Reince Priebus very well might have the toughest, most demanding white-collar job in the United States.
He is the chairman of the Republican National Committee and he is facing the daunting task of electing someone who systematically is destroying the party’s brand.
I come to this conclusion after reading a lengthy article in The New York Times Magazine, which came to my house tucked inside my Sunday New York Times.
Here’s the article. It’s long, but it’s worth your time:
Donald J. Trump is about to be nominated by the Republicans as their next presidential candidate. How did he get to this point?
Priebus doesn’t answer the question directly, except to say repeatedly during the article that Trump has brought an entirely different dynamic to this year’s presidential contest. It’s almost immeasurable. Trump’s rise has thrust the GOP into an enormous identity crisis.
About the time Trump shows signs of wising up and “maturing” as a candidate, writes Mark Liebovich, he flies off the rails. His insults have prompted various pithy reactions from former GOP rivals. Bobby Jindal called him a “madman who must be stopped”; Marco Rubio labeled Trump a “con man,” a “fraud” and a “lunatic”; Lindsey Graham called Trump a “race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot”; Rick Perry called him a “barking carnival act” and a “cancer on conservatism.”
This kinds of labels have this way of sticking to politicians’ backsides..
And to think that the chairman of the Republican Party must find a way — somehow! — to rally support for the party’s presidential nominee.
Whatever he earns as party chairman, Reince Priebus is going to have to work for it.