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Trump, Mr. ‘Win, Win, Win!’, Doesn’t Know How to Play – Even When the Game Goes His Way
PJ Media ^ | April 11, 2016 | Andrew C. McCarthy

Posted on 04/11/2016 3:18:22 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

Two things are worth noting about Donald Trump’s whining over what he suddenly perceives as the “rigged” GOP nomination contest.

1. Trump is powerfully illustrating the fraud at the core of his case for the nomination. He claims that because he is a successful businessman he would be much more adept than conventional politicians at mastering the intricacies of problems and processes. He will, he brags, figure out how to deal with challenges in a way that maximizes American interests, assembling the best, most competent people to execute his plans of action. As a result, we are told, American will “win, win, win” with such numbing regularity that we will be bored to tears by all the success.

But look what is happening. The process of choosing a Republican nominee for president, while far from simple, is not as complicated as many of the challenges that cross an American president’s desk. There are, moreover, countless experienced hands who know how the process works and how to build an organization nimble enough to navigate the array of primaries (open and closed), caucuses, party meetings, varying delegate-allocation formulas, etc., exploiting or mitigating the advantages and disadvantages these present for different kinds of candidates. Yet, Trump has been out-organized, out-smarted, and out-worked by the competition – in particular, Ted Cruz, whom I support.

Trump is not being cheated. Everyone is playing by the same rules, which were available to every campaign well in advance. Trump simply is not as good at converting knowledge into success – notwithstanding the centrality of this talent to his candidacy. Perhaps this is because he is singularly good at generating free publicity (and consequently minimizing the publicity available to his rivals). Maybe he underestimated the importance of building a competent, experienced campaign organization. But he can hardly acknowledge this because it is a colossal error of judgment – and his purportedly peerless judgment is the selling point of his campaign.

At The Transom, Ben Domench succinctly describes the Trump campaign’s recent performance:

How terribly did the Trump team mismanage their delegate slate? Last week they fired their organizer and hired a new one, who promptly made an official flier which sent votes to the wrong delegates. http://vlt.tc/2cp9 “After firing the organizer initially put in charge of Colorado last week, Trump’s team hired Patrick Davis, a GOP operative from Colorado Springs, to put together a slate in an effort to win some of the delegate slots to be elected by just fewer than 4,000 party activists at Saturday’s assembly… Trump’s last-minute organizing effort did not go well. The leaflet his campaign handed out listed a slate of 26 delegates. But in many cases the numbers indicating their ballot position — more than 600 delegates are running for 13 slots — were off, meaning that Trump’s team was mistakenly directing votes toward other candidates’ delegates.” And even when they tried to fix the screw-up, they still failed to get it right. “The mistakes were exposed at the worst possible moment … Trump volunteers frantically printed new lists with new names and ballot numbers – but those lists also had mistakes.”

Trump is constitutionally incapable of admitting errors – a flaw exacerbated by a campaign premised on a personality rather than a program. So his now familiar, repulsive reaction is to smear his opposition as cheaters, liars and even law-breakers … while Roger Stone, one of Trump’s brass-knuckles specialists, threatens to extort delegates. The stubborn fact, however, is that Trump has a management problem – namely … Trump. He grossly miscalculated the task at hand, he is scrambling to find suitable staff way too late in the game, and in a vain effort to divert attention from his own failings he is slandering others. This is the kind of candidate he has been, and the damage someone of his judgment and temperament could do if he were president is blatant.

2. Trump is so out of his depth he fails to see that the chief beneficiary of the process he now indicts as a “rigged” and “corrupt” insider’s game is … Trump himself.

NBC News points out that, despite having won only a little over a third of all votes cast in primaries to date (37 percent), Trump has been awarded nearly half of the delegates (45 percent, for a current total of 756 delegates). That is, the undemocratic features of the process Trump has suddenly decided to malign have actually boosted his campaign with 22 percent more delegates than his mere vote total would justify. That easily surpasses the 14-percent premium earned by Senator Cruz, who has been awarded 32 percent of delegates upon winning 28 percent of the popular vote.

There is no doubt that the bias in favor of the frontrunner is a feature Republican party leaders (aka, the GOP establishment) built into the process. They clearly hoped to help whatever candidate they preferred (neither Trump nor Cruz) wrap up the nomination early, unite the party, and turn the focus to beating the Democrats in November.

The fact that this process is “undemocratic,” as Trump now complains, was immaterial to Trump as long as he appeared to be the beneficiary – i.e., as long as it might get him the 1,237 delegates needed to win the nomination before he had enough raw votes to justify that total. But the “democracy” claim is specious in any event.

Our constitutional system has never been, nor aspired to be, a pure democracy; the Framers designed a republic. Similarly, the process of choosing party nominees for president has never been a pure democracy; it is and has always been a mixed bag of popular vote and various arrangements that give elected delegates and party leaders considerable influence.

The rules for 2016 state contests have not been changed in midstream; they have been known from the start. How each campaign applies them tells us a great deal that we need to know about the candidates. That is why it is a fantasy to believe the GOP establishment can get away with rigging the convention process to insert a white knight candidate who has not been campaigning. The only way to run for president is to run for president.

The ultimate check on the process is political, not legal. If the party’s grass-roots supporters are inflamed into a mob mentality and generate enough votes to nominate an unfit candidate, the general electorate will punish the party at the ballot box in November. On the other hand, if the party bosses use their influence over the process to override the will of the grass-roots and anoint their own factotum, their grass-roots supporters will punish the party by not showing up to vote in November, assuring victory for the opposition. This means party officials must both heed and lead the public. That is how a republic is supposed to work … but no one ever said it was supposed to be pretty.

Trump spent years trying to buy the establishment insiders he now purports to run against, contributing mightily to the progressive system he now purports to oppose as a tribune of “the people.” He delighted in the frontrunner advantages of the nomination system as long as he was benefitting effortlessly. But now that we have reached the inevitable stage of the long campaign in which effort and judgment are shown to be crucial, Trump’s lack of fitness becomes increasingly obvious.

The mogul’s business career is a stream of “win, win, win” braggadocio interrupted by lots of huge losses resulting from huge miscalculations. Don’t expect his political career to turn out differently.


TOPICS: Campaign News; Parties; State and Local
KEYWORDS: 2016gopprimary; cruz; delegates; loserdiogenes; sorelosermrapple; sorelosertrump; tedcruz; trump
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Sunday, APRIL 3, 2016
Ted Cruz Exposed With Pants Down

http://lamecherry.blogspot.com/2016/04/ted-cruz-exposed-with-pants-down.html

21 posted on 04/11/2016 3:40:47 PM PDT by Mr Apple (Congressman Barton speaks following Lakeview tour www.youtube.com/watch?v=59J0i3LNoY8)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

So... the whole point of this article seems to be that Cruz is a master politician who knows how to “play the game”... that’s wonderful, he’ll really change things in Washington for sure... in other words, more of the same... sigh...


22 posted on 04/11/2016 3:41:03 PM PDT by wyowolf (Be ware when the preachers take over the Republican party...)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Cruzbots can take their Rules and shove them up their Butts.


23 posted on 04/11/2016 3:42:13 PM PDT by heights
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To: Mr Apple

Lame Cherry? Hahahahahahaha!


24 posted on 04/11/2016 3:43:18 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

This line from the report is probably the main reason Trump waited so long to hire better staff.

“Trump is constitutionally incapable of admitting errors.”


25 posted on 04/11/2016 3:43:38 PM PDT by altura (Cruz for our country)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Precursor for a Trump Presidency....full of excuses for his failures against those "lyin' Chinese", "cheating Iranians", "lyin' ISIS", "cheating Libyans", "lyin' Al Qaeda", yada, yada, yada

Yep....that's going to "Make America Great" again......

26 posted on 04/11/2016 3:43:51 PM PDT by TXSearcher (The anti-RINO rebellion is being won by a NY RINO.......truth IS stranger than fiction.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

When presented with a nearly unassailable argument, Trump supporters respond with photoshop pictures and name-calling. And here I’ve always thought it was Democrat voters who were stupid.


27 posted on 04/11/2016 3:45:08 PM PDT by Stat Man
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To: LS

It is interesting how many do not mind The Party picking the delegates when those delegates are designated for certain individuals, but they cry to high heaven if the voters vote for someone other than The Party Selectee.


28 posted on 04/11/2016 3:45:12 PM PDT by TomGuy
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To: Balding_Eagle

Did you read the article?

Very interesting how Trump came away with good numbers even thought he seldom got over one-third of the votes.

Would Trump like to give those votes back that he got by working the system?


29 posted on 04/11/2016 3:45:19 PM PDT by altura (Cruz for our country)
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To: Notforprophet
.. you’ve never changed your mind on an issue, Byron? ..

Sure, but not for payment.

+++++++++++++

'We need an outsider like Trump,' says this two-time Obama voter

By JOE MOZINGO APRIL 10, 2016

30 posted on 04/11/2016 3:45:48 PM PDT by Byron_the_Aussie (It's them or us.)
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To: fatez

True but the trumpers think Trump should just win automatically.


31 posted on 04/11/2016 3:46:33 PM PDT by altura (Cruz for our country)
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To: Slyfox

What’s the date on that letter, Reince?


32 posted on 04/11/2016 3:46:51 PM PDT by Byron_the_Aussie (It's them or us.)
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To: FatherofFive

That’s really pretty funny.

Trump doesn’t get the ‘Kid’ vote.


33 posted on 04/11/2016 3:47:18 PM PDT by altura (Cruz for our country)
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To: Byron_the_Aussie

Whutchutaklinaboutwillis?


34 posted on 04/11/2016 3:47:58 PM PDT by Slyfox (Donald Trump's First Principle is the Art of the Deal)
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To: Bon mots
 photo image_7.png
35 posted on 04/11/2016 3:48:40 PM PDT by wardaddy (is Cruz last name a coincidence or a blessing or is he the anti Christ?)
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To: wyowolf

If you trumpers would just put aside your trump-induced coma about Ted Cruz, you might be able to accept that in Cruz we can get a really principled candidate who can not only beat Hillary but also set the country on a great new path.


36 posted on 04/11/2016 3:49:11 PM PDT by altura (Cruz for our country)
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To: wyowolf
No, the points made in the article were not about Cruz at all. The points made were:

1) Trump has benefited more from the system that he whines about than Cruz has.

2) Since Trump is not doing as well as he could be doing if he played the game better, Trump must not be as intelligent and competent as he claims to be.

37 posted on 04/11/2016 3:50:40 PM PDT by Stat Man
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To: Stat Man
.. when presented with a nearly unassailable argument ..

'Nearly unassailable.' TOO FUNNY.

38 posted on 04/11/2016 3:50:44 PM PDT by Byron_the_Aussie (It's them or us.)
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To: Parmenio

Please. Please.

Please stop posting the same stupid pictures.

They are ugly.

They mean nothing.


39 posted on 04/11/2016 3:51:07 PM PDT by altura (Cruz for our country)
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To: altura
you might be able to accept that in Cruz we can get a really principled candidate

Principled?


40 posted on 04/11/2016 3:51:39 PM PDT by aMorePerfectUnion (BREAKING.... Vulgarian Resistance begins attack on the GOPe Death Star.....)
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