Swallowing Hard. Trump Rivals Vow To Back Him If Nominated

[liberalnarb]

Source: Associated Press

DETROIT (AP) -- The Republican establishment and its last best hopes to defeat Donald Trump spent a long and extraordinary day denouncing the billionaire businessman as dangerous, a "phony" and a "con man" unfit for office. Then, when it was all over, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and John Kasich swallowed hard and said they'd support Trump if he wins the GOP nomination.

Their pained commitments, at the end of the 11th GOP debate on Thursday, put into sharp focus the dilemma the Republican Party faces as Trump continues to dominate the race for delegates and the campaign conversation.

Beyond harsh words, GOP leaders see little opportunity to stop Trump's march toward the presidential nomination. Panicked party leaders are poring over complicated delegate math, outlining hazy scenarios for a contested national convention and even flirting with the idea of a third-party effort to derail Trump's insurgent candidacy.

A tumultuous day opened with Mitt Romney, the party's 2012 presidential nominee, making a rare public appearance to denounce Trump as a fraud who is "playing the American public for suckers." Speaking to NBC's "Today" Friday, Romney said he will "do everything within the normal political bounds to make sure we don't nominate Donald Trump."

He ruled out that he will run for the presidency but also ruled out ever voting for Trump or the Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.


Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CAMPAIGN_2016_LAOL-?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2016-03-04-08-27-33

[C Moon]

1. It will be interesting to see if R$ coddles back at Trump's feet. nt

[Kelvin Mace]

2. Interesting that some people here

will heap scorn and abuse on the GOP for unquestioningly backing their nominee, yet those same people expect the same Pyrrhic loyalty from Dems, regardless of how much they disagree with the nominee.

[salinsky]

4. I certainly don't expect "unquestioning backing" ...

... Support whomever you choose, advocate and donate accordingly, make your case ...

... however, we just last night watched the GOP candidates put on a display of hair-igniting, feces-eating, insanity ...

... so, I would like to expect that when it's all said and done, we can unite behind whomever the nominee turns out to be, if only for the sake of keeping the nuclear launch codes and Supreme Court out of the hands of psychopathic lunatics.

[Kelvin Mace]

6. It seems to me,

we are getting into a war in any case. HRC is a war hawk, itching to demonstrate she's the next Maggie Thatcher. Continuing to meddle in the Middle East is not going to end well.

Setting that aside, we can expect neither HRC or any Republican to put into play the radical policies needed to keep us from a climate cataclysm which includes ocean-based mass extinctions.

Sanders was the last hope for the hard left turn this country needs to avoid the evolutionary graveyard. All the other drivers lead to the same destination, just by different routes.

[Chemisse]

7. The alternative for Republicans is to vote for a Dem candidate.

That's not such a bad thing. Heck, Hillary is as right-wing as Republicans of long ago.

The alternative for us is to vote for Trump or whoever trumps him out of the convention. No matter who it is, the results would be catastrophic for the issues we care about, and maybe for the nation as a whole.

[LuckyLib]

3. That says it all. No principles, no conviction, no values, nothing.

[Orsino]

5. Good thing for them they're lying sacks of shit.

That sort of out can be useful.

[WhiteHat]

8. Thereby shoving themselves further up someone/anyone's ass...

Oh, say, who's left? Rubio (suckup) Cruz (sleaze), Carson (soon to be outta here...), and Kasich (morals-free Koch-funded bubblehead).

Yup. Sounds like a recommendation, alright. I'll be sure to follow one of their endorsements.

[roamer65]

9. It's easy for them to commit to it.

Trumpf won't be the nominee. They are going to "schlong" him out of the nomination by changing rules, blocking votes, etc, etc. The Rethuglican party is about as anti-democratic as they come.