Somethings not right here...

[fob]

How did 15 of inarguably the sleeziest persons, ie the other repugnican candidates who were running, NOT come up with any of the current info about donplorable's shady lifestyle?

Rubio had no one that was interested in seeing if donplorable did business with Cuba?

Cruz had no one that wanted to hit him with infidelity issues?

Fiorina takes a pass on his screwing over small businesses via non-payment?

All the other Basketcases of Deplorableness had such lame opposition research?


Anyone of these things scratched at with the ferocity that any repugnican can garner towards a Clinton, and he would have been done in.

Now I can't really stomach any repugnican and this was a particularly heinous lot, so perhaps they did and it wasn't covered?

I'm having a hard time believing those basket of horribleenoughwordnotyetinventedtodescribethem didn't look into these things.

[VMA131Marine]

1. None of them believed he could win ... until he did.

[Cattledog]

2. You're assuming they were competent.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

3. No one was taking him seriously for a very long time.

That's the real reason. Not to mention he will sue anyone who looks at him cross-eyed, so there just wasn't a lot of vetting (to use a popular word) going on.

Everyone knew about his cheating on his wives, but Ronald Reagan made it okay for a divorced Republican to be President, so no one really cared very much about that. And he'd told us over and over again just how rich he was, and how much money he gave to charity, so reporters were a bit slow to investigate those things.

Now it's all coming out.

[Lifelong Protester]

4. Well, one of them was Walker....a certified dope.

and I don't think they thought he'd get the nomination.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

18. Certified dope.

So fitting,

[Lifelong Protester]

26. Thanks! Makes my day!

[Va Lefty]

5. They were all scared of his deplorables

[Madam45for2923]

6. Maybe is the case of the "bystander effect" ? You think someone else is "on" it.

Maybe one of your opponents. ~At least the media.

Also they were all trying to survive the primaries and debates.

[randr]

7. Interesting

I have lately begun to suspect that Trump is a Trogan Horse. The RNC must have seen the ultimate rise of Bernie as an anti establishment candidate and have long feared a populist uprising.
An effective maneuver would be to find a candidate that would appear to run from the outside, would destroy the far right crazies, and congeal the disgruntled factions into a forceful electorate.
Trump has really never been an outsider; he is as far inside as you can get. He brags about it daily and none of the minions have figured it out that he is the evil in our government he pretends to be against.

[fob]

11. I forgot that "outsider" bullshit too. And I'm seeing from the responses that I missed

the one Grand Unifying Theory, that truly fits ALL of those nutcases so well. Incompetence. It's really the only thing they're all competent at!


So Donplorable Chump turns out to be the least incompetent of the bunch. How's that for depressing.

Thanks to all who replied, while I don't feel better about the situation, at least I have a more clear understanding.

[CincyDem]

16. Always thought that.

Pence was always their guy but he could never survive the primary fracas or the scrutiny of being at the top of the ticket.

Trump wins and Pence will make Cheney look like a passive guy who was just dropped by the White House to take the tour.

[Old and In the Way]

24. In the GOP (aka Opposite World), the worst always rises to the top

Think about it...in any given primary, the one with the most homophobic, most antisocial tendencies always wins. Ignorance and intolerance are cardinal virtues. Trump is the culmanation of decades of the GOP degeneration.

[Guilded Lilly]

8. It's all about retaining power...

and money. It has nothing to do with being legal or moral...or particularly intelligent.

The entire media, until now, has chosen to be incompetent boobs in mad search for ratings and Internet hits. I doubt even now that the provable corruption a professional few are uncovering daily will mean anything. Everything is so f'ing screwball.

Thoroughly vetting a candidate for Republicans went extinct with John McCain's team of fools when he ran for President.

[Ilsa]

9. I believe they have that unwritten pledge of not speaking ill of fellow republicans.

Even if they are liars, cheats, felons, rapists, and murders.

[Freddie]

17. ^^this^^

St. Ronnie's law. Also fear of things getting too ugly in the primary and having it on record for the GE.

[randome]

10. No one is running the GOP. No one.

The cows are grazing on the Senate lawn: "Hey! Look! Rome must have fallen!"
[hr][font color="blue"][center]I'm always right. When I'm wrong I admit it.
So then I'm right about being wrong.[/center][/font][hr]

[Wounded Bear]

12. Too many skeletons in their own closets, probably...

[drray23]

13. a combination of several things

First, most of them are pretty dim and incompetent. Secondly, maybe they thought he would not win. Finally, paying for opposition research takes resources. With the exception of Jeb Bush all the others were pretty much running on a shoestring budget.

Once the election went one on one, the money involved is drastically increased and so is the scope of the campaigns. The media also becomes more interested and start digging up for dirt.

[LiberalFighter]

14. It could be that exposing it would exposed themselves too.

[LAS14]

15. Interesting thread. Good ideas.

[TwistedTinkerbelle]

19. The math is pretty easy...

Primaries are a bloody business. Any political junkie who has been around long enough knows that it's a rough gauntlet to run through. Even so, there is still a fine line between getting the jump on the other guy and alienating that guy's base. I think in the beginning--just like most of us, everyone thought he'd drop out or get laughed out of the primaries and that would be that. Until the he started saying the things the crazies wanted to hear and boy did they love him...Big time. He was the savior come to rescue them from whatever it was they envision as the boogie man. Cruz had a pretty good plan--he'd befriend Trump and when Trump fell off the platform, he'd pick up Trump's base. So being ugly to Trump wasn't a good idea. When Trump started really winning they didn't know how to counter and not piss off his followers. We all pretty much so hate him and what he represents, but ya gotta admit he's done this whole thing with a playbook no one understands because there isn't any rhyme or reason to it.

Bottom line? The other 16 wannabes didn't want to hit Trump with any kind of truthiness because like it or not that basket of deplorables is a big section of the GOP voting block.

[Sunlei]

23. He's a 'male' palin, bagge(r)s don't like females in charge.

[C_U_L8R]

20. They're the leading minds in the Republican Party

but it's really unfair to expect that they'd also be smart.
How arrogant

[Cracklin Charlie]

21. Research costs money.

I think it may have been in short supply during the Republican primary.

[Sunlei]

22. I think many of that stagefull knew trump had dirt on most of them.

couple of them were into real estate, some into business deals (maybe even cuba sneekie deals), several rub elbows at the same fabulous parties with young 'models'.

I knew he was going to kick their (R)asses long ago. and so it was.

[duncang]

25. It pretty much was all the above answers

They were to stupid, lazy, clueless, spineless, arrogant, chickenshit, lying, self aggrandizing, bullshit artists. He is the grand poo-bah of all of that. Dipshit donnie just beat them out on all counts.