Kicking Trump In The Ass
by Steve
Today’s dizzying events in the presidential campaign, from the meeting between President Obama and Senator Sanders, to the Obama and Senator Elizabeth Warren endorsements of Hillary Clinton, and the American Constitution Society appearances by Warren and Vice President Joe Biden wherein they tore the bark off of Donald Trump are not random occurrences. They are just a taste of what the pathetic bastard Trump can expect the rest of the way.
For his part, Sanders handled the meeting at the White House like a true professional who knows he is now a national leader of the progressive movement, and a major player in the Senate Democratic caucus. As the incoming chair of the Senate Budget Committee when the Democrats take over next year, Sanders and Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown along with Warren will form an extremely powerful triad within the Senate that will keep a Clinton White House fully committed to a progressive agenda. Sanders now knows this, as does Clinton and Chuck Schumer. He has achieved what he desires, the platform and position he won in a hard-fought campaign to move ahead as a progressive powerhouse, but now with a political party behind him. To that end, despite the hateful bile from some of his supporters, he has earned the time and right to pick when he exits this race.
With the timing of his endorsement today, right after his meeting with Sanders, Obama made it clear to not only Sanders but to the full party that he expects everyone to fall in line right now behind the woman who will carry on a good deal of Obama’s agenda and protect his legacy. With the Warren endorsement tonight on Rachel Maddow’s show, following her and Joe Biden’s thrashing of Trump today, it is clear that the full machinery of a united Democratic Party and Clinton campaign are about to spend the next five months on offense against Trump and those gutless weasels who support him. Yes, Trump will smear the Clintons repeatedly in his speech on Monday, but don't think for a minute that Team Clinton isn't ready for it.
As Chris Hayes noted tonight, there already is a “Murderer’s Row” of Hillary surrogates lined up and ready to kneecap Trump every day with a classic “Tier Two” effort while Hillary herself assumes the higher ground in a “Tier One” effort. If Hillary can count on Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Bill Clinton, and eventually Bernie Sanders to smash her opponents in the face, she is living large, especially at a time when Trump can only count on Chris Christie to defend him. And we aren't even yet talking about the Clinton fundraising machine and "story a day" oppo research operation.
As Newt Gingrich observed back in 2012, the Clinton machinery would destroy the 2012 Republican Party unless it got its act together quickly, Instead, the GOP went fully over the cliff since then, and is now facing not only the Clinton machine but also 1) a presidential administration bent on cementing in place its legacy, and 2) a party with an energized progressive base, thanks to Senator Sanders. The GOP therefore is about to face its own Perfect Storm.
The Republican Party has earned the destruction they are about to endure.