll line up behind him, or keep their feelings to themselves.
At any rate, the GOP isn’t going to break up over Trump if he’s nominated. They’ll lose the Presidential election again, lose their Senate majority, but probably still have a slim House majority. And their House majority will do to Hillary what they’ve been doing to Obama for six years: saying NO to everything. And the party will forget about Trump the way they forgot about Dubya, and be united in their opposition to the Evil Witch Hillary.
The only thing that might split the party is if Trump gets way more delegates than anyone else, but the party nominates someone else anyway.
Republican Senator Ben Sasse:
Report: McConnell preps senators to run against Trump
I think what you’re missing is that the House and Senate Republicans are more worried that supporting Trump would torpedo their own elections. They’d rather see Hillary win with them in control of the House and Senate than see Donald Trump win but the Senate turn over to the Democrats.
So that’s ‘vulnerable’ senators who will peel off, and Conservative Senators will peel off. That might leave a handful of Senators in blue-collar states that might stick with him. Maybe.
I don’t think some of you understand the depth of hatred and fear of Donald Trump that’s currently going through the GOP establishment. He’s about the worst thing that could have possibly happened to Republicans.
I see that the “toitle” is praying indeed.
Too late. Too late guys.
Then you haven’t been listening to the cheers and popping of champagne corks and sheer unadulterated glee of the non-conservative community.
Bolding mine.
Overall I agree. But ref the bolded part …
If anybody thinks the angry rejectionist wing of the Right is going to somehow disappear after Trump loses either the nomination or the general they’re not paying attention.
There will be a groundswell of angry rejectionist Congressmen running in 2018. And there will be a fresh standard-bearer for them in 2020. It might still be Trump. Or it might be Arpaio. Or somebody I’ve never heard of. But he’ll be there.
This problem goes away when the white working class feels economically safe and successful. And not before.
The white working class will literally start dying off into an insignificant minority before that happens. A solution other than mere demagoguery will have to be found.