Gallup: Republicans hold election enthusiasm edge

[Awsi Dooger]

48. It's always preferable to be supporting someone than opposing someone

I have no idea how this is not understood. Negativity is not an attractant. Bloomberg is mostly wasting those millions if he dumps then all on anti-Trump ads. That opinion is baked.

The other side has a lowlife human being but he is an incumbent who they overwhelmingly support to feverish intensity. Record approval rating among Republicans. Meanwhile we've been trying to figure out the best "Anyone But" candidate.

ABB was moronic in 2004. I emphasized that throughout. Now ABT is equally moronic. We lacked an ideal candidate. I was desperately hoping someone like Beto would emerge, someone who our party could rally around, instead of the fragile garbage of merely opposing the other side.

The reason incumbents win almost without exception is that their party is fervently supporting their guy. Those campaigns and commercials spotlight everything he has (supposedly) accomplished in office. Others get caught up in it also, the swing independents. It is the reason I've always emphasized that the number one requirement to defeat a presidential incumbent is charisma, someone who can grasp the electorate and make them determined to vote for him, without care who the incumbent is.

We didn't go that route. And make no mistake...we are the underdog in November.

It was sickening that our most charismatic candidate happened to be a socialist. It should have been impossible to play out that way but our bench suffered so long once we lost all the governorships.

Voters in 2008 were positive toward Obama. That was revealed in every poll. They were pro-Obama votes, not anti-McCain votes. Heck, you had nearly 30% of Obama voters saying McCain was qualified to be president. That is an unheard of number for that category from the opposing party. Contrast to 2016 when only 5% of Trump voters said Hillary was qualified to be president.