Trump says it's impossible for him to lose
by digby
I'm sure everyone remembers this little bit of snotty, in-your-face, 6th-grade brazenness:
With similar narcissistic defiance, Trump now says that if the Republicans lose next month, it's not his fault. But he takes full credit if he wins.
Trump said he would not bear any personal responsibility for a poor showing from Republicans in the 2018 midterms, he said in a rare interview with the Associated Press this week.
“The midterms are very tough for anybody the opposite of president, for whatever reason, nobody has been able to say,” Trump said.
[...]
Republicans are starting from a huge advantage. The congressional map this year favors Republicans — particularly in the Senate, where Democrats are defending 10 seats in states Trump won. But even in the House, Republicans’ landslide wins in the 2010 midterm let the party redraw the lines for congressional districts, giving them an advantage.
The generic ballot shows Democrats with an average 7 point lead, where voters are asked whether they prefer a Democrat or a Republican, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average. But Democrats will need to do at least that well to have any hope of retaking the house thanks to gerrymandering.
Despite all that, Trump is making things very difficult for Republicans, and there are many signs that this will be a wave election for Democrats. Trump doesn’t seem to recognize this reality. Instead, he is already praising himself for his electoral successes.
“I think I’m helping people,” Trump said. “Look, I’m 48 and one in the primaries, and actually it’s much higher than that because I endorsed a lot of people that were successful that people don’t even talk about. But many of those 48, as you know, were people that had no chance, in some cases.”
Trump talks about one big disadvantage: He’s not on the ballot, he said.
In a particularly telling musing from the president, he said some “people” have been telling him they could never vote in an election without Trump on the ballot.
“I’m not running,” Trump said. “I mean, there are many people that have said to me, ‘Sir, I will never ever ... I will never ever go and vote in the midterms because you’re not running and I don’t think you like Congress.’”
You'd think that the Republican candidates would be a little bit miffed at this but they appear on stage with him regularly and lick his boots like he's some kind of demi-god. The entire party is banking on Trump's allegedly massive popularity to keep them in power.
Or, it's just that he has that boot on their neck, promising to treat them like garbage the way he treats Flake, Corker, McCain and they are simply cowards who would rather bow down than take a chance on losing their seats?
This is not a new phenomenon. People love to talk about the spineless Dems and how useless they are, but they are nothing compared to the groveling sycophants of the GOP. I used to write about this all the time during the Bush years. I called them the Eunuch Caucus which is an insensitive, gendered term, which I regret. So I will now refer to them as Tiny's Obedient Servants.
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