Sasse (Senator from Nebraska) encouraging it. Ryan refusing to say he backs Trump yet....I think it'll happen.

5/5/2016 4:59:08 PM

They're delusional if they think a split party has a chance against Hillary. A unified party win will be hard enough.

5/5/2016 6:21:45 PM

^


[Edited on May 5, 2016 at 6:24 PM. Reason : WHEN HE'S RIGHT HE'S RIGHT]

5/5/2016 6:23:45 PM

Loads of Republicans would vote for party purity over winning.

5/5/2016 6:26:38 PM

I don't think it would be to win the white house, it would be for down ticket races to save the House/Senate.

5/5/2016 7:53:41 PM

But running a third party "tow-the-line" nominee will not help down ballot races because people will see that the general election is already lost, and they'll just stay home. Sasse, Ryan, and all the others just need to take their lumps, accept Trump and prepare well in 4 years.

5/5/2016 8:22:13 PM

^^^ Trump is not going to win anyway. No such thing as a wasted vote when the guy in 2nd doesn't have a chance.

[Edited on May 6, 2016 at 12:00 PM. Reason : .]

5/6/2016 11:57:24 AM

Oh, what I would give to see this happen. It won't, though. There's little to gain and a lot, potentially, to lose.

If the GOP wants downticket coverage, I think it's better off throwing all of its resources into those races and doing its best to ignore that the presidential race is evening happening. Trump is so proud of self-funding, let him self-fund. Meanwhile, throw all of the RNC's money and influence into key congressional races and do your best to get those into national news cycles.

Otherwise, I don't know what you do. There's nothing to be gained throwing everything behind Trump. Most likely he loses anyway, having done lasting damage to the party and the country. If he somehow wins, he doesn't promote core GOP issues and does even greater, longer-lasting damage to the party and country.

5/6/2016 2:27:47 PM

Washington Post op-ed on potential 3rd party runs:

-Former Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma (he'd win that state)
-Former Gov. Rick Perry of Texas (not keen on him, but the op-ed thinks he'd win Texas, which I'm more in doubt on, but would be huge in the Electoral College if he could)
-Retired Army Gen. Ray Odierno (got his Master's degree at N.C. State in Nuclear Engineering by the way)
-Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska (he's the current Republican lawmaker that has been the most outspoken publicly against Trump)
-and they also throw in Romney, who I doubt would do this

Couple others from thehill.com:

-Former Gov. Gary Johnson of New Mexico, who will be on the ballot in most states likely anyway as the Libertarian Party nominee
-Retired Marine Corps Gen. John Kelly
-Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan
-Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina (popular up-and-coming star in Republican circles, I think she'd decline)
-Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky (would not be keen on him either, he was ripped apart by Chris Christie in debates)

5/6/2016 2:51:41 PM

Quote :

"Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky (would not be keen on him either, he was ripped apart by Chris Christie in debates)"

that's not how I remember it

I remember Paul disagreeing with Christie that our 4th Amendment rights shouldn't be violated

Christie is a tool, anyway. About a second after he dropped out, he started sniffing Trump's behind, and Trump just shoo'd him away.

Because he's a tool.

5/6/2016 8:27:46 PM

https://twitter.com/costareports/status/728733636804120576

Quote :

"NEWS: ROMNEY took the meeting... he met privately w/ Kristol on Thurs at JW Marriott in DC. Kristol urged Romney to consider indpnt bid..."

Romney is too "old news" in my eyes. This would be his 3rd presidential run if he took it. He may have the most name recognition of anyone, but there is candidate fatigue. In a campaign for the Republican nod where Trump successfully vanquished the Republican Party of old, they need a candidate for the future, not the past.

Kristol is Bill Kristol of the Weekly Standard, a weekly conservative magazine. He said this in an editorial published yesterday:

http://www.weeklystandard.com/neither-clinton-nor-trump/article/2002274

Quote :

"Neither Clinton Nor Trump May 16, 2016 | By William Kristol "Sometimes party loyalty asks too much." —John F. Kennedy, 1960 I have always voted for the Republican presidential candidate. From Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford to Ronald Reagan (twice) and George H.?W. Bush (twice) and Bob Dole, from George W. Bush (twice) to John McCain and Mitt Romney—I've checked the box next to those eight names on all 11 occasions I've had the chance. About half the time, I've voted for someone else in the primary. But even in those cases I never hesitated before supporting the Republican nominee in the general election. I regret none of those votes. I believe in retrospect, as I believed at the time, that in every case these men would have pursued policies better for the country than their opponents would have, and I believe now, as I did then, that in almost every case the Republican nominee was also superior to his opponent in terms of character and temperament and judgment. My GOP presidential voting streak will end at 11. I cannot vote for Donald Trump. It's not clear that his mixed bag of motley policies would be superior to those of his Democratic opponent. He could well pick better Supreme Court justices, which is important; but he could well pursue a less sound foreign policy, which is also important. But policy is not the issue. Character is. It is clear that Donald Trump does not have the character to be president of the United States. And it is clear Hillary Clinton ought not to be our next president either. What to do? Find a better choice. Recruit and support an independent candidate. I'm not prone to encouraging or supporting independent candidacies. I've never done so. I think the two-party system has served America well. I think, all in all, the Republican party has served the country well. I could even make a case that, of all the political parties in the world, the Republican party is one of the most impressive: It's been right more often about more consequential things than almost any other. But it was wrong to nominate Donald Trump. The good news is that it is not too late to give Republican voters, a majority of whom have not supported Donald Trump in the primaries, an alternative. An independent Republican candidate can help prevent the conflation of the Republican party with Trump and of conservatism with Trumpism. Such a candidate could also appeal to many independents and some Democrats. He or she could win. Really? Yes. Getting an independent candidate on the ballot in all 50 states is less difficult than conventional wisdom has it. The only states whose ballot access deadlines are before the end of June are Texas and North Carolina, and those deadlines are susceptible to legal challenges that are being drawn up as I write. Those challenges will probably succeed—but if they fail, one would have to resort to a write-in campaign in those two states. A U.S. Senate candidate won a write-in campaign in 2010. Of course, putting together a serious independent campaign is a formidable task—but plenty of operatives and aides and donors and lawyers stand ready. They are at present only loosely organized, if at all. But it is appropriate in this era of distributed intelligence that this independent campaign start as a distributed campaign, especially since the need for a far broader distribution of power and responsibility to citizens and for bottom-up policies is likely to be a theme of such an effort. And the fact is that an articulate and independent-minded conservative, perhaps a generation younger than the two elderly plutocrats between whom the parties are asking us to choose, could make a real race of it. He or she could build enough momentum over the summer to get into the debates, and then .??.??. couldn't the debates be a moment when large numbers of our countrymen might awaken with relief and greet with excitement the possibility of liberation from the nightmare of Clinton or Trump? How exciting would it be to inaugurate an attractive candidate who's neither Clinton nor Trump on January 20, 2017?"

Negating the bottom paragraph because I think he's being very optimistic, the key thing is they're already preparing legal papers on getting ballot access, so I think the decision has been made, they're just finding a candidate.

5/7/2016 10:08:10 AM

Only have to poll at 15% or higher to be invited to a debate as well

5/7/2016 11:35:32 AM

Gary Johnson (Libertarian) is probably already going to run. Those who are whining about Trump should back him.

5/7/2016 12:03:59 PM