2016 Feb 4^th

I had the misfortune to tune into CNN this morning just as Carly Fiorina was being interviewed. Her campaign is in desperate straits and I suppose she believes that her hate filled rants against nearly everything not Carly will help it to recover. That is unlikely; she will soon be falling by the wayside joining Paul, Santorum and Huckabee, all watching the action and wondering how they will pay their campaign bills.

Donald Trump is discovering that politics and business play by different rules. He claims that he was treated unfairly by the Cruz campaign which he has accused of stealing the election. They did resort to underhanded methods to win, not least by claiming that Carson had dropped out when he had done no such thing; thus sending an unknown number of votes to Cruz. Trump wants a rematch but he won’t get it. He might have been able to use his attorneys in a civil action if this were a civil case but it isn’t; here he can be made to look like a sore loser and looking like a sore loser is terrible for his image…even if he is a sore loser. His chances of a clean win in New Hampshire are very much better.

Listening to Senator Cruz is almost as bad as listening to Fiorina. Fiorina gets so angry she is almost spastic; Cruz is constantly performing, presenting us with rhetorical pauses and arm movements to emphasize his points just as he would in a debate. One wonders what dinner is like when he joins his family. Perhaps then he leaves the stage.

Then there is Governor Chris Christie. Christie has a powerful antipathy toward Senator Rubio, who is doing remarkably well in the NH polls and that seems to irritate Christie all to pieces. I saw Christie interviewed on Morning Joe today. He was asked some questions about his stand on various issues and every time his reply was not to answer the question asked but to begin to hammer away on Rubio. He characterizes Rubio as “Bubble Boy” trying to emphasize that Rubio is protected by his handlers and that his comments are scripted and unchanging. Christie, himself, could just as easily be called “Bluster Boy” and maybe Rubio should use that, but Rubio is remaining aloof. At this point I doubt that Christie would want a close examination of his New Jersey record as Governor. His approval rating in New Jersey is about 31 percent and the state is a mess with consistently downgraded state bonds.

Addendum: I have just watched a bit of O'Reilly on Fox News. For the third straight night O'Reilly is trying desperately to blame the lie about Carson's withdrawal on CNN. It still isn't working.