2016 March 9^th

By now everyone knows that Bernie Sanders won Michigan (with my help, I might add), but he still won fewer delegates than Hillary Clinton. (Hillary had the help of someone nearby!) Trump of course won everything in sight and produced an interminable victory speech during which he trotted out enough Trump labeled product to stock The Home Shopping Network for a week. He subsequently appeared on “Morning Joe” where his megalomania was so pronounced that Scarborough’s guests were laughing at him. Trumps apparent inability to stop talking once he gets started looks like a symptom of a particular mental disturbance. On a previous “Morning Joe” Trump refused to stop talking and Joe had to simply cut him off to take a station break. Megalomania is also a part of this syndrome. However that may be, Trump’s high energy level, self-confidence, eagerness to belittle any critic, crudeness and unwillingness to explain his grandiose plans have certainly served him well so far. With massive reinforcement from his fans this behavior is unlikely to stop.

Not much is likely to stop Trump’s path to the nomination either. He is ahead of Marco Rubio in Florida, a winner take all State, where 99 delegates will go to the winner. There is much discussion about whether Marco Rubio should even stay in the race until primary day, March 15^th. The point the politicos make is that if Rubio stays in the race and is beaten in his home state his political career will take a serious hit. But then if he withdraws early because it looks like he will be beaten, how does that benefit his reputation? So far it looks like he’s staying in and taking his chances. Ohio votes March 15^th as well and Trump leads there too. If he wins both states he gets 165 more delegates and will likely be unstoppable on his path to the Republican nomination.

The Republican Party establishment has, so far, been amazingly tone deaf to the problem of stopping Trump. They desperately want to stop him because he will surely lose to Hillary Clinton. Try to find a black face among Trump supporters at a Trump rally. He calls on his thugs to “Get em outta here.” His “wall” will not encourage any Latino voters to support him, so if Trump is nominated good bye election and good bye SCOTUS control by Republicans. The establishment response is to turn Mitt Romney lose to review Trump’s many, many sins.

Romney, in a well-advertised speech, ripped Trump to pieces calling him a very poor businessman and many other even less publically acceptable things. He could not have helped Trump more because that speech was used by Trump to show his fans just how eager the right wing establishment was to demolish him. Now Trump could open up on Romney as a failed candidate sent by the Republicans to sabotage him. The final result was that Romney’s attack on Trump was a dismal failure. The Republican establishment still doesn’t understand why Donald Trump appeals to his fans and what they can do to pry those fans away. He appeals to his fans because of the personal traits I mentioned earlier and no matter what you do those fans won’t come loose.