The Case for Rubio-Katich

by Ross Douthat

Feb. 23, 2016

http://douthat.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/02/22/the-case-for-rubio-kasich/?comments#permid=17666778

More wishful thinking, or desperate daydreaming on the part of Conservative pundits -- Brooks in today's blog has given up on even that, speculating about what makes marriages tick, pop psychology at its worst.

Just listening to Kasich talk, he seems to be the only sane person left in the clown car - unless he goes off on the conservative issues, like Planned Parenthood or ObamaCare; then the crazy comes out in full force even with him.

All this speculation is really only so much hot air - the GOP has to learn to deal with the monsters it has created through its vicious negativity over the past several decades. Even Rubio, who is probably the only one left who would be an acceptable candidate for "the establishment", sounds like a fanatic when he gets into some of his pseudo-religious stump speeches - he sound more like a Christian caricature of the Islamic State than a sane, rational leader of the USA.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump, the almost certain GOP nominee, is inciting his followers to violence ("I'd like to punch him in the face", "in the good old days these guys would have been taken out on a stretcher"). 

And Cruz seems to be leading the GOP back to the "dirty tricks" era of Richard Nixon, with the almost daily revelations of little nasties his cmapaign orchestrates.

This is the group that many pundits have labeled a "strong GOP field" at the outset of the campaign...