Disinfect this? No way.

Trump's reelection campaigns — according to current reports, effectively there are two: his own, and the Republican National Committee's — are split on the question of how to proceed. The RNC envisions a kind of glad-handing, happy-face approach, at least for a while, while Team Trump is urging a thematic emphasis on the candidate's natural persona: hustle the vile, malicious little toad who's happy only when everyone else is miserable.

A 17-state polling excursion has rattled the RNC. Trump's future in known battlegrounds is looking rather bleak, said the survey, hence the committee has launched what Politico calls a "massive effort" to attract millions of battleground states' theoretically persuadable voters by presenting an "affirmative case" for Trump — in other words, a fantasy.

You can see the problem with this approach, as Republican strategist Alex Castellanos has: "Donald Trump’s numbers are harder than diamonds," he observes. "He can’t budge them with dynamite because he is who he is" — i.e., a vile, malicious little toad.

The sensible alternative for Team Trump? "Define Biden," adds Castellanos.

By "define," Trump officials mean, of course, a sniveling, squawking, scorched earth campaign against the former vice president — just more-of-the-same selling of "anger, division and 'we’re the victim,'" as veteran GOP congressman Tom Cole unapprovingly framed it to the Times. The Oklahoma pol has had enough of Trump's grievance politics, arguing instead that "you got to have some hope to sell people."

Regrettably for Cole and his party, as long as this president is president, Dante Alighieri's 14th-century lament shall reign throughout Republicanism — as well as throughout the republic, should this president remain president:

Comments

[Peter G]

Do these political strategists get paid a lot of money to advise the GOP to do what they always do anyway?

[Peter G]

OT but you should all really check out Randy Rainbow’s latest. A spoonful of Clorox helps your temperature go down....in the most toxic way! Trump stupid on Thursday. Randy brilliant of Saturday.

[shsavage]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPDPzbLFeP4