Dec 13^th

I see that New Jersey’s Governor, Chris Christie, has had a nice bump in the New Hampshire polls. The Governor had not been totally moribund but he had been sagging badly when the Manchester “Union Leader,” a very significant newspaper, rather surprisingly, gave him their endorsement. I watched the predictably laconic publisher of that paper, Joseph Mc Quaid, being interviewed. He was asked why Christie had received this honor. He said that Christie was better than Trump and he would get no argument there.  But then he produced nothing but the usual platitudes about how Christie had the experience, yada, yada. He would probably have added Christie’s inherent honesty and good looks but he recognized that he had stretched the limits of belief already. It is hard to imagine why else Christie should be pulling ahead in the polls and, as a result, be on the main stage Tuesday night instead of at the kiddy table.

Rand Paul on the other hand may be headed for the kiddy table and he is very unhappy about that. His childish pout over the possibility of being relegated to the minor leagues really doesn’t look at all Presidential.

Republican big wigs got together recently and began to consider the possibility of a brokered convention. That will be fun to watch if it happens. A brokered convention occurs if no one candidate gets enough delegates to win the nomination on the first ballot. Donald Trump is mightily upset about this possibility because he believes that a brokered convention is a plot to steal the nomination from him. (It is hardly surprising that Trump who spreads paranoia wherever he goes is a bit paranoid himself; on the other hand Trump may have a point.)

If no candidate in a brokered convention gets enough votes then some horse trading goes on. Maybe the number three candidate agrees to release his delegates to number two in exchange for a Secretary of State position in number two’s administration if he’s elected. You can see that even if Trump has many delegates some of those behind him could combine to win the nomination. If that happens, Trump might decide that he has been treated “unfairly” and go it alone. Of course by then it would probably be too late for him to get on various state ballots and do any severe damage to the Republican cause. If Trump claims that he was treated unfairly and asks his enraged followers to stay home that could also hand the election to Hillary Clinton. As you can see a brokered convention could be more fun than…well almost anything!