Comments by "Joao Costa" (@JoaoCosta-pn9im) on "Washington Post"
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Well, what does not seem to have entered McConnell's calculation is that while the president may surf through the shutdown with his base blindly supporting him, this does not mean that the very same base will be on McConnell's side. He may and should end up paying a heavier price for the shutdown than Trump. The blind crowd supports the president just because he is the president; any president could get similar support by default. However, majority leader in the Senate is seen differently; pending on how heavy is the bad effects of the shutdown on his constituencies, he may see things getting very tough on him. The President has a country constituency of blind followers; McConnell has only a state base, and that could turn very ugly on him, no matter the support the president gets from them. If McConnell is not seen as making any explicit effort in any direction, he certainly will lose a lot of his supporters, particularly anyone in a way or another affected by the shutdown. He is making a dirty gamble that might backfire on him. On the other hand, if he is betting on the erosion of the president chances to reach the end of the mandate and be the candidate in 2020, he may be welcoming the opportunity of letting the president prestige with his base burn out in slow fire. He will not be seen as the one who did that. Either way, he is gambling that everybody else but him will look bad in this story, the president and the Democrats included, and he will be the one to have spared his prestige. But, again, he is very wrong if he is thinking that way. We will see.
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