In Rump's Shadow

Two prominent Rethuglicans face the voters in primaries today: bitter ol' fart Sen. John "McNasty" McCain (AZ) and on-again-off-again-on-again opportunist Sen. Marco "Glug Glug" Rubio (FL). Both are expected to win their intra-party primaries over relative nobodies, but the main challenge for them going forward to November is dealing with the elephant turd in the room, their party's candidate: neo-fascist narcissist Donald "Rump" Trump, and his continuing problems with women, Hispanic and other minority voters. Both have indicated their "support" of Rump, despite Rump's smearing of them, disparaging McNasty's POW record and saying he's done little for veterans, and insulting "Little Marco" in many of the party's debates and pointing to his one-time record on immigration reform.

Both have been restrained in their criticisms of Rump, in fear of offending his racist and xenophobic base, although Glug Glug recently said that he stood by what he said in the Rethug primaries about Rump, including calling him a "con man."  With the election heating up, Rump is certain to engage in more outrageous rhetoric, which McNasty and Glug Glug will be asked to comment on endlessly (we hope). The problem going toward November is running on a ticket with Rump at the top, particularly if Hillary Clinton outperforms Rump (more likely in Florida, but not out of the question in Arizona). If swing / "independent" voters decline to vote a split ticket, voting for Clinton and Democrats down ballot, that's bad news for McNasty and Glug Glug. It's good news for the rest of us.