"Winning" Isn't Winning

[EasyAce]

If the American electorate continues to have a low opinion of the president, then Republicans should calculate that drag into their electoral expectations.
By Kevin D. Williamson
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/453527/virginia-election-results-trump-republicans

So, here’s the math: Ed Gillespie, the Republican candidate for governor of Virginia, won nine
out of ten votes among Virginians who approve of President Donald Trump. He lost nine out of ten
votes among those who disapprove. He lost by nine points.

Trump’s approval rating in Virginia is 42 percent. His approval rating nationally is lower than that —
about 38 percent. Trump partisans like to sneer at opinion polling and proffer the cliché that the only
poll that matters is the one on Election Day.

Virginia governor-elect Ralph Northam, a Democrat, surely agrees . . .

. . . We should not read too much into Tuesday night’s results. Neither should we read too little into
them.

Because of the inflation of the American presidency, there often is a countercyclical partisan effect,
usually felt in midterm congressional elections. Americans like to complain that Washington never
gets anything done, and they have a marked preference for divided governments that help keep
Washington from getting anything done. Trump is an unpopular figure, and an obnoxious one. He
likes being the center of attention, which means that he is going to be a factor in the mayor’s race
in St. Petersburg and the governor’s race in Virginia. If the American electorate continues to have
a low opinion of him, then Republicans should calculate that drag into their electoral expectations . . .

. . . Trump has an act. Republicans are supposed to have something else: an agenda, a platform,
principles, a philosophy. For a long time, that philosophy was conservatism: limited government
under the Constitution, property rights, free enterprise, the rule of law, moral and social traditionalism,
an assertive foreign policy, fiscal sobriety, order. (Imperfectly realized, of course, as conservatives
would expect.)

Trump offered something else: “winning" . . .

. . . If “winning” isn’t winning — and it surely didn’t last night — then Republicans have some decisions
to make. They did not win on Tuesday night. The question for Wednesday morning is whether they
deserved to, and whether they might deserve to again in the future . . .

[dfwgator]

They lost in a State where Hillary won comfortably, and this guy wants to panic.

[goatprairie]

They lost in a State where Hillary won comfortably, and this guy wants to panic.

If you read KW's articles, you know he doesn't panic. Right or wrong (and I've disagreed with a number of his positions/statements) he doesn't panic.  He simply tells you how he feels.
Would it have made a difference in Virginia if some other Republican was president? Maybe not. 
But the fact is Trump is a very divisive president. He even tries to disparage many people in his party...if the Republican Party is really his party...which I have my doubts about.
Nevertheless, I voted for Trump, and I like some things he's done and disliked some things he's done.
What he can do to help is try not to say nasty things about fellow Republicans. And cut down on the Twitter sniping.
The problem is he often doesn't appear presidential.  He should work on that.

[Oceander]

Trump is a millstone around the collective neck of those who aren’t democrats.