Bill Kristol is hard at work, selling a product no one wants. A different GOP nominee in 2012.
And so, armed with this history and fresh polling (Morning Consult and Politico found 38% of Republican voters want Trump to face a primary challenge), Kristol made his case this week to dozens of influential New Hampshire activists during a breakfast buffet beneath blown-up photos of past presidential candidates campaigning in the nation’s first primary state.
Many Republicans who voted for Trump in the general election last time around did so, Kristol asserts, out of concern over Supreme Court appointments and because they hated Hillary Clinton more.
“It is possible,” Kristol told the audience, “to say, ‘Yeah, I approve of Trump — maybe not strongly, but somewhat — but I’d also like to have a choice … in 2020 that’s different from Trump.’ You don’t have to be a Never Trumper to not be on board for eight years of Trump.”
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“If I could just shake people up a little bit,” Kristol told BuzzFeed News after the Saint Anselm remarks. “Get them out of ‘Gee, I just saw a poll where he’s got 82% approval among Republicans, it’s over.’ If I get them to think for a minute, I think that by itself is useful.”
The 38% statistic is real, but meaningless.
It doesn't mean that 38% of Republicans want to replace Trump. In free elections, people like to see more than one candidate running. It doesn't mean they want to vote for that alternative.
The easy way to prove that is with the Dem stats on Obama in 2012.
One is from AP/KN in late October, showing that 47 percent of Democrats want the president to be challenged by another Democrat in 2012 (with 51 percent opposed); and one came from McClatchey/Marist just before Thanksgiving, showing 45 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents favoring a primary challenge (with 46 percent opposed).
These numbers are higher than for Trump. They probably indicated a degree of dissatisfaction. But nowhere near the 40% mark. Ditto for Trump.
Kristol is touting polls showing that fewer Republicans want a primary challenge to Trump than Democrats did to Obama.
There's nothing promising about those numbers. That's what happens when you sell a product that no one wants.