Trump goes one step too far

[Reluctant Republican]

With so few debates scheduled I can't imagine many of the candidates being willing to skip one. Especially since I imagine many of them are looking to gain points by bashing Trump. Maybe not the McCain thing specifically, but it offers a golden opportunity to talk about his past support of Democrats and unorthodox positions. Trump will probably get half the debate speaking time given all the rebuttals the moderators will need to give him.

A grain of salt must be offered, but from what I've seen many of his devoted fans don't seem too troubled by these comments. His facebook page is full of people praising his "courage" and being the only one to "tell it like it is" and his likes continue to increase rapidly. I don't think one should necessarily put much faith into social media support, but I did a similar thing when Rand made  a hawkish statement awhile back that really disturbed many of his supporters. In that case, his likes  took a notable decrease for a few days while the news dominated headlines. Trump does not appear to be experiencing that.

The Right Wing Blogophere also seems to be defending him. Right Wing News had an article that defended Donald's remark against McCain and called it "old school manliness", and accused the outcry over the remarks as being  a result of men being wussified in this country. Which strikes me as an... interesting way to look at it. But the point is that Trump's base seems unbothered by these comments. He's probably hurt himself with people who were on the fence with him, but the ones who were already committed seem to show no sign of switching horses.

[Reluctant Republican]

Obviously none of them want to skip debates. The bet they would be making is that if thy threaten the RNC with skipping the RNC will find a way to kick Trump out. I bet you anything that some of the campaigns are sniffing each other out on this issue, but would only do it if they got to some kind of critical mass where a bunch of them all agreed and issued a joint statement.  

True, but as you said, Trump has a big of an ego. An insult like that would likely inspire him to go third party. And even if they wanted to, he is leading the polls or a least in second place.  I just don't think they have the capital to pull it off.

I also found this old article when Trump was polling at only 6 percent, which suggests it's not possible to disinvite someone who meets the qualifications without violating campaign finance laws.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/2016-elections/why-republicans-can-t-kick-donald-trump-out-of-their-debates-20150708

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So I think the networks would be forced to call the candidates bluff.