I hate seeing Trump jump on a veteran's service.
He will do anything to be elected, practice scorched earth tactics against anyone who criticizes him, and is the 2015 exemplar of Joe McCarthy.
The GOP simply has no chance to win with him.
But the damage he is already doing is going to take a while to undo, regardless. And with 10 Billion at his disposal, he can wage a campaign all the way to the end, either as the GOP nominee or as a third party protest candidate.
Trump is speaking without a filter. Lots of cons like that. He is going to be a force to be reckoned with. He has enough money that he can insulate himself from most problems and he can buy coverage that would otherwise be denied him as the huffington post is trying to do. He will simply go around them. And they will have damaged their reputation for nothing.
I believe that you and I are essentially saying the same thing.
And part of the damage is that Trump acts, forcing others in the GOP field to react. For instance, I doubt that any other GOPer was even remotely imagining that Trump would attack McCain's heroism, however you want to call it, the way he did. In fact, I wonder if Trump even planned it. It looks very, impromptu, very off-the-cuff, very, very unscripted to me.
So, his comments about Mexicans being rapists and such - it only took about 3 weeks for a GOPer to actually come out and push back on that stuff. So, the logical question in a GOP debate would be:
"Sen. So-and-So, Donald Trump said so-and-so about Mexicans so-and-so and you first responded three weeks later. Why did you wait so long?"
Yepp, Trump is a walking neutron bomb.
I am thoroughly enjoying this.