GOP Officially Accepts Trump Threat to Win

The Washington Examiner’s Byron York wrote about how the GOP reached a tipping point over the weekend, finally admitting and accepting the fact that primary frontrunner Donald Trump might actually win the party’s nomination.

That doesn’t mean they would accept Trump.

Remember the refrain: “He’s not a Conservative.”

Chalk that message up to Operation Defeat Donald: Plan 4,987.

However, the “He’s not a Conservative” line is a joke. Who among the GOP Establishment is a true, Constitutional Conservative?

Anyone supporting Illegal Immigration or Amnesty? Not a Conservative. You can put Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio in that category as well Paul Ryan, the current Establishment candidate to replace John Boehner as Speaker of the House.

Other issues supported by the GOP Establishment that refutes their “conservative” credentials?

Support for the Import/Export Bank
Support for the Trans-Pacific Trade Partnership
Support for anything other than free market capitalism and healthcare
Failure to curb spending or balance the budget
Failure to support the Second Amendment
Failure to uphold the Constitution aka living up the oath they swore when entering political office.

Every tactic the GOP Establishment and their media operatives have attempted to stop The Donald freight train has resulted in the opposite effect.

Still, however, there is one element that might work: Cash.

Trump is savvy. His ability to drive ratings basically allows him free campaign air time. No other candidate can drive interest among the common citizens like Trump.

The biggest mistake the GOP made was in not making Trump spend parts of his personal fortune early in the campaign — before he rose to the polls. If Trump faced spending money before gaining traction, he might’ve second-guessed the value of the endeavor. However, Trump owns a sizable lead in the polls, but more importantly gained the attention of the American people. He managed that by openly challenging illegal immigration in his campaign announcement speech. Brilliant.

According to York: “I don’t think Trump can withstand 10,000 points of smart negative in Iowa and New Hampshire,” says one veteran Republican strategist who is not affiliated with any campaign. “It would force him to spend money. That’s when this starts to get real for him.” (“Points” refers to gross ratings points, a way of measuring TV ad buys; 10,000 points would be a really big buy, meaning the average viewer would see an anti-Trump ad many, many times.)

The Club for Growth, a leading Establishment operation, ran 2,000 points against Trump in Iowa and saw him drop to No. 2 in the polls.

“We primed the pump with our ads in Iowa,” Club president David McIntosh told York. “We did some polling afterward. The ads flipped Trump from first to second place among caucus-goers and put a dent in his approval rating.”

So the GOP thinks they have a plan.

York asks what role the Republican National Committee would play in trying to de-rail Trump’s campaign.

Sean Spicer, an RNC strategist told York: “None. None. Zero. It is up to Republican voters to decide who our nominee is, not the RNC.”

Perhaps that’s the deal The Donald struck with RNC chair Reince Priebus when he signed his pledge to not run as a third party candidate.

The one thing the GOP will not be able to overcome is Trump’s background as a non-politician. The American public sees Trump as a shrewd operator, a great negotiator, a people person who takes care of his employees and someone who will not back down from the media. The GOP base is sick and tired of cowering by its politicians to the Democrats and the media.

As counter-message such as that from Trump, will defuse the “He’s not a Conservative” message pretty quickly.