Trump wants to pick winners, period. But even he seems to think Greitens is too pervy
Politico Playbook just ran a piquant account, ”INSIDE THE GOP’S MISSOURI CLOWN SHOW,” of the GOP primary race to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt.
The starting point of the piece is the accepted wisdom — which might even be true, just this once — that the worst possible outcome for Republicans who want to win this thing would be to nominate our disgraced former governor, Eric Greitens.
Polling suggests that Greitens is leading his primary rivals. Yes, he’s doing better than any of the candidates who have not been unanimously believed by a bipartisan Missouri House investigative committee to have tied up a woman in his basement and then forced her to have oral sex with him.
But surveys also show that as of now, Greitens stands the best chance of any Republican in the race of losing to Democrat Lucas Kunce in the general election.
First, a correction to the Politico piece: It says Greitens “resigned in 2018 after a woman testified under oath that Greitens tied her up in his basement, stripped her naked and took photos of her to use as blackmail in their extramarital affair.” As this alleged assault was their first sexual encounter, it’s a mistake to label what she says he did to her as the “affair” that he’s always preferred to call it.
The Star, too, sometimes went along with his framing, and said that he had “admitted” to an affair, when it would be more accurate to say that he was eager to have events that she described as terrifying characterized as consensual. Duct tape out of nowhere, along with tears, threats and coercion, aren’t the markers of an affair, but of a violation.
The main focus of the Politico piece, though, is former President Donald Trump’s debate with himself over whom to endorse in the Missouri primary. Even Trump, who has bragged about p-grabbing and has been accused of sexual misconduct by 26 women, seems to see Greitens as too pervy to approve.
“While Trump often sides with men accused of sexual misconduct over the women who accuse them,” Politico says, he’s still “shown contempt” for our former governor: “What kind of guy ties a woman up in the basement against her will?” Trump recently asked one confidant.
Yet unfortunately, this is no more disqualifying for our former president than it seems to be for GOP voters in our state. Mostly, Trump wants to pick the winner, so he can then claim to have made a difference in the race.
But the point of endorsing isn’t to back the person most likely to win; picking the likely winner involves nothing more than following the polling and placing your bet accordingly.
When our editorial board endorses, we choose the candidate we think would do the best job, regardless of his or her chances of being elected. If we convince some voters, great, but even if we don’t, that’s better than picking whoever is leading in the polls. That’s following public opinion rather than trying to influence it, so why endorse at all?
Since Trump isn’t really for anything other than winning, it’s not surprising that the person most likely to win is the person most likely to get his endorsement. And that’s just one more indicator that he’s no longer leading at all, but simply following his former followers.