8 years ago
4
Inside the Clinton Team’s Plan to Defeat Donald Trump
In the days after Donald J. Trump vanquished his Republican rivals in South Carolina and Nevada, prominent Democrats supporting Hillary Clinton arranged a series of meetings and conference calls to tackle a question many never thought they would ask: How do we defeat Mr. Trump in a general election? Several Democrats argued that Mrs. Clinton, should she be her party’s nominee, would easily beat Mr. Trump. They were confident that his incendiary remarks about...
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As if.
As if what?
If you start with the linked piece, you can find one or two places where cracks are starting to show. Here's one I think’s telling:
Most folks dislike Clinton and Trump. Trump’s shown he can survive who-do-you-dislike-more contests, eating the broadly-disliked Jeb Bush’s lunch, for instance. For now, Clinton’s gladly winning red state primaries in states she’s not likely to carry in the general election. Candidates with unfavorability ratings like hers typically lose in the general, even without opponents like Trump that drive yooge increases in turnout for the other side.
Most folks do like Sanders, despite Clinton’s best efforts so far. Once Clinton walks away with the Democratic presidential nomination, when it’s crystal clear to the Sanders crowd how undemocratic the Democratic Party is, how many Sanders supporters are going to walk away as well? Clinton and the DNC are working night and day to depress eventual Democratic voter turnout in the general election.
The linked article, dictated to a Times s̶t̶e̶n̶o̶g̶r̶a̶p̶h̶e̶r̶ reporter by the Clinton campaign, makes all the tacit assumptions it naturally would have coming from within the corporate-Democratic establishment. Here’s a Lulu:
This, about a would-be health care reformer who now lectures widely about how single-payer will “never, ever” happen. Now, I may not fathom all that eleventh-dimensional chess they supposedly play over there in the halls of power, but even I can tell who’s likely to get more votes in a general election bile-milking contest with Trump.
I'm interpreting from between the lines and your tone to mean that in Clinton v Trump general election Trump undoubtedly would win, yes? If that is the case then "as if" hardly makes it clear that this is your position.
Secondly, I am not so sure that Trump would win the general election and become POTUS once the Clinton campaign machine shifted their full attention to all the gaffes he has left on the nomination campaign trail.
Exhibit A - for all intents and purposes there is a soundbite that he "accepted an endorsement from KKK". I doubt even Sanders supporters would be that begrudging of Clinton to hand presidency to anyone like that in November simply because they got washed out in June.
Time heals all wounds and I don't think progressive voters would allow Trump to win the presidency.
I might be wrong and it wouldn't be the first time but I am highly skeptical things will transpire as you have outlined.