When Is A Series Of Desperate And Bold-Faced Lies "A Pivot?"

You know how Señor Trumpanzee has been running around trying to trick people into thinking he's been reborn as a friend of African-Americans? No more Mr. Racist. He thinks he can try the same stunt with Hispanics too. Friday he had a meeting with the newly formed Trumpanzee Hispanic Advisory Council and told them he's open to hearing ways of dealing with the 10 million-plus Latinos in the U.S. without documents in a way that doesn't necessarily involve breaking down their doors and shipping them back to their countries of origin. That might not go over well with Trump's hardcore followers... although I can't imagine any of them will decide to be "with her" now. Picture Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, for example.

At Red State, Kyle Foley speculated that Trump doing an about face on immigration reform "would be a good thing if people could trust him to keep his word... [Señor Trumpanzee] had months to pivot like this but refused. Now he is pulling a full reversal in order to hopefully make up ground in the polls where he is currently down by an average of  5.7 percentage points to Hillary Clinton. The biggest question is not how undecided voters will feel about this, as Trump is not likely to gain many more Hispanic supporters, but how will his base respond? Trump's base is built around this hardcore stance that the wall should be built and the illegal immigrants should be deported. They railed against "Gang of Eight" Marco Rubio for his perceived weak stance, however they will most likely justify Trump's flip-flop because let's face it, nothing matters to them. It's almost like Trump simply told them what they wanted to hear in order to win. Lord knows what he actually believes when it comes to immigration.

What a departure from the message of fear, bigotry and hatred in the first ad, released just a couple of days ago! No wonder the Clinton campaign refers to the "new" humane policy as "cynical." Her campaign's national political director, Amanda Renteria, urged Hispanics to remember how dangerous he is to the Latino community. "Trump started this campaign by calling Mexicans rapists and continued to find ways to disparage the Latino community by promising to implement a deportation force that would deport 16 million people, end DACA, end birthright citizenship, conduct round ups of families, ban Muslims and other immigrants from entering the United States, and build a concrete wall along the border."

Frank Sharry of America’s Voicesummed up what Trump is up to well: "It’s a sign of desperation. Trump wants to fool these Republicans uncomfortable with his racism and bigotry that he’s pivoting. But a late head fake won’t be taken seriously by Latinos and their allies."

Will it slow down mainstream Republicans concerned about the viability of the party jumping ship? In a report Saturday Alex Isenstadt wrote that Republicans worried about preserving their House and Senate majorities-- Lindsey Graham proclaimed that Trump's campaign is in a death spiral-- are considering blueprints for down-ballot candidates to distance themselves from him. One that is gaining popularity would have Republican candidates tacitly admit he'll never be president by urging voters to back them because they'll be a check on President Hillary.

Rove's SuperPAC, American Crossroads, practically an arm of the NRSC with whom they share personnel and everything else, "has tested to see how voters would feel about Republicans casting themselves as being a check and balance to Hillary Clinton, according to four sources familiar with the deliberations. It has examined the question in a number of Senate races on the ballot this fall, said one person working with the group, who added that 'it’s a question of not if but when' the group begins putting the message into TV ads."

In the race for Congress in IL-10, a blue district just north of Chicago, where Republican incumbent Bob Dold is battling off a challenge by the conservative New Dem he beat in 2014, Brad Schneider, a "Dold internal survey found that while voters were deeply unhappy with Trump, they overwhelmingly wanted their member of Congress to be a check on Clinton. Already, Dold has taken great pains to distinguish himself from the Republican nominee, even stressing that he won’t vote for him."

Even Trump-enabler Paul Ryan used that kind of a messaging in his own fundraising efforts. "If we fail to protect our majority in Congress," he wrote to Republican donors, "we could be handing President Hillary Clinton blank check."

In positioning themselves as brake-pedals to Clinton, Republicans hope to appeal to swing voters who are deeply unhappy with both presidential nominees. While much of the public is aligned against Trump, there’s a rich vein of voters who want to ensure that Clinton does not have too much power.

“Anti-Trump voters who are reluctantly voting for Hillary may be the swing vote this cycle,” said Andy Sere, a Republican ad maker who is working on over a half-dozen competitive down-ballot races. “She's unpopular even in states and districts that she'll carry easily, which means voters aren't giving her a mandate-- they want a check and balance against her.”

It wouldn’t be without risk, however. In writing off Trump before Election Day arrives, Republican candidates could risk alienating his supporters-- a voting bloc they desperately need.

To many, the 2016 campaign is evoking echoes of 1996. That fall, as the party’s campaign apparatus shifted focus from electing Dole to protecting the GOP congressional majorities, the NRCC aired a commercial warning that if Democrats won majorities in Congress and retained the White House it would result in higher taxes and more federal spending. “The liberal special interests aligned with Clinton desperately want to buy back control of Congress,” it warned. “If we give the special interests a blank check in Congress, who’s going to represent us?”

The triage worked. Republicans lost only two seats in the House and gained two in the Senate.



Chris Wilson, a prominent GOP pollster, said he was closely examining who voters believed would win the presidential race. More than half of the electorate, he said, was convinced Clinton would be the next president.

“That’s getting close to the point where we would start recommending our candidates pursue more of a midterm strategy and treat Clinton like a de facto incumbent,” he said, adding that he was holding off because Trump could still close the gap.

Meanwhile, the Trumpanzee campaign has doubled down on another shallow and crazy conspiracy theory to push out into the public consciousness, namely that Hillary is deathly ill and may die soon. The clownish and odious Giuliani was on TV trying to spread it today. By the way, only 9 more days 'til the Florida primary. Let's make sure we have people who won't let either the Trumpanzee or Hillary screw things up worse than they already are: