xmlns:og='http://ogp.me/ns#' The Font of Noelage: I've been Trumped.

Friday 6 May 2016

I've been Trumped.



A few weeks ago I wrote a blog about Donald Trump. In this blog I wrote, oh so knowledgeably, about how the Republican primary presidential race would pan out.

I observed that while The Donald was getting about 40% of the votes in various primaries his combined opposition was polling between 50% and 60%. Pontificating like a latter day Nostradamus, I then boldly stated that as Trump’s opponents fell by the wayside the anti-Trump vote would solidify behind one candidate.

Well, it did not happen. Trump continued to berate and belittle his opponent and completely destabilised their campaigns and destroyed their presidential ambitions. He blew them all out of the water.

Jeb Bush pulled out. Then Marco Rubio pulled out. Now, I thought, my point will be proven. Cruz will gain votes from those two gentlemen and wallop Trump in Indiana. It did not happen. Trump gained almost 60% of the vote and Cruz and Joe Rasick both pulled out of the race. Trump is now on his own in a one-man race and headed for victory at the Republican convention.

In my blog, I also said that, just as happened in the Democratic Convention in Chicago in 1968, it could be that nobody would win the 2016 Republican nomination on the first ballot, enabling delegates to change their voting preferences in a second ballot to make some person, other than Donald Trump, the republican nominee for President of the United States of America.

Well that will not happen either, because Trump will gain enough Electoral College votes to be nominated and approved on the first ballot.

True to form, which is inconsistency personified, Trump accepted his big victory in Indiana and then started heaping praise on Ted Cruz for his brave and courageous campaign. For the last three months Trump has been calling Cruz a liar and a dummy. And they are the nice things he said about Cruz. Obviously, having completely destroyed his opponents Trump will now try to get them to fall in behind him as he goes into full attack mode against Hillary Clinton.

Three weeks ago I would have said that Trump had no hope in hell of beating Hillary Clinton. Now, I am, not so sure. As in the United Kingdom, voting is not compulsory in the USA. In the last UK election, David Cameron’s Conservative Party won a very healthy majority with only 35% of the possible vote.

A contest between Clinton and Trump is likely to turn a lot of voters off. Hordes of disenchanted Democrats, who idolise Bernie Sanders, may stay away from the polling booths in droves. On the other hand, Donald Trump is increasing his vote every time there is a primary. Don’t ask me why. I do not know. I don’t think even Donald Trump knows. He did ponder this phenomenon a few weeks ago, saying, “Why, I could walk down the street and shoot somebody and my vote would go up.”
Well, he hasn’t shot anybody, yet, but his vote is certainly still going up. 

How will it end? Who knows? I am starting to get very worried.


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