The GOP Brand Is In The Toilet And Herr Trumpf Is The Most Hated Candidate Of 2016

Before dropping out of the primary race, Lindsey Graham may never have reached the 3% threshold of support anywhere but the mass media loves his sassy demeanor anyway, and gives him more airtime than almost any other member of Congress. This morning he was on Fox and Friends again demeaning Herr Trumpf and Ted Cruz, rivals to Jeb Bush, the candidate who would presumably give ole Lindsey a cabinet position so he would never have to pander to a bunch of racist rednecks and Know Nothings in Spartanburg, Greenville and Anderson again. He told Fox viewers that Ted Cruz, with whom he serves is the "most divisive figure I've ever seen in the United States Senate. I don't think he can bring us together. His foreign policy is all over the board." He has equal disdain for Herr Trumpf who he asserted "is all-over-the-board crazy. I think you're crazy if you think you're going to deport American born citizen children of illegal immigrants. I think that's just demagoguery." And he doesn't think either is fit to be commander in chief (although he claimed Jeb is).

Today in a blistering attack, Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, a Chris Christie pal who hasn't endorsed any candidate and says he doesn't plan to, warned his state's Republicans about Cruz. "Ted Cruz is ahead right now. What we’re trying to do is educate the people in the state of Iowa. He is the biggest opponent of renewable fuels. He actually introduced a bill in 2013 to immediately eliminate the Renewable Fuel Standard. He’s heavily financed by Big Oil. So we think once Iowans realize that fact, they might find other things attractive but he could be very damaging to our state" and added that he wants to see Cruz defeated. Cruz returned the compliment tonight: "Terry Branstad is a crony capitalist who is part of the GOP establishment," a comment sure to lose him some votes in Iowa.

As part of the grand build up to the big endorsement today, Sarah Palin set Bristol loose on Cruz:

After hearing what Cruz is now saying about my mom, in a negative knee-jerk reaction, makes me hope my mom does endorse Trump. Cruz’s flip-flop, turning against my mom who’s done nothing but support and help him when others sure didn’t, shows he’s a typical politician. How rude to that he’s setting up a false narrative about her!

America doesn’t need that. We need someone who has a vision for economic prosperity, who won’t let us get kicked around in the world, and who will fight for our future.

I didn’t go to Harvard Law School, but I know this:  You can like two people in a race, but there will only one president.

The audacity to suggest that because she chooses one over the other will somehow “damage” her just shows arrogance.

You’ve also said, “She can pick winners!” I hope you’re right, and that she endorses Donald Trump today for President.

NBC reported today that their polling shows all the ugliness and negativity around the Republican race further damaging the party's already tattered brand. 42% of registered voters-- regardless of party-- are saying they feel more negatively about the Republican Party because of the primary. Only 23% of Republicans say they feel more negatively about the party now, though. Regardless, Nate Silver's website reports that Herr Trumpf is even more unpopular with general election voters than most people imagined. Independents and Democrats really don't like him. Silver: "Gallup polling conducted over the past six weeks found Trump with a -27-percentage-point net favorability rating among independent voters, and a -70-point net rating among Democrats; both marks are easily the worst in the GOP field. (Trump also has less-than-spectacular favorable ratings among his fellow Republicans.)"

We’ve got an unpopular set of presidential candidates this year-- Bernie Sanders is the only candidate in either party with a net-positive favorability rating-- but Trump is the most unpopular of all. His favorability rating is 33 percent, as compared with an unfavorable rating of 58 percent, for a net rating of -25 percentage points. By comparison Hillary Clinton, whose favorability ratings are notoriously poor, has a 42 percent favorable rating against a 50 percent unfavorable rating, for a net of -8 points. Those are bad numbers, but nowhere near as bad as Trump’s.