OPINION:
That should be quite a session Thursday when Donald Trump and Paul Ryan sit down together to see what they have together to take the fight to the Clintons. Both men should be on their best behavior, which could be difficult for both of them, each man having said rough things about the other.
The Donald, who knows how to do it, will want to make a deal: “Here’s what I have, and here’s what you have. What can we trade, and how can we come up with a deal that makes us both happier than we were when we sat down together?”
Mr. Ryan is a man of principles, plural, which makes him an admirable custodian of what he thinks defines Republicans, and their long-held belief in small government, large ideas, cutting taxes to encourage growth, and reforming the entitlements that have made government the nation’s greatest growth industry.
If the two men succeed, each protecting his own terms, there will have to be at the least an adjustment of attitudes. Mr. Trump is clearly in the catbird’s seat, having overcome everything the party establishment has thrown at him, and then some, giving the elites the needed experience of having their rear ends handed to them on a paper plate. He’s entitled to his skepticism of what the Thursday session might bring.
Mr. Ryan, who within hours after the pivotal Indiana primary announced that he might not support the party’s nominee if it’s Mr. Trump, is uncomfortable as petitioner to the victor. He says the task of unifying the party belongs to Mr. Trump, but he might not help him do it. Coming to terms with taking a licking is not easy for anyone, but he has had a week and a day to think about it, and the party must hope for the best from both men.
Mr. Trump’s bluster and boasting, his inattention to many of the issues that bedevil presidents, is not always easy to accommodate, even by those who have supported him in the long slog through the primaries. But he needs the support of every Republican. Mr. Ryan is just beginning to make the noises of a disappointed but graceful loser. He offered to resign as chairman of the Republican National Convention, which by tradition, if the party controls Congress, is held by the speaker of the House. Offering his resignation was inevitable as Mr. Ryan reflected that the convention could hardly be led by someone who wouldn’t promise to support the most important work of the convention.
The business of the convention of 2016 is to rally to the fight against the opposition, to fire up the troops to do battle against Hillary Clinton, who has her own problems which look every day to be more insurmountable than the day before.
Donald Trump says he can “look presidential,” and worthy of the greatest honor a party can bestow. Now is the time to do that, beginning Thursday. Everyone who meets him says he is not the baron of bluster that he affects to be on the stump.
And if he is to be the party’s nominee the party elites must swallow their disappointment and resolve to get on with the task. Cleaning up the mess in Washington, much of it the making of Bonnie and Clod (as their critics have called Bill and Hillary Clinton), is the job at hand. Quitting the fight is no virtue.
Unlike the wipeouts of Barry Goldwater and George McGovern of a generation ago, wipeouts which haunt the fears of every Republican, the race between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton is clearly winnable. The early polls, some of them even showing the Donald with a slight lead, say so. If Mr. Trump is expected to “look presidential,” his party critics are expected put away their pout and aim their sticks and stones (rhetorically speaking only, of course) at the real target at hand. The country depends on it.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.