Trump at nearly 50 percent among Republicans

[struggle4progress]

by HANNAH HARTIG, JOHN LAPINSKI and STEPHANIE PSYLLOS
MAR 29 2016, 6:00 AM ET

... Donald Trump now holds 48 percent support of registered Republicans and Republican-leaners, according to the NBC News|SurveyMonkey Weekly Election Tracking poll.

This is more than 20 points higher than his second-place competitor, Ted Cruz — who now enjoys 27 percent support. John Kasich got a boost of 2 points this week and holds third place with 18 percent support ...

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/poll-trump-nearly-50-percent-support-among-republicans-nationally-n546951

[Human101948]

1. They will all come on board if they think they have a chance for the White House...

and they will convince themselves that he will rachet down his craziness afterward. It's all about winning for their team.

[struggle4progress]

2. Voters in old GOP establishment bastion have no taste for 'Stop Trump'

Rick Hampson, USA TODAY 5:36 p.m. EDT March 28, 2016

TOWANDA, Pa. — Northeastern Pennsylvania was in the vanguard of the Republican establishment’s attempts to stop outsider Barry Goldwater in ’64 and outsider Ronald Reagan in ’76. But party regulars here aren’t leading the Stop Trump movement — they’re incensed by it ...

Dan Meuser and Chris Hackett are Republican businessmen who once ran against each other for Congress. Meuser says the campaign to deny Trump the nomination at the national convention “just increases his support. People feel, ‘You’re still not taking us seriously.’’’ Hackett agrees: “The harder they try to stop Trump, the more likely he is to succeed’’ ...

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/03/28/donald-trump-republican-establishment-northeast-pennsylvania/82337778/

[struggle4progress]

3. Can the GOP ‘Loyalty Pledge’ Survive the Wild Escalation of Insults?

March 29, 2016
11:57 a.m.
Ed Kilgore

Periodically during this most fractious of Republican nominating contests, the fear of a total party rift and/or a third-party candidacy has spurred party elders and conservative media to insist on a "loyalty pledge" committing the candidates to mutual support after the deal finally goes down. The issue first arose last summer when fears of a Trump indie bid led to formal "loyalty pledge" demands by certain state parties prior to certification of primary candidacies; he signed a pledge on September 3. It was revived during a March 2 debate in Detroit when all of the surviving candidates repeated their vows to support the nominee after an evening of uninhibited insults exchanged between Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz on one side and Trump on the other.

At the time it seemed the renewal of vows in Detroit showed the marriage between the candidates and the GOP could survive just about anything. But then the mutual abuse got a whole lot worse.

No matter where, exactly, you lay the blame in the wild exchange of insults between Trump and Cruz over their wives, and then over the National Enquirer's claims of serial adultery by Cruz (which the Texan blames entirely on Trump and his minions), the language has reached a new low. Trump now routinely refers to Cruz as "Lying Ted Cruz," as though that's his universally acknowledged nickname. Cruz has now called Trump a "sniveling coward" and "a rodent" ...

"Donald Trump will not be the nominee,” Cruz said simply ...

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/03/can-gop-loyalty-pledge-survive-the-insults.html

[struggle4progress]

4. How the G.O.P. Elite Lost Its Voters to Donald Trump

ICHOLAS CONFESSORE
MARCH 28, 2016

... In dozens of interviews, Republican lawmakers, donors, activists and others described — some with resignation, some with anger — a party that paved the way for a Trump-like figure to steal its base, as it lost touch with less affluent voters and misunderstood their growing anguish.

“This is absolutely a crisis for the party elite — and beyond the party elite, for elected officials, and for the way people have been raised as Republicans in the power structure for a generation,” said Ari Fleischer, who served as press secretary for President George W. Bush. “If Donald Trump wins, he will change what it means to be a Republican” ...

“They have to come to terms with what they created,” said Laura Ingraham, a conservative activist and talk-radio host. “They’ll talk about everything except the fact that their policies are unpopular” ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/28/us/politics/donald-trump-republican-voters.html

[flamingdem]

5. Ugh!

What is wrong with the citizenry, reech.

[struggle4progress]

6. Young Republicans Aren’t Seeing Eye-To-Eye With Trump On Immigration

BY ESTHER YU-HSI LEE
MAR 29, 2016 11:30 AM

Leading Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump and Ted Cruz have both come out with harsh anti-immigrant proposals .. . Trump in particular has used inflammatory rhetoric to stoke fears about immigrants ...

But, according to a new report from the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), many Republican voters may not actually agree with those sentiments ...

PRRI found that a slim majority of young Republican voters between the ages of 18 and 29 — 51 percent — believe that “the increasing number of newcomers to the country strengthens American culture and way of life.” There’s a generational divide when it comes to this subject; only 22 percent of Republican seniors believe that recent immigrants strengthen American society.

http://thinkprogress.org/immigration/2016/03/29/3763941/prri-report-immigration-republicans/

[struggle4progress]

7. Trump and the GOP's woman problem

Margie Omero, democratic pollster and strategist
4 Hours Ago

... Republicans have a woman problem. ... If you need a refresher on why, just watch the "Quotes" ad by the anti-Trump group Our Principles PAC, led by a former Mitt Romney aide. In it, women read a litany of Trump's own damning words about women. The ad has been in heavy rotation in recent primary states, and has already been viewed online over three million times ... Women have been more blue than men since 1980 ...

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/03/29/trump-and-the-gops-woman-problem-commentary.html

[sofa king]

8. Wow. 50% of 50%...

... of the 50% who bother to vote. That would be a guaranteed loss in a first world country.