As far as Trump analogies go, I find none more appropriate than Frankenstein's monster, only instead of being chased by the mob, he's chasing after them. An unleashed, ego-maniacal billionaire energized by the basest of the Republican base, Trump is the embodiment of the GOP's thirty-year rightward lurch and an absolute nightmare for the establishment...or so I thought.
Perhaps Reince and Co. aren't as concerned about Trump's presence in the race as we think they should be. The assumption has been that the establishment and the candidates have remained quiet on the subject because they don't know how to respond to Trump (and don't want to face his backlash) but perhaps their silence is strategic.
Since he entered the race, almost all the news covering the Republican side has either been about how many clowns there are in the car or about Trump. Big news happens, each of the candidates gives a one line, soap water non-answer (or not), then it's right back to Trump.
The question I'm posing is: How is this a bad thing for any of the 'top tier' candidates?
Granted, I can understand how Trump is bad for the GOP brand in general, to which the candidates are obviously attached, but in many ways, he is spouting the exact brand message that the establishment tries to dog whistle all day to a certain subset of their party loyal. They may be able to capitalize on having a hype man rile up the crowd with a megaphone for a while before the real show starts. After all, it's a given that Trump will provide ample/repeated opportunities for Reince and all the clowns to finally draw the line and demonstrate they are the 'adults' by publicly denouncing him and collectively calling for him to drop out of the race. He's already given them a very good opportunity to do just that, and yet they have chosen to take no action thus far. Perhaps it's because they're all walking a very tricky tight rope, or perhaps they actually have something to gain by Trumps presence in the race in the meantime.
Right now, Trump is getting all the attention, but he's also drawing all the fire. It's not as if Jeb Bush or Scott Walker would like to field a bunch of questions about their records or policy proposals. None of the candidates (except maybe Ted Cruz) really wants to make their opposition to the gay marriage ruling a defining characteristic of their campaign in the mind of the general public (read: the mythical independents). All of them are happy to spout off about the evils of Obamacare, but they're equally happy that no one is asking them for specific proposals with which to replace it. Why is no one asking? 1). It's the media, so.....also, can you believe what Trump just said!?!?
I recognize that many of the candidates are still jockeying for poll position and a spot on the debate stages, and to them Trump is probably killing their chances to build name recognition, etc. For the top 4 or 5 contenders, however, Trump is a great barrier to entry into the top tier. Also, the longer they can stay on the sidelines, the better off the ultimate nominee will be. It's a case of he who gaffes last, gaffes longest and wins the nomination. For each of the serious contenders, their most likely path to the nomination involves hanging around long enough for everyone else to disqualify themselves. Having the media's attention split 16 ways with a Trump sized portion going to one of the unelectable ones is not necessarily a bad way to ride out the summer.