Dec 19^th

Every once-in-a-while when I want to see what the conservatives are up to (or down to) I turn on Fox News. This is interesting because it is carefully designed to appeal to those already furious at liberal policies and particularly paranoid about “big gov’ment.” These are the folks who claimed that Michelle Obama, Salutatorian at a Chicago magnet school, got into Princeton only because of affirmative action. They trivialize the President’s recent stop to console the relatives of the murdered victims in San Bernardino, California. Fox says the President was there anyway. Does that mean he would deserve no credit for comforting these people unless he hiked in from the Whitehouse?

I happened to hit the Saturday morning show on Fox hosted by the ubiquitous Tucker Carlson. Tucker is a thorough going conservative, except for the fact that he seems to have no objection to gay marriage. You won’t hear him discuss that departure from conservative orthodoxy on his Fox program however. This program, like many others on the Fox channel is at least partly a carefully orchestrated leg show. The women participants are all seated on a couch fronted by a low table. All are in thigh high skirts of course, no slacks are permitted. The women participants are young, articulate, almost all obviously Caucasian and without exception seriously conservative. One of their programs, “Outnumbered” consists of four short skirted young women seated two on either side of the “outnumbered” male guest. I’m sure that some viewers tune in to listen to the back and forth banter just as some once bought “Playboy” for the articles on philosophy.

Moving on to more serious issues, we now have Donald Trump polling in the high 30s to low 40s. Ted Cruz is now a distant second. Cruz is said to be waiting for Trump to fall on his face so that he, Cruz, can pick off Trump’s supporters, you know rather like a jackal scavenging a lion kill. There are some obvious difficulties with this plan: First, and most obvious is Trump’s comment, “I’m not going anywhere folks.” Now that Trump is pushing 40 percent in the polls with his nearest competitor below 20 percent it is more obvious than ever that Trump will not be dropping out any time soon. If he thinks that the RNC hasn’t played fair he will run as an independent, either way Cruz gets nothing.

The second difficulty is Cruz’s assumption that if he doesn’t criticize Trump, and if Trump drops out, Cruz will get those Trump supporters. OK why should they support Cruz if they don’t support him now? If Cruz believes that he is Trump “lite” he might find that Trump’s supporters want the real thing or nothing at all. They can always stay home.

The Brits who can bet on our elections are giving odds that are enlightening: The favorite Republican candidate, if you’re betting, is Marco Rubio with Trump second and Cruz well down in the pack. Hillary is still the odds on favorite to win the election.