It is December of 2014.Democrats have suffered major losses in congressional races. Republicans are ascendant and eagerly looking forward to 2016, when they will have a bumper crop of young, talented and experienced candidates to offer the voters, who are decidedly weary of Obamacare, economic stagnation, international weakness and divisive politics.
A group of veteran Democrat strategists has gathered in D.C., in a small office on Massachusetts Avenue N.W., to discuss their party's future, and how the election of 2016 might yet be salvaged. Hillary Clinton is the presumed frontrunner for the nomination, but she is known to be a poor campaigner and personally disagreeable to a significant share of the electorate. And also, to a number of Democrats in that very room.
The discussion is lively, occasionally heated, and centers around how best to offset two significant advantages that the GOP possesses going into 2016: an enthusiastic and motivated voter base, and an growing and influential network of alternative media support via talk radio, conservative internet news sources, and social media.
The participants review each of the potential Republican standard bearers, focusing on their strengths and weaknesses: John Kasich has moderate appeal and being from the key state of Ohio might also be able to capture Pennsylvania; Scott Walker is seen as a somewhat plodding, if steady governor with a populist vibe born of having stood up to his state's public employees' unions and their Democratic legislative benefactors. He could conceivably improve the GOP's prospects in the upper Midwest. Then, there is Marco Rubio: young, attractive, energetic, Hispanic, and he hails from the wildly vital state of Florida. Big Time Trouble.
They drink coffee from recycled brown paper cups and bottled water both in copious quantities. As the late afternoon sunlight slants through the too-brightly lit office room, the Democrat operatives review and discuss the yellow opposition research folders spread out on the table, fifteen or sixteen in all. An unusual wealth of talent right there, the operatives agree. Unusual for Republicans. But there will certainly be some opportunities ripe for exploitation, to be sure...
Ted Cruz... not a team player, to say the least; he's a bomb thrower. Besides, Boehner can't stand him. Hates his guts. Smart bastard, though. And Jeb Bush... oh, man -can you imagine it? What a friggin' gift it would be to have the Bush Family name to kick around again and to remind people about the last one. Then there's Mike Huckabee, the Holy Huckster, and Chris Christie... really?? Yeah, sure, I got a bridge for ya, right here pal.... (snort!).
And then, the slightly-built bespectacled man with the starched white dress shirt and dark blue tie at the end of the table spoke up. "What about Trump?"
"Donald Trump? That maniac? Are you serious? What about him?"
"He's running for President. As a Republican".
"Where the hell did you hear that?"
The thin grey-haired man smiled beneath his horn-rimmed glasses.
"He told me himself".
