Posted on 04/16/2016 6:29:19 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
In addition to winning more primaries, more convention delegates and 2 million more votes than any other Republican presidential candidate running this year, billionaire developer Donald Trump has won a significant national following with his repeated pledge, as a shrewd negotiator, “to beat China, Japan and Mexico at trade.”
Trump offers a simple explanation for the problem: “Their leaders are much smarter than our leaders.” But they’re not smarter than the no-nonsense negotiator Trump: “I beat China all the time.”
If that is true, then why has candidate Trump been so publicly and griping about his campaign’s having been cheated by the unfair delegate selection rules of the Colorado Republican Party?
“The system, folks, is rigged. It’s a rigged, disgusting, dirty system,” Trump complains.
Let’s get this straight: The previously unintimidating Colorado Republican Party — which in the past 42 years has managed to elect exactly one GOP governor and which twice lost to Democrat Barack Obama — by simply awarding its 34 national convention delegates to Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, has hoodwinked Trump, the man whose election, he himself has assured us, would be guaranteed to make both Beijing and Tokyo go nervous in the knees.
To be fair, Trump’s criticisms of the delegate selection rules are not without merit. In Colorado, far less than 1 percent of the state’s 900,000 registered Republicans even were able to participate in the arcane process.
In both South Carolina and Georgia, where Trump won solid primary victories, GOP insiders have been organizing efforts to drop support for Trump after the first ballot at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
None of this is new stuff. Treachery is no stranger to American party politics. But Trump, the self-styled no-nonsense tough guy, could never get rolled, let alone victimized, by these minor-league party bosses, could he?
After all, if you can’t outsmart a Republican county chairman in Durango or Kankakee, why should we ever believe you would be able to go toe-to-toe with the wily Mexicans, Japanese or Chinese?
But all is not lost for the Trump candidacy. My onetime political sparring partner Patrick J. Buchanan — from whose 1992 campaign platform, especially on trade and immigration, Trump has borrowed — offered one imaginative solution to confound the Republican establishment, which, in the political equivalent of a shotgun marriage, now backs Cruz, whom it actively dislikes, against Trump, whom it both loathes and fears.
Buchanan’s answer: an alliance between Trump and Cruz. Between them, he says, they should control a solid majority of the Cleveland delegates, and because there is a GOP rule that prevents a candidate from being nominated at the convention unless that candidate has won at least eight primaries or caucuses, no “white knight’” sponsored by the party establishment could be nominated in Cleveland — only Trump or Cruz could be the nominee.
And on Sean Hannity’s show on the Fox News Channel, Buchanan added a wrinkle for the 2016 ticket: “Go with Trump and Cruz ... I think that ticket would set the country on fire.”
More unlikely political unions than Trump-Cruz have probably been arranged, but I’m frankly at a loss to recall one.
I would much rather see Trump take Kasich as VP than Cruz anywhere near the ticket. Take Kasich, win Ohio, and then send him to funeral duty.
Let's see how this plays out, and what Cruz does as the campaign ends. There's a lot to work through here.
Frankly, I'd rather see him on the Supreme Court.
The Tead campaign is infested with Bushes.
Why would Cruz “stand down”? All indications are that he’ll win the nomination after the 2nd delegate vote.
I am going on record Trump and Kasich or Ryan
Cruz should stand down because:
He’s NOT GOING TO WIN THE PRESIDENCY.
Even if he manages to so subvert the primary that he become the GOP nominee. He won’t win. Zero chance.
Trump is packing huge stadiums virtually every single day, around the entire country. He is winning primaries, where people actually vote, bigtime.
Trump is attracting the people who say America should be building up our own businesses for once, and I COMPLETELY AGREE.
Millions of Americans want Trump as president. Even a lot of democrats, but people across the political spectrum are SICK AND TIRED of our party, and their nonsense shenanigan for so many years.
The GOP is sold out.
Trump wants the GOP to be for America once again.
Trump needs our help. Not yet more sell-outs.
Thank you.
I’m done with Cruz! I don’t believe he has anything to help us regain any control of his friends in the Senate.
To be honest here I hate him just as bad as any other democrat and any other rino.
I would rather vote for any third party ticket or just not vote at all!
I will vote, even if I have to write in Trump.
Nah, I don’t think an alliance is in the works -— Ted Cruz will not need Trump as his VP ticket-mate.
There will be a Cruz/Trump alliance at the convention only for the purpose of establishing the rules.
Cruz will not put Trump on the ticket.
Kennedy has already decided on Sen. Stuart Symington for VP.
LBJ and J.E. Hoover confronted Kennedy with proof of his womanizing. I don’t know whether they literally spread the photos across the coffee table. But LBJ became Kennedy’s VP, and three years later had Kennedy murdered.
Almost no chance, but it sure would make all the right heads explode.
Memo to Mark Shields: That ship has sailed. I have a feeling at this point The Donald wants no part of lyin Ted.
That terminology exacerbates the dislike between the Cruz and Trump supporters.
There can be no Cruz-Trump alliance.
Combine Trump's nationwide appeal (putting Blue states into play) with Cruz' organization, and we got a winner.
Quite frankly, I liked Paul’s positions, and he’s no dummy either.
Good point. Even Cruz' peers have disdain for Cruz. They mocked him last week.
These open borders pukes are getting Americans murdered, and for that, they belong in jail. The Amnesty pukes should be branded on the forehead with an "A" scarlet letter.
Kasick = Amnesty. Another jerk who condones rewarding criminals.
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