Too good bad to check: RNC considering its buyers-remorse options? posted at 10:01 am on August 3, 2016 by Ed Morrissey Two weeks ago, the RNC acted as enforcers at the Republican national convention to stop the dump-Trump fr Republican officials are exploring how to handle a scenario that would be unthinkable in a normal election year: What would happen if the party’s presidential nominee dropped out? ABC News has learned that senior party officials are so frustrated — and confused by Donald Trump’s erratic behavior — that they are exploring how to replace him on the ballot if he were to drop out. The problem with this is that Step One would require Donald Trump to withdraw voluntarily. Anyone see that coming? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? The RNC’s own rules do not provide the national committee with the power to remove a candidate without his or her consent. And there’s good reason for that — the party holds national primaries to get voters to make the decision on who best represents them, and the convention takes place to deal with serious issues resulting from that outcome, whether it be a lack of consensus or other critical problems. That’s the last line of defense against nominating someone who will prove disastrous and who won’t leave when asked. Of course, this is exactly what a significant number of Republicans tried to do in Cleveland over the last few weeks, only to be blocked by the RNC. What has the RNC worried now, where they were sanguine before? Trump’s refusal to endorse party leaders has RNC chair Reince Priebus “apoplectic,” not to mention the whole Khan debacle: Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus is “apoplectic” over Donald Trump’s refusal to back House Speaker Paul Ryan or Sen. John McCain, a top Republican source said. Priebus called several Trump staffers, including campaign manager Paul Manafort, to express his “extreme displeasure” with Trump’s comments, the source with knowledge of the conversations told NBC News. McCain hasn’t issued much public support for Trump, and there’s a real question as to whether an endorsement might do more damage than good in Arizona anyway. However, Paul Ryan has expressed public support for Trump on a number of occasions, even though it may damage his own standing. On top of that, Ryan and Priebus go back a very long way together in Wisconsin, and ensuring the re-election of a sitting Speaker is a rather big deal to the RNC. Small wonder that Priebus has gone “apoplectic” over Trump’s snub. On the other hand … this has been Trump’s brand all along. He’s used the “establishment” as a punching bag for more than a year, and the RNC and Ryan certainly qualify as such to the extent the term has any meaning at all. Even Priebus’ delayed-onset apoplexy will likely only serve to boost Trump’s standing among his base, and make him all the more obstinate about staying on the ticket. What would it look like if Trump submitted to the “establishment” and quit in the middle of the general election, allowing them to hand-pick the nominee? And let’s game that out a bit, too. Assume Trump does withdraw and the RNC elevates Pence to the top slot — probably the only option that they have that sustains the fundraising that has already taken place. Pence inherits a mess of a campaign, which will likely see a mass exodus, and has to restructure the entire organization and its pitch with less than 100 days to go. That might get the GOP a momentary burst of goodwill from the electorate, but they can kiss much of their activist base bye-bye. Besides, does this chart from RealClearPolitics signal that this is a good time to panic? for chart see link Right now, RCP’s aggregation shows Hillary Clinton leading by 4.5 points in head-to-head polling. That’s not great, but she’s in the afterglow of the conventions and getting a transitory bump. The time to pull rank and shove Trump aside would have been in late June or early July … you know … at the convention. And even then, the scenarios that followed would still all have been disastrous. This sounds more like a shot across the bow of Team Trump from the RNC: Clean it up or we will. If so, it’s still an empty threat — but it’s still a message that the Trump campaign should heed on its merits. But WAIT is there more? Here's three more stories Team Trump to surrogates: Operation Urgent Pivot has begun Polls show Gary Johnson taking more support from Clinton, not Trump Phantom polls and pipe dreams: Utah and Arizona in play? and for a return engagement Monica is back. Hillary PANICKED Over Monica Lewinsky Tell-All Look if you want but it's like the supermarket check out line tabloids. All headline no substance. Leaked emails reveal what Clinton REALLY thinks of Bill's mistress. hillary-clinton-panicked-about-monica-lewinsky-tell-all-documentary Hillary Clinton was so worried about having her dirty laundry aired out during her time as Secretary of State, the 68-year-old had aides debrief her on all Clinton-related books and shows, newly leaked emails reveal. After WikiLeaks released more than 1,000 messages from Hillary’s Nothing about Monica's Tell All Documentary. Kind of like the story about AR and the immigration office not to compare the two but the style of reporting.