Disgusting is the only appropriate word to qualify Thursday’s GOP debate. In what was a new low even for him, Donald Trump bragged about the size of his penis while bobbing and weaving his way through every substantive question posed by the moderators.
Disgusting and worrisome when you realize this crass con artist is –and seemingly will remain—the favorite to win his party’s nomination.
Watching the debate was watching the unraveling of the Republican party, a reality show that must have submerged the party elite even deeper into a state of uncontrollable panic.
These are desperate times for the GOP establishment, and they call for desperate measures. What to do to stop Trump? Since no one thinks that Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz, not to mention John Kasich, can capture on their own more delegates than Trump, the new strategy is to gather enough delegates among all of them as to deny the front runner a majority. That way, the nominee will be chosen at the convention.
This extreme scenario seems to have enticed Mitt Romney to come out of the woodwork. In a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black, the twice defeated presidential contender, all moral indignation and patriotic concern, took a rare step: He delivered a blistering attack on his party’s current frontrunner.
Trump is “a phony, a fraud,” Romney said at the University of Utah on Thursday. “His promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University.”
Except for his hypocrisy, Romney was absolutely correct. Supported by the likes of John McCain, he was expressing the views of the Republican establishment, although he is not that different from the obnoxious New York billionaire.
Four years ago the former governor of Massachusetts campaigned on an extreme anti-immigration platform (remember self-deportation?), a rabid anti-labor agenda and the expressed intention to gut Medicare in the name of balancing the budget. At the same time, he vowed to preserve tax cuts and all kinds of privileges for those who, like him (and Trump), possess insane oodles of money.
The newly outraged Romney must have experienced a recent epiphany. The Trump he was putting down a few days ago, could not be the same he adoringly thanked when running against Barack Obama.
“For anyone with a short memory,” said Washington journalist Patricia Guadalupe, “four years ago Romney went out of his way to get a Trump endorsement, flying out to meet him, embracing him, saying pretty things about him, and picking up a big fat check. Someone should ask him if he is going to return the check.”
Pretty things such as calling Trump's support "a delight" in a Las Vegas press conference.
Unthinkable as it may be, with his speech, Romney, who four years ago said “I wish I were Latino” to ingratiate himself with Hispanic voters, could have been trying to position himself to become the Republican standard bearer during the party convention.
Just imagine Romney –who usually generates as much fervor in his audiences as a dentist’s drill— as a third time presidential contender.
The last nail in the GOP coffin.