Begala: Republicans are gonna need a bigger yacht

[DonViejo]

By Paul Begala

Updated 12:53 PM ET, Wed March 14, 2018

(CNN)Republicans are gonna need a bigger yacht.

The results from Pennsylvania should send Republicans into a panic. Pennsylvania's 18th Congressional District, which Democrats haven't contested for years and in which Donald Trump won by nearly 20% in 2016, appears poised for a victory by Democrat Conor Lamb in the squeakiest of squeakers. Any time a party improves on its prior performance by 20%, attention must be paid.

One of my political mentors, former Georgia Gov. and US Sen. Zell Miller, taught me "politicians only understand two things: what you can do for them, and what you can do to them." The Pennsylvania special election shows that Trump can do something to the Democratic vote: Put it on steroids, and he can't do much for the Republican candidates. He doesn't provide a lot of air cover.

After Democrat Ralph Northam decisively won the Virginia governor's race, Trump apologists claimed Republican Ed Gillespie didn't run on a Trumpian agenda. (In fact, Gillespie was pilloried for running anti-immigration ads straight out of the Trump playbook). But no one can complain that Republican Rick Saccone was insufficiently pro-Trump. He often described himself as "Trump before Trump was Trump."

Some lessons emerge. First for the Republicans:

• Trump can't save you, even in a Trump district. The President did not sink Saccone, but he could not save him. He personally campaigned for Saccone. So did Vice President Mike Pence. And Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and Kellyanne Conway. The President touted his steel tariffs, a popular position in steel country. Unless there's a last-minute surprise in the counting of absentee ballots or a recount, none of it was able to hold even a district Trump had carried in a landslide in the last election.

more
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/14/opinions/democrats-stunning-boost-in-pennsylvania-begala/index.html

[SWBTATTReg]

1. Maybe governing for what the whole country of the US wants, and not ...

what the billionaires and millionaires and Russia want? That's how you win. By governing intelligently for all of your voters and not just some fringe elements of the gop? That is, govern for 100% of us and not just 30%