Politapocalypse (U.S. Politics Megathread)

The major banks, for their part, say they are leery of lending to him after having lost millions of dollars on past deals. Lawyers and contractors he has hired in the past say he is slow to pay his bills, and often shortchanges them. Even the few Wall Street executives who say privately that he is a friend are loath to speak publicly about him.

Or maybe it's because Obama doesn't have African-American roots.

Ben Carson Predicts A “Major Shift” Of Support To His Campaign “Very Soon”

Dr. Ben Carson, who has performed poorly in the first three Republican presidential nominating contests, says a groundswell of support will soon head towards his candidacy.

“This is a very unusual election, and I think all the traditional rules are out the door,” Carson told radio host David Webb on SiriusXM on Tuesday evening. “I do believe that the American people will very soon become very interested in the issues and the solutions, and when that happens you’re gonna see a major shift.”

Carson finished a distant fourth in the Nevada caucus on Tuesday, with under 5% of the vote.

Neither parent was African-American. As far as I know, none of his ancestors were African-American.

A hanging idiom in a race reference?

At least the GOP has a spectrum of choices this time around. A sort of survival of the politically fittest, winnowing out the losers and the weak. Like Bush III, for example.

Speaker Paul D. Ryan, chairman of the Republican National Convention, recent vice-presidential candidate and the highest elected Republican in the country, has one goal for this year: to form a conservative policy agenda for the Republican presidential nominee to embrace.

If that nominee is Donald J. Trump, that may be a waste of time.

Panicked Republicans question whether Mr. Trump will be able to unite a Republican-controlled Congress that would normally be expected to promote and promulgate his agenda, an internal crisis nearly unheard-of in a generation of American politics. On nearly every significant issue, Mr. Trump stands in opposition to Republican orthodoxy and his party’s policy prescriptions — the very ideas that Mr. Ryan has done more than anyone else to form, refine or promote over the last decade.

If the billionaire New York businessman captures his party’s nomination — which seemed increasingly possible after a decisive victory in Nevada on Tuesday night — he will become the titular head of the Republican Party, and lawmakers like Mr. Ryan will be expected to fall in line for the balance of the campaign. It is something that many in the party think may be impossible.