Trumped!

If it were any party but the GOP I’d feel sorry for what’s happened to it this primary season. The party started out with a really deep bench, they said. Why, they had 16 good candidates and that didn’t count the non-professional! One by one the guys and gal came off the bench and failed to even hit a single. Meanwhile this billion-dollar nitwit with the funky hair decided he’d run (I am still not sure whether he started out on this campaign as a lark or whether he was serious from the git-go) and he kept hitting doubles, winning by 8-10 percentage points in caucuses or primaries.

As he kept racking up wins and delegates, the party began whistling in the dark, saying he’d fade Real Soon Now. Well, now has arrived, and he’s the last one standing.

Now the Republican party is looking at a man who has gone out of his way throughout the primary season to offend Hispanics, African-Americans, women, disabled people, the press (although it seems to have borne up under the insults, giving him more free media than any candidate I can remember in 40 years of watching elections in this country), Muslims, vets, and finally his competitors. Jeb! fans are probably not too enthusiastic about Mr. Trump. Neither are Cruz and Kasich supporters.

The only thing the party can hope is that the Democrats are poised to nominate Hillary Clinton to run against Trump, and they know very well how to run against her. They’ve hated her since 1991. We’ll probably see all the old charges brought up again: Whitewater, cattle futures, the Rose law firm billing records, Vince Foster’s suicide, TravelGate, and Monica. That’s why I’ve had reservations about her candidacy; not because I think she’s guilty of anything, but because the country will have to hear it all over again, and voters may conclude her entire Presidential term(s) would be more of the same.

In a sense, she’s lucky too. If the GOP ran a credible candidate all that mud would be harder to wash off, but when the opponent is a narcissistic clown like Trump the voters may accept the mud.