After last night's primary sweep, Trump looks all but assured of getting the Republican Party nomination on the first ballot. Cruz and Kasich got blown out of the water, and the former proved himself to be completely desperate by announcing Carly Fiorina as his running mate yesterday. Cruz and Kasich are just the last two non-Trump candidates standing, nothing more, nothing less. They have proven incapable of stopping him.
Part of the issue is that they were not the strongest candidates to stop Trump. Kasich has never had a great deal of support in the polls, and Cruz is so extreme and despised by his fellow Republicans that they've hardly felt motivated to rally around him.
A mainstream candidate with broad appeal could stop Trump, but no such candidate exists on the Republican side anymore. Cruz is about as palatable to the GOP establishment as a barbed wire enema and Kasich has about the same broad appeal as asparagus flavored ice cream. Marco Rubio would've been the most obvious choice, but he dropped out after a poor debate performance. Of course, that performance was brought on by an attack by Chris Christie that was the political equivalent of a Jersey mob hit. Christie made that attack at a time when people questioned his continuance of his campaign, since he was at the bottom of the polls. Christie very quickly dropped out and endorsed Trump. I think we can assume that Christie's attack was coordinated with the Trump campaign. The New Jersey governor likes living the high life, and he got to ride on Trump's private plane in return for kneecapping Rubio. Now he can have as many M&Ms and as much Hennessy as his enlarged heart desires. (I have it on good authority that he's a Hennessy man.)
The Republicans could really use Rubio about now. They are in a situation where the means to stop Trump involve chicanery with delegates or changing the rules at the last minute. Such desperate measures can't be used on Kasich's behalf, since his appeal is so limited, and will never be used for Cruz because most Republican politicians hate him. Yes, they will back him as a last resort against Trump, but only because they have to. They would never risk alienating the rank and file on his behalf. I get the feeling that they would have done it for Rubio had he been able to stay in the race and get a reasonable number of delegates.
Now the Republican Party leaders are faced with the prospect of accepting Trump as the nominee, or with moving heaven and earth for Cruz, something they just can't stomach doing. So now they will be forced to do business with the demagogue, in large part due to the attack leveled by his hit man.
No comments:
Post a Comment