Judd Gregg: The lost candidate

By Judd Gregg - 06-27-16 06:00 AM EDT

"A mind is a terrible thing to lose," observed Dan Quayle some time ago. The Washington talkers soundly ridiculed him for his comment.

But it was actually an interesting point.

There are in fact a large number of "terrible thing to lose." Many are obvious, of course, like the keys to your car or your iPhone.

A few are less obvious, but a great deal more important - and one of them is being presented starkly in this presidential election.

You might say that a "presidential nominee is a terrible thing to lose" - but it appears the Republican Party has had just that happen.

Lost here is not meant in the sense of "lose an election." Rather, it is simply "lost" as in: What the heck happened to him? Where did he go?

Donald Trump before he is even officially anointed as the Republican nominee - which he should be, given that he won the requisite number of delegates during the primary process - has been lost.

No one really has any idea where he is, what he stands for or if anything he says is for real or just the thought of the moment.

Republicans voters - and even some who are not Republicans but wish to have a person to consider beyond the Democratic nominee - look around and are not able to find the Republican nominee.

He is there, of course. He is good entertainment and will be right through the election.

But he is not a nominee of a national party who anyone can find or see as substantive, serious or for that matter electable.

We are less than five months out from the national election, less than one month out from the party convention and the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party has essentially disappeared as a serious voice in the national dialogue.

He still talks a great deal, of course.

But his is a language without a message. It is meandering hyperbole, peppered with often-tangential attacks and coated in the most superficial discussion of complex and important issues.

It is as if he has decided to make himself irrelevant to his own candidacy by parodying himself.

This is deeply unfortunate for the Republican Party and conservatives generally. After all, the Democrats are about to nominate their weakest candidate in almost the last fifty years.

Not since George McGovern have they put forward such a mediocre nominee.

Hillary Clinton has been driven from the mainstream of American political thought by her efforts to get to the left of a socialist - her rival in the primaries, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Equally important, she brings to the effort a record of ethical and substantive failures that should cause her defeat.

But without a real Republican nominee, it is hard for a Democratic nominee to lose, no matter how flawed she maybe. And our nominee is lost in the surreal world of Trumpland.

Can this change?

One would certainly hope so.

It should be fairly evident that Trump is no longer playing to a majority crowd in a minority party. Rather, his current audience is the general American public, who tend to expect their presidents to be, well, somewhat presidential.

But since becoming the nominee-apparent, the Donald has merrily marched on down a path that marginalizes him. His approach makes those whose support he needs shake their heads and say, "Where is he?"

Any suggestion that Trump's manner of presenting himself should shift even slightly is met with the understandable reaction of "We are going to stick with what got us this far and not trim our sails in any manner." Everyone should probably just accept that as the modus operandi for the ensuing weeks.

This does not mean that his great skill at controlling the stage of political discourse cannot be honed towards themes that actually resonate beyond those who follow reality television.

There are a lot of things Donald Trump does stand for which are neither politically self-destructive nor focused upon personal vendettas.

He is a force for individual creativity, a market economy, a national defense that is realistic, economic growth that is not stifled by over-government and the rejection of the elitism of the left, with its incessant insistence on telling everybody else how they should lead their lives.

Most importantly, he speaks to the deep concern that so many Americans have for our future after eight years of Obamaism.

Maybe if he could just keep his energies focused on these types of themes, he could expand his coalition and be viewed as electable to the most important job in the world.

If not, then he will remain "the lost candidate." The presidential election will be a non-event.

And those who wish to renew America after its leftward drift under Obama will need to double down on protecting the Republican majorities in the Congress.

Judd Gregg (R) is a former governor and three-term senator from New Hampshire who served as chairman and ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, and as ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Foreign Operations subcommittee.