Slate's Political Gabfest: The "Hate and Castrate" Edition

March 4, 2016 8:28 AM

David Plotz, Emily Bazelon and John Dickerson discuss the unfolding anti-Trump effort, Hillary Clinton's general election potential and the Supreme Court's recent debate about abortion access in West Texas.

• Has Trump secured the nomination?
• How Clinton might campaign against Trump, would she win?
• The Texas abortion access Supreme Court case
• Slate Plus: Clarence Thomas breaks his silence

posted by Static Vagabond (3 comments total)

It's an interesting problem-- it seems what passes for the Republican establishment is now desperately scrambling to veer Trump off course in the final twelve days, but the very act of doing so might well bolster Trumps support, bringing more traditionally non-invested people out to vote.

From my outsider's point of view, Trump has access to enough free air-time that the millions spent in the following days by PACs running anti-trump sentiment might well just be background noise, which Trump can point at and use as fuel for the obvious anti-establishment feeling within the Republican electorate.

That tied in with the mental calculation that an early showing of support for Trump might pay political dividends rather then keeping quiet (hello Christie!) should prove interesting to watch as the days tick down.

The abortion case is crazy to me. That the oral arguments seemingly walk to the very edge of plainly saying that this is a cover for just making abortions harder hopefully point to a good result in the end.

That the anti-abortion side states that it's not an undue burden because access can be provided by the next state over, paired with the idea that the law is for the safety of women, even though the 'local' clinics will close forcing them to the next state over, which doesn't have the 'safety' laws seems like a slam dunk indication that this isn't about safety at all. It'll be interesting to see if that's indicated more upfront in the final verdict.
posted by Static Vagabond at 9:40 AM on March 4, 2016

(By the way, if you're not listening to John Dickerson's Whistlestop podcast -- campaigns of yore -- then you're missing out.)
posted by Etrigan at 11:45 AM on March 4, 2016

Seconding Etrigan's endorsement of John Dickerson's Whistlestop. Each episode is impeccably researched and incredibly entertaining. I honestly don't know how he does it along with his responsibilities at Slate and Meet the Press.
posted by How the runs scored at 7:04 AM on March 6, 2016