2016 March 4^th

I did not see last night’s debate because I knew I would hear about all the high points today. Apparently the only high point came when Kasich pointed out the mess the other children were making in the play room and there seems to be no debate about that. This rivaled the “Animal House” food fight except that they didn’t have any food to throw at each other. Some pundits are asking Romney to consider running again; there is also Jim Webb, Michael Bloomberg, the multi billionaire and Paul Ryan, the Speaker of the House. There might be some others slowly emerging from the shadows to save a party sinking irretrievably into the slime. Too late; too late!

Consider that some pundits believe that Senator Rubio could win Florida. This primary awards 99 delegates to the winner and none to the second place finisher. Rubio’s approval rating in Florida is 31 percent; his disapproval rating is 55 percent. He claims that he will not run again for the Senate so he is a lame duck. Florida Governor Rick Scott has not supported him and Donald Trump has a 44 to 28 percent lead in the polls. Then in the debate he called Donald Trump a con man, untrustworthy, uncivil and vulgar.  When Rubio and the rest of these wizards were asked if they would still vote for Donald Trump, they all said sure they would; so much for love of country. Rubio has until March 15^th to turn all this around in Florida; any bets?

On the Democratic side there is no news at all because a considerable degree of civility prevails. The rhetoric is heating up as would be expected, and Sanders isn’t going to leave the race, but Sanders hasn’t been called “Bolshie Bernie” by Clinton as he was a few columns ago by Mona Charen and Clinton hasn’t been called a serial liar by Sanders although she has been called that by every Republican in existence.

At this point in the race let’s look at the odds given by Paddy’s Power, that British betting outfit. Here are the odds for Trump to win the nomination: 2/5, this means that Trump is the odds on favorite to win. If you bet five dollars on him you’ll win just 2 dollars if he wins, Rubio is 5/I, Cruz is 11/2, Clinton on the other hand is 1/16 so it will cost you a 16 dollar bet to win just one dollar if Clinton wins. Paddy is rather sure that Hillary has a lock on the Democratic nomination. For the general election it’s Clinton 1/2, Trump 3/1, Rubio 12/1 and others still less likely. In short, it looks like the folks who have more than just skin in the game are betting on Clinton to win all of the marbles.