South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham ended his long shot White House bid Monday – a move aimed at avoiding embarrassment in his home state’s February primary. Graham, a fierce national security hawk, failed to gain traction in the crowded 2016 race for the Republican nomination. He was saddled by the perception he was too moderate on domestic policy and too cozy with mainstream Republican figures, like his close friend Sen. John McCain of Arizona. He also faced a looming deadline to avoid a crushing defeat in the state he’s represented in Congress for two decades. Monday was the last day South Carolina allowed candidates to remove their names from the Feb. 20 ballot.
If Jeb! Bush, currently stuck at 3%, scoops up Graham's supporters... Jeb! will still be stuck at 3% because Graham was polling at 0%. Vox would have believe that Graham's withdrawal represents "a surprisingly big opportunity for the GOP establishment," as it frees up John McCain's cherished endorsement. (John and Lindsey are besties.) But the GOP base hates McCain. So unless McCain plans to endorse the non-establishment guy he most wants to see lose—that would be Ted Cruz—I don't see how his newly freed-up endorsement is going to rescue the GOP establishment from the monster it created.
Paul Krugman writes about that monster today...
Almost six months have passed since Donald Trump overtook Jeb Bush in polls of Republican voters. At the time, most pundits dismissed the Trump phenomenon as a blip, predicting that voters would soon return to more conventional candidates. Instead, however, his lead just kept widening. Even more striking, the triumvirate of trash-talk—Mr. Trump, Ben Carson, and Ted Cruz—now commands the support of roughly 60 percent of the primary electorate.
But how can this be happening? After all, the antiestablishment candidates now dominating the field, aside from being deeply ignorant about policy, have a habit of making false claims, then refusing to acknowledge error. Why don’t Republican voters seem to care?
Well, part of the answer has to be that the party taught them not to care. Bluster and belligerence as substitutes for analysis, disdain for any kind of measured response, dismissal of inconvenient facts reported by the “liberal media” didn’t suddenly arrive on the Republican scene last summer. On the contrary, they have long been key elements of the party brand.
