Oct. 28--Twas the night before the third GOP presidential primary debate, and someone finally said what needed to be said: "I've about had it with these people."
That someone was Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich, himself a presidential candidate. The "these people" he has had it with are fellow candidates, particularly the two who bafflingly occupy top spots in the polls.
At a Tuesday rally in Ohio, before Kasich departed for tonight's debate in Colorado, the moderate governor referenced Ben Carson, saying: "We got one candidate that says that we ought to abolish Medicaid and Medicare. You ever heard of anything so crazy as that? ... We got one person saying we ought to have a 10-percent flat tax that will drive up the deficit in this country by trillions of dollars."
He then brought up Donald Trump's round-em-up immigration plan: "We've got one guy that says we ought to take 10 or 11 million people and pick them up -- I don't know where we're going, in their homes, their apartments? -- we're going to pick them up and take them to the border and scream at them to get out of our country? That's just crazy! That is just crazy."
It is crazy, and Carson and Trump are, by any sensible analysis, preposterous candidates. Richard Vatz, a political rhetoric professor at Towson University and self-described "conservative in good standing," wrote recently in The Baltimore Sun: "I remain incredulous that so many Republicans support two unelectable, inexperienced and irresponsible candidates."
He's not alone in his incredulity. Republicans who care about winning back the White House in 2016 are flabbergasted, and more than a little horrified, at the fact that Trump and Carson continue to gobble up about 50 percent of any GOP primary poll.
The two candidates are buoyed by Republican voters who say they're sick of politicians and want to give a political outsider a chance at running the country. That's not an unreasonable way to feel, but picking Trump or Carson to be that outsider is like saying, "I want to give someone who's not a plumber a chance to fix my toilet, so I'm going to hire a squirrel who's not even particularly good at being a squirrel."
You can admire Carson's past as a neurosurgeon, appreciate his low-key demeanor and respect his faith and intellect. But if you want to win a general election, you have to acknowledge that to a large swath of the general population, Carson seems borderline bonkers.
He doesn't think a Muslim should be president, he has compared Obamacare and various other things that aren't slavery to slavery and recently posited that the Holocaust might not have happened if Nazi Germany's Jewish citizens were armed. He has called the Big Bang a "fairy tale" and said he got part of his tax-reform idea "from the Bible, tithing."
Trump has made a hobby out of alienating people, particularly Latino voters who will be crucial to winning the presidency.
As Kasich was bemoaning the craziness of the GOP front-runners, a group of conservative Hispanic leaders representing two dozen organizations met in Colorado and warned the Republican presidential candidates that what they say in the primary will be remembered in the general election.
"Heed our warning," said Rosario Marin, who was U.S. treasurer under President George W. Bush. "Don't expect us to come to your side during the general election. You are not with us now, we will not be with you then. You don't need our vote now, you won't have it then. You insult us now, we will be deaf to you then."
Alfonso Aguilar, head of the American Principles Project's Latino Partnership, a group that backs Latino conservative issues and candidates, spoke specifically about Trump, telling Politico: "If Donald Trump is the GOP nominee the Republican party will lose the White House in the next election. So Trump is out, we've excommunicated him. He's done."
That will mean nothing to Trump's fiery supporters, who revel in the real estate mogul's tough-guy immigration rhetoric. But those supporters fail to recognize -- or just don't care -- that they, despite being predominantly white, are in the minority.
Political passion might tell someone that Trump is the perfect outsider for the job of president, but math says that nominating Trump -- or Carson, for that matter -- is the quickest way to get Hillary Clinton into the Oval Office.
What Kasich said -- "I've about had it with these people" -- is what many in the Republican Party are thinking. And it should be echoed on the debate stage tonight by some of the more reasonable and qualified candidates who have been reluctant to point out that Trump and Carson are not just daft but dangerous.
"What has happened to our party?" Kasich asked. "What has happened to the conservative movement?"
Those are good questions. And tonight would be a good time to provide answers.
rhuppke@tribpub.com
