I don't know about others, but I wouldn't mind returning to a political world where once-sacred adages were still followed.
At one point, the safest mantra for the ending of a political career was, "Don't get caught in bed with a dead girl or live boy," and in today's Republican world, that would not matter.
Just like how in the late 80s and early 90s, admitting to puffing on the magic dragon ended presidential aspirations (does everyone remember that period of insanity - where just admitting to having inhaled was a career ender - until the self-absorbed Bill Clinton broke through that hazy ceiling).
Like everyone else here, I think Reg really drills down to what is going on for the politically astute, but what worries me about that is for those that follow the political world so close, there is a danger of falling under an umbrella of the concept of "inside baseball." What I'm getting at is a very, very large segment of the populace does not study politics like some others do and I wonder if the in-depth study of the micro-politics goes through the heads of too many voters, and to these sorts if the feeling of the "government picking on Trump" soon becomes an issue (I think this is why Republicans are defending Trump - that they know their base sees all these indictments as unfair, corrupt and unduly targeting Trump. And we all know that offending that MAGA base is the number one thing NOT to do).
My other concern about the "inside baseball" construct is that it also creates this myopic political response to those in national politics when it comes to communicating with the general public and everyday Americans. To me, this is the number one issue when it comes to the failure of Democrats - that they refuse to learn how to speak to the working class in this country and miserably so.
I mean, if one wants to see this in action, just watch a bit of Lawrence O'Donnell. He is cut from the same cloth as people like the Clintons of the world who always think they are the smartest people in the room and typically let their hubris create more problems than anything else.
Eventually, I think the overriding theme of those running for the Republican nod of how they will deal with Trump will fall back on beating into the heads of Republican voters that Trump simply can't win and do so without directly attacking Trump. I believe they will resort to some sort of lukewarm argument that the attacks on Trump by the government just won't let him win and it's not his fault and they will some how try to turn him into the victim, rather than the criminal that he is.
