Reply To: Donald Trump
If Trump somehow manages to avoid a complete meltdown and actually gets the Republican nomination, then he could very well win. Don’t forget that the Citizens United SCOTUS decision virtually guarantees that corporations will pour millions of dollars into the election, mostly supporting whoever the Republican nominee is. The Koch brothers have personally pledged over $900 million into getting a Republican into the White House. If Trump gets the nomination, he will also have his multi-billion dollar personal fortune to support him. If Hillary gets the Democratic nomination, even with her Wall Street backers, she will be hard pressed to compete against this onslaught of greed arrayed against her. Sanders, with his unwillingness to resort to creating a super-pac will be in even worse shape. If Trump does end up as a third party candidate, the Democrats will still have a huge challenge to combat against the billions of dollars that they will be up against.
A meltdown won’t matter. He’s “The Teflon Donald.” He’s a tar-baby. With his followers, an attack against Trump is a black mark against you not him. Maybe if he was found to have molested crippled children, but I’m unsure about even that.
So, basically, if PAC money goes after him with negative ads, it’s likely to be like investing money in a boat (“A boat is a hole in the water you pour money into.”) In other words, a waste of their money.
The strange thing about Trump and super-PAC’s is that, in a way nobody really anticipated, he’s made them irrelevant. I doubt if he’d align himself with a PAC. He wants to do it all by himself. This is how he does all of his businesses. He wants the win, not a share of the win.
Where money will matter is with Bernie Sanders. Is he another dark horse as Obama was? Maybe, but of all the candidates, his money problems will be fatal, I think.
Trump’s fatal problem is that no way will he be able to amass a national majority for the presidential election.
