Did Trump blow it?

Correct. As far as I am concerned military officer John McCain demonstrated sufficient personal bravery in the face of torture to be deserving the designation of heroic -- which is NOT the same thing as being a hero. But that was for the Vietnam era and not for his tenure as a politician. The only reason I approve of a military background in regards to a political career is that a certain amount of personal discipline and understanding of vital military issues should result as sort of a slop-over effect. But it's hardly a vital consideration.

 

Well, Trump's impact on the Republicans will depend on who they run. If they run Jeb, then hell yes The Donald will take plenty of votes away from him. (Most of those will probably be "protest votes" against Jeb).

However if the Republicans ran..... say...... I dunno..... Scott Walker, and Trump got mad and decided to go independent on his own, I don't think Trump would get many votes. Trump against Bush, you know what you're getting, and one clown is just as bad as another. Trump against an unknown, people will go with the unknown IMO.

See, that's the thing I'm still failing to understand in all this. If Trump's purpose was merely to split the Republican vote, and the assumption was that Jeb would be the Republican nominee, then Trump couldn't possibly be a Hillary mole, he wouldn't even be needed in that role. There's basically only two ways The Donald can avoid splitting the Republican vote, if he decides to run and if he can - the first way is, run against a credible candidate without a lot of baggage (which excludes 80% of the Republican field right off the bat), and the second way is, become part of a ticket.

It's this last thing I've been thinking about the most lately. If Trump knows he can't win, then maybe his goal is to become VP, or perhaps he even wants a cabinet post? But if he stays strong during the primaries, he'll be able to choose "anyone he wants" from among the Republican candidates, and the wise move would be to choose "one of them" so as to bring the establishment votes on board. To actually win, Trump has to convince the establishment that he's not actually against them - which might be a wee bit difficult already. But as VP that issue wouldn't be as important....

 

I'd love nothing more than for Trump to announce he's had his fill of Republicans disparaging him, form a third party and run on that ticket. There's little doubt he'd take at least 15% or more of Republican voters with him thereby insuring continued sanity in the White House.

 

Trump would never settle for second fiddle (VP). Too much ego.

 

You used the words "humble" and "apologize" in the same sentence with Donald Trump.

That's hilarious!!!!!

 

Oh . . . so close and yet you missed it by that much! Here let me correct the slight error for you so as to bring your assertion into the field of absolute across the board accuracy . . . "thereby insuring continued insanity in the White House." There you go. No charge!