The Republican word from several battleground states, which, assuming the absence of a certain troublesome variable, will be more like demilitarized zones:
"There is positively no way for Trump to win in Pennsylvania," said a Republican from that state.
"Trump cannot and will not carry Ohio," a Republican from that state insisted. "He will do well in Appalachia and in the Mahoning Valley but he will get killed in the rest of the state. The danger for the GOP is losing Rob Portman which is a very real possibility under this match-up."
Added a Florida Republican..., "Trump is grinding the GOP to a stub. He couldn't find enough xenophobic, angry white Floridians to beat Hillary in Florida if he tried."
"NH is potentially a swing state but Hillary would win in a rout with profound down ballot consequences," wrote one New Hampshire Republican.
Said a Virginia Republican, "While a Trump candidacy will gin up turnout in the Shenandoah Valley and Southwest, Trump will get killed in the suburbs of the urban crescent."
Now, about that variable. Trump, speaking on MSNBC: "Bernie Sanders has a message that's interesting. I'm going to be taking a lot of the things Bernie said and using them." Continues CNN:
Trump's advisers say [this is] a preview of more explicit overtures the campaign is ready to make to Sanders' supporters once the populist liberal exits the 2016 race. That strategy is based on the broad areas of overlap between voters attracted to Trump and those who have flocked to Sanders. Both have angrily denounced the political system as corrupt and expressed deep frustration that Washington is not helping ordinary people. They both oppose international trade deals, saying they hurt American jobs.
And that strategy is going to be one fascinating potential to watch. For now, the potential seems weak. From a late March, WaPo/ABC News poll:
In a head-to-head match-up of Clinton versus Trump, 10 percent of Sanders backers say they’d support Trump, 77 percent Clinton, and the rest say they would vote for neither or not vote at all.
While "that’s not a great conversion rate for Clinton from Sanders backers" (my emphasis), notes the Post, the combined 23-percent defection rate could yet grow — depending not so much on Trump's appeals, but a sustained insurgency message from Sanders. And there could be lost those "routs" in some otherwise demilitarized zones. It's possible.
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Just to clarify, I am in no way suggesting that Hillary could lose any of these states. I'm merely saying that a maximum pounding of the Republican position could be endangered.