With every day that goes by, this particular Republican argument is proven more and more delusional.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio says his “sense” is that Donald Trump’s positions on issues will more fully develop as he takes on the role as president. [...]
“And that’s my sense of it, as he settles into this role as the nominee and ultimately the president, access to these issues is going to begin to, in some ways, kind of shape some of the policy positions given reality versus perhaps what you might read about on a blog somewhere. So I think that’s gonna be a real factor,” Rubio said.
A few obvious questions, here.
1) At what point, during his campaign and nomination, has Donald Trump demonstrated an ability to "settle into" a more statesman-like, less carnival-barker role? What hint has Donald Trump given of inching toward a grasp of reality any different from the one he began the campaign with at the top of a golden escalator, over one year ago?
2) What evidence is there for the supposition that Donald J. Trump, purveyor of Alex Jones theories, patron saint of birtherism, retweeter of white supremacist propaganda efforts, pathological liar and unrepentant fabulist, champion and prime flag-carrier of the notion that every last person in elected government, non-elected government, in our foreign policy circles, in our domestic policy circles, in the collected scientific community and in every last news venue not currently kissing Mr. Donald Trump's ass are all "stupid," or "crooked," or "losers," will at any point begin to allow any group of those people to sway his views toward, as you so bluntly put it, "reality"?
3) Precisely how long—presumably, in months—will be given for President Trump to "settle into" his role as commander of our military, signer of our nation's laws, and chief executive of the federal government and its various departments, before his status as president begins to "count"? How many months of, as Mitch McConnell put it, "rookie mistakes" ought we expect? Three? Six? Twenty? If a President Trump badly insults a foreign leader in April, after taking office, or in July is still supposing that our treaties are fungible things, or orders our military in August to take a plainly un-Constitutional act, will those things count as actions of a sitting president or will Republican functionaries be dispatched to those various nations and outposts to reassure them that no, the current president is merely an idiot—pay no attention to him for another six weeks, and then he will have entered "reality" for sure?
4) Is there, deep within the quickly stiffening corpse of the Republican Party, any remaining scrap of shame at all?