[Tanniker Smith]

They'll call it hedging, but he should reiterate that he won't bolt if he's treated fairly in the primary process.

If he loses fair and square (which I assume will happen), then he shouldn't bolt. He won't have the support in that case to make a difference, except as a possible spoiler.

(Generally speaking, frontrunners this far out don't usually make it to the nomination. And his bluster and rhetoric will get old. Hopefully, someone else who can talk the talk and walk the walk on the important issues will rise up in the polls.)

[jjsheridan5]

...but he should reiterate that he won't bolt if he's treated fairly in the primary process.

On a subject that seems to bring out worst, intellectually, in conservatives, this sentence fragment is quite insightful. You are right. He needs to turn around the "requests for a pledge", and use it to highlight what the GOPe has done in the past. He should use the question itself as an opening to an explanation on, for example, what happened in Mississippi. If he did so, not only will people understand why he is resistant to a pledge, but they will also further understand quite how evil the GOPe is.