What does the establishment need to do?

[Broken System]

You are the establishment. You want to maintain complete control over your own political party. This election was in the bag. Bush was the inevitable nominee until Trump entered the race and exposed his weakness.

It is less than a month from Iowa. There are still four establishment candidates. This wasn't supposed to happen. Three were supposed to drop out and endorse the one left standing. It was supposed to be Bush, but the others were just in there as backups.

You have Bush, Kasich, Rubio, and Christie.

Rubio might seem obvious, but you don't really like him. The establishment represents control and to-the-book politics, and Rubio's poor voting record might contradict you. He is polling high, but he seems to be stuck where he is.

You gave up on Christie awhile ago because of bridgegate, but voters don't seem to care anymore. He has seen a slight rise in the polls lately. The problem is, he doesn't seem to have a strong enough ground game for the long run.

You wanted Bush really badly. The problem is, voters are sick of him. They don't want another Bush. His favorability is underwhelming.

Kasich is another choice. Low in polls, but yet, waiting for the opportunity to strike and pull off an upset in New Hampshire. It seems the least likely to happen of the four candidates, though.

Gilmore is irrelevant.

Fiorina was supposed to be your "looks like an outsider, but is actually an establishment" candidate, but she backfired too.



Between now and New Hampshire, what do you, the establishment, do to have the best chances of winning?

[This account no longer in use.]

I endorse Cruz and pray for the best in 2020.

[Asian Nazi]

Put Rubio, Bush, and Christie in a room with a loaded pistol and tell them that only one of them will be allowed out alive.

[The Other Castro]

Offer Bush, Christie, and Kasich sweet cabinet spots in exchange for dropping out before New Hampshire and endorsing Rubio.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

Pray to the silly god they've rallied their party around.

Rather ambiguously, that could either mean the Holy Father or Donald J. Trump.

[TarHeelDem]

Start courting strong candidates for 2020.

[Orthogonian Society Treasurer]

Wither and die.

[RR1997]

I'd first try to get Bush, Christie, and Kasich to drop out. Rubio is the only one that has a chance of winning at this point. The establishment needs to get behind one candidate.

Also, start thinking of good candidates for 2020. The nominee most likely going to be Cruz or Trump, and they'd both lose to Hillary by a pretty large margin. The election is over and Hillary has already won.

[yankeesfan]

I endorse Cruz and pray for the best in 2020.

[Mike Thick]

I endorse Cruz and pray for the best in 2020.

[Darthpi – Anti-Florida Activist]

[Frozen Sky Ever Why]

I'd first try to get Bush, Christie, and Kasich to drop out. Rubio is the only one that has a chance of winning at this point. The establishment needs to get behind one candidate.

Also, start thinking of good candidates for 2020. The nominee most likely going to be Cruz or Trump, and they'd both lose to Hillary by a pretty large margin. The election is over and Hillary has already won.

What are you talking about? The latest national poll has Trump leading 47-44%.

[SillyAmerican]

The problem with voters this cycle is that they're sick and tired of "establishment" candidates. If you're looking for a solution from within the establishment, I'd say they need to get Bush and Kasich to drop out immediately, and let Christie and Rubio know that within a couple days of Feb 1, one of them will need to drop out and endorse the other (depending on the results that come in from Iowa/New Hampshire). But honestly, even having a single establishment candidate may not be enough to derail Trump, and the GOP definitely needs the disenfranchised block.

The real question is whether or not a candidate (or ticket) can garner votes from more than one of the blocks within the GOP - disenfranchised, establishment, evangelical. That's the $64M question. So I think members of the establishment have to resign themselves to the fact that they are not being looked on kindly this time around (and in my opinion, for good reason...).

[RI]

Wither and die.

[afleitch]

Rather than fight 2004 all over again in 2016, wait to fight it in 2020 instead. Or maybe 2024. People under 50 who don't wear docker pants aren't real Americans anyway.

[RR1997]

I'd first try to get Bush, Christie, and Kasich to drop out. Rubio is the only one that has a chance of winning at this point. The establishment needs to get behind one candidate.

Also, start thinking of good candidates for 2020. The nominee most likely going to be Cruz or Trump, and they'd both lose to Hillary by a pretty large margin. The election is over and Hillary has already won.

What are you talking about? The latest national poll has Trump leading 47-44%.

Nearly every single poll (with the exception of a few outliers like the one you've mentioned) shows Hillary leading Trump by a pretty large margin. Trump consistently does worse than every other Republican

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Offer Bush, Christie, and Kasich sweet cabinet spots in exchange for dropping out before New Hampshire and endorsing Rubio.

That would work fine, if Rubio hadn't shown himself to be feckless and a poor campaigner. Promises of "in a Rubio administration" have almost no value.

If I were "The Establishment"... force the choice onto the convention floor, and then try to get a Sandoval / Haley ticket, or something like it.

[Darthpi – Anti-Florida Activist]

I'd first try to get Bush, Christie, and Kasich to drop out. Rubio is the only one that has a chance of winning at this point. The establishment needs to get behind one candidate.

Also, start thinking of good candidates for 2020. The nominee most likely going to be Cruz or Trump, and they'd both lose to Hillary by a pretty large margin. The election is over and Hillary has already won.

What are you talking about? The latest national poll has Trump leading 47-44%.

Nearly every single poll (with the exception of a few outliers like the one you've mentioned) shows Hillary leading Trump by a pretty large margin. Trump consistently does worse than every other Republican

We also haven't gone through the horrifying spectacle of a Trump-run GOP convention or witnessed Hillary wipe the floor with Trump in the presidential debates.

[SillyAmerican]

We also haven't gone through the horrifying spectacle of a Trump-run GOP convention or witnessed Hillary wipe the floor with Trump in the presidential debates.

I think you're giving Clinton way too much credit, and Trump way too little. I would not be so quick to discount the opposition, and believe a debate between Trump and Clinton would be very interesting.

[defe07]

Have the 4 candidates sign a non aggression pact and use the 4 early states as a barometer. Focus on jeb in iowa, chrstie or kasich in nh, christie or kasich in sc and rubio nv. The other 3 campaigns would focus on taking down cruz and trump. Then, whoever gets the most mo after nv should be the one and offer the other 3 cabinet spots and/or influence in the selection of the veep pick.

[This account no longer in use.]

We also haven't gone through the horrifying spectacle of a Trump-run GOP convention or witnessed Hillary wipe the floor with Trump in the presidential debates.

I think you're giving Clinton way too much credit, and Trump way too little. I would not be so quick to discount the opposition, and believe a debate between Trump and Clinton would be very interesting.

In my opinion, Clinton would likely lose to Trump. What he would have to do is use the following talking points:

1. Clinton has been known to change her views on MANY issues.
2. Clinton's emails, likely to contain confidential information. Knowing Trump, he'd probably claim they had to do with Benghazi or the Wasserman-Schultz controversy.
3. Benghazi.
4. The myriad of controversies involving the DNC and the possibility that they rigged the primary.

All Trump would have to do would be to use his signature debating style. Clinton may be a great debater, but proven debate methods don't work against Trump.

[Darthpi – Anti-Florida Activist]

We also haven't gone through the horrifying spectacle of a Trump-run GOP convention or witnessed Hillary wipe the floor with Trump in the presidential debates.

I think you're giving Clinton way too much credit, and Trump way too little. I would not be so quick to discount the opposition, and believe a debate between Trump and Clinton would be very interesting.

In my opinion, Clinton would likely lose to Trump. What he would have to do is use the following talking points:

1. Clinton has been known to change her views on MANY issues.
2. Clinton's emails, likely to contain confidential information. Knowing Trump, he'd probably claim they had to do with Benghazi or the Wasserman-Schultz controversy.
3. Benghazi.
4. The myriad of controversies involving the DNC and the possibility that they rigged the primary.

All Trump would have to do would be to use his signature debating style. Clinton may be a great debater, but proven debate methods don't work against Trump.

This is stuff that won't play much outside of the Republican base, in my view. Normal voters are going to be terrified of the idea that someone like Trump, who knows exceptionally little about public policy, could become President.

[Frozen Sky Ever Why]

I'd first try to get Bush, Christie, and Kasich to drop out. Rubio is the only one that has a chance of winning at this point. The establishment needs to get behind one candidate.

Also, start thinking of good candidates for 2020. The nominee most likely going to be Cruz or Trump, and they'd both lose to Hillary by a pretty large margin. The election is over and Hillary has already won.

What are you talking about? The latest national poll has Trump leading 47-44%.

Nearly every single poll (with the exception of a few outliers like the one you've mentioned) shows Hillary leading Trump by a pretty large margin. Trump consistently does worse than every other Republican

No. It was FOX News that released the 49-38 lead for Clinton last month, and it's FOX that just released the 47-44 poll in favor of Trump. CNN has it at 49-47 Clinton, hardly a large margin.

[Virginiá]

This is stuff that won't play much outside of the Republican base, in my view. Normal voters are going to be terrified of the idea that someone like Trump, who knows exceptionally little about public policy, could become President.

I wish people would snap out of their Trump crush and realize this. The only people he is doing fantastic with is white working class conservative-leaning voters. He's completely alienated non-white voters, or in other words, a projected 30% of 2016's voters. The whole time he has been doing his barking, he has only really made decent inroads with that one part of the Republican base. So he's not well positioned to win, at all.

[Frozen Sky Ever Why]

This is stuff that won't play much outside of the Republican base, in my view. Normal voters are going to be terrified of the idea that someone like Trump, who knows exceptionally little about public policy, could become President.

I wish people would snap out of their Trump crush and realize this. The only people he is doing fantastic with is white working class conservative-leaning voters. He's completely alienated non-white voters, or in other words, a projected 30% of 2016's voters. The whole time he has been doing his barking, he has only really made decent inroads with that one part of the Republican base. So he's not well positioned to win, at all.

Trump only needs about 65% of whites to win by a Bush 2004 margin.