Politapocalypse (U.S. Politics Megathread)

Boy, were we wrong.

We endorsed Chris Christie in the New Hampshire Presidential Primary. Despite his baggage, we thought that as a Republican governor in a Democratic-leading state he had the skills and experience the presidency needs (and hasn’t had of late). We also thought he had the best chance to take on and face down Donald Trump.

Watching Christie kiss the Donald’s ring this weekend — and make excuses for the man Christie himself had said was unfit for the presidency — demonstrated how wrong we were. Rather than standing up to the bully, Christie bent his knee. In doing so, he rejected the very principles of his campaign that attracted our support.

Voters here apparently knew better than we. Most rejected Christie but divided their votes among several others, leaving Trump to claim victory. And now, despite specifically telling us that he would never endorse him, Christie is backing Trump.

If nothing else, that might wake up some Trump fans. We will look for that, just as soon as we get the egg off our face.

Unfortunately, just raising awareness is not enough

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) issued a stern rebuke Tuesday to the his party’s presidential front-runner, calling Donald Trump’s recent equivocation about receiving support from white supremacists a “fundamental” break from conservative orthodoxy.

“This party does not prey on people’s prejudices,” Ryan told reporters at the weekly House GOP leadership news conference.

Without addressing Trump by name, Ryan noted that the Republican presidential campaign had veered into topics such as views on “white supremacists” that should prompt “no evasion” of the topic other than repudiation of those values.

HARRY ENTEN 7:19 PM
Right now, the updated exit polls have Kasich ahead in Vermont and Rubio dead-even with Trump in Virginia. Given that pre-election polls favored Cruz in Texas, it seems quite possible that four candidates will win on the Republican side tonight. If that happens, I don’t think we’ll be seeing a winnowing of the Republican field any time soon.

I knew that response would come up,
but seriously I have not googled anything anti Hillary or gun control.

Travis County GOP Apoplectic Over New Chairman

The newly elected chair of the Republican Party in the county that includes the Texas Capitol spent most of election night tweeting about former Gov. Rick Perry’s sexual orientation and former President Bill Clinton’s penis, and insisting that members of the Bush family should be in jail.

He also found time to call Hillary Clinton an “angry bull dyke” and accuse his county vice chair of betraying the values of the Republican Party.

“The people have spoken,” Robert Morrow, who won the helm of the Travis County GOP with 54 percent of the vote, told The Texas Tribune. “My friends and neighbors and political supporters — they wanted Robert Morrow.”

Morrow’s election as Republican chair of the fifth-largest county in Texas left several members of the Travis County GOP, including vice chair Matt Mackowiak, apoplectic. Mackowiak, a Republican strategist, immediately announced over social media that he would do everything in his power to remove Morrow from office.

“We will explore every single option that exists, whether it be persuading him to resign, trying to force him to resign, constraining his power, removing his ability to spend money or resisting any attempt for him to access data or our social media account,” Mackowiak told the Tribune. “I’m treating this as a coup and as a hostile takeover.”

“Tell them they can go f*#k themselves,” Morrow told the Tribune.