Yes, I’ll probably live-tweet the debate tonight.
Meanwhile, Cruz leads in Iowa (according to one poll), but the story remains Trump Trump Trump. Ever since is incendiary and divisive comment about blocking Muslim immigration, Trump has become the darling of the pants-wetting and/or white supremacist right.
Here’s what happens at Trump rallies:
But it quickly became clear Monday night that the protesters had no interest in a quiet extraction — nor, for that matter, did Trump.
By the time security swooped in, several amped-up Trump supporters had already encircled the protesters — booing, and chanting, and slowly closing in — while a crush of smartphone-wielding media scrambled to capture footage of the clash. The guards managed to remove one protester, but the other resisted, stiffening his limbs and screaming about the First Amendment as they tried to haul him toward the exits. When he toppled to the floor, a horde of rallygoers assembled to hurl insults and threats at him.
“Light the motherfucker on fire!” one Trump supporter yelled.
Physical altercations between protesters, security, and the occasional tough-guy supporter have been a running theme in Trump’s combative campaign this year — but Monday night was different. Reporters who regularly cover Trump said they had never seen anything like the fevered, frenzied mood that gripped the ballroom in Las Vegas.
With the candidate’s ever darkening political style seeming to grow more perversely effective by the day, his grassroots opponents on the left are becoming more defiant and effective at causing trouble. Activists interrupted Trump at least half a dozen times at the event — and the longer the night wore on, the more crazed many in the crowd seemed to get.
One after another, protesters were forcibly dragged from the ballroom — limbs flailing, torsos twisting in resistance — while wild-eyed Trump supporters spewed abuse and calls to violence.
“Kick his ass!” yelled one.
“Shoot him!” shouted another.
When a white activist proclaimed “Black lives matter!” as she was being carted out of the building, a male Trump supporter leaned toward her and snapped, “White lives matter.”
According to NBC News, someone at the Trump rally even yelled a German Nazi-era salute — “Sieg heil!” — while a protester was being removed from the event.
Trump, meanwhile, gleefully narrated the madness from his podium like a tabloid talk show host presiding over an on-camera brawl between guests — egging on the confrontation, whipping the audience into a frenzy, and basking in his fans’ celebratory chants.
“Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump!”
“This is what we should have been doing to the other side for the last seven years!” Trump exclaimed during one of the scuffles with protesters.
Emphasis mine.
The Republican establishment doesn’t want Trump, and even Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin warn against him… in favor of Cruz. Cruz is positioning himself to be the likeable version of Trump, but for Trump fanatics, the fact that Cruz is a senator makes him too inside.
As always, I think Trump’s numbers are overblown, especially national polls. I MAY have been wrong about Rubio though. He can’t seem to get traction, and Cruz may end up being the best compromise between the GOP establishment and the Trump-ites.
Josh Marshall at TPM used to think like me, but he’s now conceding that Trump might actually be the nominee. Might:
That is one of the many things that makes the current Trump-Cruz phony war so compelling. Trump is baiting Cruz into the same smackdown he’s used to eat up Bush, Walker, Fiorina and others. But Cruz won’t take the bait. Like two zen masters facing off in a martial arts classic or perhaps two wizards do battle in The Lord of the Rings, we have an epic confrontation between two master who have trained for decades in the arts of assholery and bullying. But their powers equally matched, it is a stand off.
I keep thinking that Trump won’t pull this off and I’ll be kicking myself for not paying more attention to all the reasons why this sort of thing just does not happen. And basically I still think, things like this, things so catastrophic for a major party simply don’t happen. But each day it gets more difficult to imagine the scenarios required to prevent it. And if the savior is Ted Cruz, he could do worse in the general election than Trump. Somehow Marco Rubio needs to start coalescing support. But at the moment, it’s the reverse that is happening.
But now the talk is how this all shakes out, and when. Eventually, the GOP might gravitate to Cruz, but what if that doesn’t happen until late in the primary season? In other words, what if no candidate gets enough delegates at the convention to win on the first ballot? Now, we’re talking about a “brokered” convention, which by definition is not very democratic. Will the hard right anti-establishment types stand for that? Absolutely not. It could get interesting, and even a little scary.
I don’t think the debate is really going to result in any monumental shifts. There will be a “winner” or two, and a “loser” or two, but nothing will change yet. The movements on the GOP side of the primaries are geological in speed.
But I expect to see some of the candidates try to out-crazy Trump. Just to try to catch a ride on the same wind he’s been riding.