DITCH AND SWITCH

Ken Berwitz


For some time now, I have been blogging about the fact that, for (ahem) unexplained reasons, polling which measures Donald Trump\’s support never seems to include Democrats.  

Very strange, given the uniqueness of Trump\’s campaign – which makes the prospect of Democrat defections different than in other elections, and maybe a great deal more likely.

Well, it\’s nice to see at least one media venue catching up to this possibility. 

Excerpted from Alan Rappeport\’s article for the New York Times:

At a campaign eventfor Donald J. Trump in Mississippi last weekend, Lynette Hardaway and RochelleRichardson – two African-American YouTube stars who go by the names Diamond andSilk – rallied the roaring crowd with a plea. “Ditch and switch! Ditch andswitch!” they yelled.

The pitch was directedat Democrats and independents in the audience, urging them to becomeRepublicans and vote for Mr. Trump if they really want to show their support.

It could be animportant strategy for Mr. Trump as the pace of primary season picks up, and helooks to turn his raucous campaign events into voters, delegates and ultimatelythe Republican nomination. To accomplish that, Mr. Trump will be relying onpeople who do not tend to vote and trying to persuade some Democrats and independentsto change parties so that they can vote in states that allow only registeredRepublicans to participate.

Is it any surprise that Trump has the potential to attract Democrats?  Consider the two Democrat choices (I\’m not including Martin O\’Malley, since he has gone nowhere in any of the polls):

-Hillary Clinton:  A career politician\’s wife-turned-politician, who seems to have been around forever, is devoid of major accomplishments, and who is to reality and sincerity what Cremora is to organic milk; 

-Bernard “Bernie” Sanders:  A self-described socialist Senator almost no one ever heard of until a few months ago, whose basic platform is that all problems can be solved by soaking “the rich” (try and get a definition of who “the rich” are out of him) and whose distaste for you seems in direct proportion to the success you have had in life.

NOW, will the Times finally break down and, in its next polling wave, ask Democrats as well as Republicans if they prefer Trump?  Or are the folks over there still too obtuse – or too fearful of what they might find out – to do it?

I guess we\’ll find out soon enough.

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