Despite Controversy, Election Energizes Nation

Happy June eve, Friends,

There were only a few minor developments in the presidential race over the long holiday weekend.

Bernie Sanders had a security scare yesterday at a California rally when someone rushed the stage. And Sen. Diane Feinstein, a Hillary mouthpiece, has been making the media rounds urging Bernie to drop out of the race.

He did not, should not, and will not. And the Democratic establishment ought to shut up because they're just making themselves look bad.

Reportedly, Donald Trump is upset at National Review editor Bill Kristol's tweet yesterday that he will reveal a superstar conservative "third party" challenger to Trump shortly.

The good news is: millions of new voters have participated in this year's
primaries. The bad news is: well there really isn't any bad news about that.

Kristol's tweet was a total diss to legitimate Libertarian third-party nominees and former Republican governors Gary Johnson and his running mate Bill Weld. This is the first Libertarian ticket that could have a genuine impact on a presidential race.

Meanwhile, Nubbs continues to be his outrageous self, both live and on Twitter. And he still conducts himself like a parody of the worst possible presidential candidate that Hollywood could ever conjure up.

He even violated Ronald Reagan's 11th commandment, "Thou shalt not criticize another Republican," hammering Susana Martinez, the popular Latina governor of New Mexico; when she said no to attending a Trump rally there last week. And he completely got away with the sin.

Trump's conducting his campaign as if he's competing on his own reality show, and just like Alex Trebek likes to do on Jeopardy, he's showing off that he's smarter than any of the contestants.

So far, we've seen this presidential election go beyond what anyone could have anticipated or even imagined. Its craziness (belying its actual importance) has energized so many millions who'd otherwise be mired in apathy.

That's a very good thing.

The United States has historically lagged behind all other first-world democracies in voter participation, but that's not going to happen this time.

This election is turning out to be the 'Mother of All Elections', and ironically, Nubbs is responsible.

So, whomever you support, God bless you.  And thank you, Friends, especially if you're among the millions of first-time voters who've become inspired.

The more Americans who participate in the election process, the better off we'll all be in the long run.

Sanders Wants CA, Will Take VP

Good Memorial Day, Friends,

First, I want to take a moment to pay respect to our veterans who gave the ultimate sacrifice so that I may be writing this. Thank you.

It's a really good day to not take what we have for granted.

With just over a week to go, the California Democratic primary--the country's biggest prize--is in a dead heat. And the numbers are moving in Bernie Sanders' favor.

Hillary Clinton will have mathematically secured the party's nomination prior to the polls closing in the Golden State, because she needs just 80 more delegates.

Even if she loses the New Jersey closed primary (which she's expected to win and whose polls close earlier Tuesday), she'll come close to clinching it there. The state's 142 delegates are divvied up proportionally.

No matter. California determines momentum. If Bernie wins there, his talking points about why he should be the party's nominee become much stronger. If he loses, his power at the Philadelphia convention is greatly diminished.

Bernie says he's not going to give up, and he's campaigning hard in the state. We've all seen what a formidable candidate he is, and he may just pull off the upset.

But even if he falls short in the big state, because of his YUGE following he'll still swing a big stick. And the party has woken up to the genuine probability that many of Bernie's voters would rather go elsewhere than support Hillary.

The word this morning is that Bernie and the party may be talking, and he would not turn down the VP slot if offered.

That's exactly what I suggested more than three weeks ago as the ideal tactical and strategic move for the party. Apparently, they either took my suggestion or more likely came to the same conclusion.

With Hillary Clinton a very damaged candidate at best, she'll need all the help she can get to beat what's sure to be an extremely nasty Trump campaign.

The party seems to be moving in the smart direction.

Have a good holiday, Friends, and congratulations to Libertarian nominees Gary Johnson and Bill Weld.

Media's Greed Behind Trump Rise

Happy Memorial Day weekend, Friends,

A scary thought occurred to me yesterday. The media is totally complicit in helping Donald Trump run us straight into the abyss, and most of the individuals in it are totally unaware of what they're doing.

Donald Trump caused a major stir today when he walked slowly
down the street whistling. This is the first time in many weeks that
the GOP nominee has made such a controversial move.

Hear me out.

The sheer coverage Trump gets, mainly for free, is the main factor in his meteoric rise. Even though much of it is negative, any and all media attention works in his favor. It feeds on itself and grows.

His Nubbs is as much of a media creation as he is a self creation. And since the media has made him, the media can break him.

How?

By paying less attention to him.

Imagine if the media gave Trump the same freeze it gave to say, Jim Gilmore. Who? Exactly.

Gilmore, incidentally, was a very legitimate Republican candidate for president in this year's election. Don't believe it? Google him.

Now if Nubbs got as little media attention--the Gilmore snub--he'd shrivel up like the Great Pumpkin three weeks after Halloween and go away.

But there's too much money in devoting every minute of airtime possible and every column inch to him, so it will NEVER happen!

It's pure greed. And it's on behalf of the very people who are supposed to be watching our backs. The free press!

The irony is they can't not cover Trump, and most earnest and hardworking journalists don't even realize they're being complicit in his rise to power.

How can this vicious cycle be stopped before we see Donald J. Trump living in the White House?

I'm tempted to say, damned if I know. But I do have an idea,

The Democrats have a secret weapon, who they intend to wheel out after their convention, to campaign on behalf of whoever is their eventual nominee.

He's more than capable of going toe-to-toe with Nubbs, and I personally believe he'll come out on top on behalf of the Democratic party.

If you haven't noticed, President Obama's polls show that he's on his way to becoming one of  the most popular presidents in history. And he's deadly on stage.

Just wait until he gets his hands on Nubbs in earnest. That should be some real fun.

The Great Pumpkin Gets a Nickname

Whew, TGIF, Friends,

We've come to the end of the slowest week in months in terms of election activity, and next week will be much the same. But it's been an eventful week nonetheless.

Donald Trump clinched the Republican nomination by attaining 1,237 pledged delegates.

Also, the results of one of the active investigations of Hillary Clinton, this one conducted by her own State Department, were released. They weren't pretty.

The independent inspector general's report stated that Hillary broke federal rules on internet use and made no effort to have her personal email server approved by anyone. She also instructed underlings not to talk about it.

It's just another example of Hillary's decades-old pattern of misbehavior and of conducting herself as if the law doesn't apply to her. This will result in her ultimate fall from grace, hopefully sooner rather than later when she's already president.

Of all the monikers Donald Trump has bestowed upon his rivals, Hillary's hit the bullseye--"Crooked Hillary."

We're all familiar by now with most of the others: Lyin' Ted, Little Marco, Low Energy Jeb, Goofy Elizabeth, etc., etc.

The Donald is very skilled at picking out peoples' flaws and using them to get under their skin. Yet, so far, only one such not-so-successful counterattack has ever rattled Trump at all.

Before being absolutely torn to pieces by him, Marco Rubio caused some actual damage when he mocked The Donald's smallish hands (and implied they were indicative of his penis size).

Gee, Marco. Nobody's perfect. Why'd you have to go ahead and talk about my hands?
That wasn't very nice, Marco. Besides, they're not that small. Are they? Melania?

I've studied Trump's hands, and indeed his index fingers are about a half inch or so shorter than one would expect from the size of his palms; not very dramatic. But because The Donald insists on giving his opponents belittling nicknames, I think he deserves one too.

Trump's index fingers are short and stumpy. They look more like little nubbins rather than man-sized index fingers. And he habitually gestures with them, so we get to see them all the time.

I've come up with a nickname for Donald Trump, which I hope really gets to him.

I'm going to start calling our potential next president, 'Nubbs', in honor of his nubby little index fingers, and I hope you'll help me get his new nickname out there. He won't be able to handle it.

So Nubbs, this post's for you.

Hillary, You've Got Mail

Good Thursday to you, Friends,

I began this blog back on January 13th for two main reasons. First, I believed the other pundits were totally blind to the rise of Donald Trump, who I contended would sweep to the GOP nomination and do it early.

I'm the only pundit to have stated this unequivocally for the record, and I challenge the others  to prove otherwise. All of my posts have been documented on the internet for posterity.

The other reason was that I saw the storm clouds building for Hillary Clinton, while all the while she was being adored by the media as the anointed Democratic nominee. Whoa, media, not so fast!

The latest doo doo began to hit the fan for Hillary yesterday. Her own State Department's inspector general was highly critical of Clinton for flouting the established rules, and being uncooperative with his investigation.

That's not what she's been telling the public. Could it be that Hillary lied?

Hey! This isn't the Oval Office! It's not even oval! Where's my computer? Is there a
closet for the server? 

The report states that Clinton made no apparent effort in three years to get the proper permissions for her personal email server. She also hushed up lower-level State Department employees who questioned what she was doing.

Is this how she'd run the White House?

The inspector generals's is one of at least three active investigations of Hillary underway, and it's not the most serious of them. She's still being scrutinized by the FBI and could face possible felony charges for having state secrets on her personal computer.

For this offense, you and I would be measuring for drapes in our tiny one-window cell at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Hillary gets to run for president.

But I don't believe she'll have much longer.

The snowball began to roll downhill yesterday. There's no stopping it now, and it'll soon run Hillary over.

The inspector general's report gives Trump and the GOP some genuine red meat with which to go after the former and at-best ineffective Secretary of State.

I expect the GOP wrecking ball with Hillary's name on it to start swinging in earnest today.

Since she actually did the dirty deed of which she's been accused, any defense she can muster would be simply spin.

Either everybody else did the same thing (lie, and not a defense), or that Hillary followed established policy (lie), or that she made every effort to blah, blah, blah (also a lie).

The truth is, Hillary did not want her personal emails made public. Emailing exclusively over her personal server, rather than on a secure government one, gave Hillary that control albeit in violation of the rules.

Hillary can't  simply laugh off these accusations as is her wont. This latest self-made crisis caught her with her hand smelling like cookies.

I blogged months ago about how this exact scenario would be the end of Mrs. Clinton and would catapult either Bernie Sanders or a drafted Vice President Joe Biden to the Democratic nomination. Now, you'll watch it happen.

Even the Dems aren't so clueless they'll waist precious time trying to resuscitate a moribund candidate, especially when the human buzz saw, Donald Trump, awaits her next.

Best that Bernie capitalizes on  this expanding opportunity and win big in the remaining nine contests, save the Democratic party some embarrassment, and take the nomination cleanly on a second vote.

Better yet, Hillary swallows her pride, gracefully bows out now. and spares the country another messy Clinton legal quagmire.          

Look up Webster's definition of prescient, Friends. It's been changed to: See Lew's Views.

Trump Seeks Early Hillary Exit

Good Wednesday morning, Friends,

Donald Trump is working early, hard, and dirty on both the Clintons in a "counter attack" so far below the belt, it's never likely to attain even 'low road' status.

Trump, the Birther in Chief, is pulling out every nasty scandal ever debunked about Bill and Hill, short of Whitewater, but including the six-time officially dismissed accusation that Bill murdered his deputy counsel Vince Foster. For the record, he committed suicide.

This whopper was even tossed out by right-wing Republican special counsel Kenneth Starr and his investigative panel, but Trump put it back in play yesterday by saying that "he would never bring it up, because that would be unfair. But some people think it was fishy."

No he didn't kill Vince Foster. I thought we settled that. Oh, and he didn't have sex
with all those women either. Okay, he didn't kill Vince Foster.

This is Trump's typical M.O. Someone might consider asking him how many times a week he beats Melania.

The question Trump's massive onslaught begs is this: why is he going after Hillary this way before she's even won the nomination? She's such an easy target, he hardly needs a head start.

I have another theory. I believe Donald Trump would really rather run against Bernie Sanders. I think he may be extremely wary of the Clinton machine. He believes, conversely, that he'd have no problem handling an avowed socialist.

The Clinton machine is formidable and doesn't lose general elections. Trump seems to be beating up on Hillary while she's facing a two-pronged battle; still in a primary fight with Bernie Sanders.

But the Clinton machine will have the benefits of a popular president and first lady stumping for it after Hillary's nomination.

And lots and lots of cash.

Trump would rather face a socialist who has political machine and the lukewarm support of the Democratic party at best.

It's brilliant strategy and worthy of The Donald. Get Hillary out of the race before she's even nominated.

Could Donald Trump actually be manipulating the Democratic party into nominating what he believes is the easier mark of the two possible candidates?

I think so.

I'm not so sure he's right in his strategy or that he even has a chance of succeeding in his manipulation.

The term 'socialist' doesn't mean much to most of Bernie's potential young supporters. Older voters feeling The Bern have warmed to his ideas.

Personally, I believe in the polls that show Sanders beating Trump by at least 15 points if the election were held  today, and that number is growing fast.

If Sanders winds up facing Trump in the general election, we'll see the confrontation of all time: ideology vs. demagoguery, substance vs. bombast, ingenuousness vs. hyperbole.

Trump is squarely on the weaker side of each of  the above depictions, and Bernie should wipe the floor with him. Though, as we already know in this election, nothing is as it should be.

Give Him Enough Rope...

Good Tuesday to you, Friends,

There are really very few advantages to getting older. Aside from the 'senior discount' you get just about everywhere you go, there's only one other benefit that comes to my slowing mind...perspective.

I sure didn't appreciate much of the advice that my elders tried to pass down to me when I was a young buck, and I don't expect that anyone who hasn't lived on this crazy planet very long would take any pearls of wisdom from the likes of me.

But I am going to make an observation from having lived on Earth into my seventh decade.

I see a horrible scoundrel sucking in a major political party, who's waging the ugliest personal attack on his opponents and is bringing out the worst in this country.

I've witnessed this play out before in other areas of my life. Interestingly, these scenarios invariably ended according to the old saying, "Give him enough rope, and he'll hang himself."

Hello Donald Trump. I have your name
on me. You know you can't control yourself.
Hello Donald Trump. I'm calling youuuuu!

The first time I witnessed this firsthand was as a young TV reporter at WECT-TV in Wilmington, NC. Any of my colleagues who are still around will remember it well.

The station GM, who's now deceased, and who I won't name, was a vindictive misogynistic megalomaniac who sexually harassed several of the women working at the station.

At that time, women in the workplace dared not complain. My girlfriend was one of them.

To make a long story short, this tyrant let his unchecked power take him one step too far, and he was very publicly fired. YES!!!

This happened again at American Airlines in the early 90's when a little Hitler of a boss named Phil J. was resoundingly canned for cheating on his expense account.

And this is stranger than fiction; it happened the day after he'd flown all of his managers to Dallas to scream, cuss and threaten all of us innocents not to do that exact thing!

Now you'd have to have lived a little to have experiences like this, so getting to be a crusty old curmudgeon (which thank goodness I haven't quite reached) has at least some upside.

But the reason I bring this up is because I'm having 'deja vu all over again' with Donald Trump.

He's absolutely crossing the line with his latest round of ugly personal attacks on the Clintons, and he's going to hang himself.

Trump may be impervious to any criticism coming from the outside, but he's his own worst enemy.

Sometimes it takes a little time, and there can be a lot of collateral damage. But even the worst monster in human history wound up shooting himself in the head.

Dems Sweating Revealing New Polls

Happy Monday morning, Friends,

Two new polls in the last two days show the race between the two most-hated presidential candidates in U.S. history is in a dead heat.

What should be disturbing to the Democrats about this is that Donald Trump has closed an 11-point gap in a month and is on his way up. Hillary Clinton is moving in the opposite direction.

Granted, Trump got a bump when he became the GOP's presumptive nominee, and the Democratic picture is still unsettled and contentious.  But there's another number that the party can't afford to ignore.

Trump is winning the Independent vote by more than five points--a healthy gap in a general election.

With the Democratic primary possibly going until the bitter end on June 14th, most Independents are solidly clinging to Sanders. But this morning's poll shows that if the election were held today, a significant bloc of them would vote for Trump, not Clinton.

Obviously, nothing negative The Donald says sticks to him. I caught the Dem's anti-Trump commercial twice on TV here in Las Vegas yesterday, which has women mouthing Trump himself hurling misogynistic insults.

I personally thought it was hilarious, not shocking, and inadvertently reinforced what his supporters like so much about him. It won't change any minds.

So Debbie Wasserman Schultz was standing on the edge of a cliff,
staring into the abyss, and hissing "Sanders" over and over...

As I said earlier, if Hillary is the Democratic nominee, Donald Trump will tear her to shreds. Thanks to the Independent vote, he will be the next president.

Trump's already got the numbers trending in his favor, and he's demonstrated for decades that he's an expert marketeer who knows how to move traffic to his brand.

Why should we have any reason to think this business venture would go differently for him?

The Democrats have only one weapon left in their arsenal that can stop Donald Trump--Bernie Sanders.

The relationship between the party and the recalcitrant candidate can go in any number of directions, but the bottom line is that the party must figure out how to hold on to Bernie's voters. That means embracing him in some important way that appeases his followers.

It may not seem so, but we are at a pivotal moment in history. How Debbie Wasserman Schultz's Democratic leadership conducts itself  in the next several weeks will impact us for generations.

You read that here, Friends.

Correction

Sorry, Friends,

Due to my misreading the fine print at my source for primary stats: www.nytimes.com, I inadvertently included super delegates in my analysis on May 19th of the remaining pledged delegates in the Democratic primary.

There are not 930 pledged delegates remaining. There are 779--151 of the 930 are super delegates. California accounts for 475 of the pledged delegates outstanding, and Bernie Sanders has to win 78.95% instead of 74.7% of the vote there with all other conditions remaining as described in this post: worldsbestpundit.blogspot.com/2016/05 to win the majority of all pledged delegates.

I apologize for the error and am happy I caught it.

Third Party Momentum Builds

Good Sunday morning, Friends,

It's really gratifying to know that my blog is read at CNN, MSNBC, and at the major campaigns. I hear words that I conjure up and were first used in this forum come directly out of the mouths of both the candidates and the commentators.

For instance, this morning, Bernie Sanders started calling Hillary Clinton the Democratic party's "anointed" candidate. He's never used that term before, but I've been calling her that for weeks.

I pointed out in a post several months ago how the Sanders campaign seemed to be following the advice in my blog, and it was totally tongue in cheek.

But now that I've been contacted by two different news shows at CNN, and this blog has more than 5,200 readers, I kinda think some important folks pay close attention to it.

I blogged on Friday how the campaign of obscure Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson was gaining traction, and that he will be the viable third-party option. Now, both MSNBC and CNN are all over the story. Thank you.

Yesterday, MSNBC's Alex Witt featured Johnson on her show, and this morning, CNN's Jake Tapper followed that story up with an announcement that former Republican governor of Massachusetts, Bill Weld, would be the other half of Johnson's ticket and had Weld on his show.

I know you don't know Gary Johnson, and I'm sure
 you don't know who in the heck I am...but you will.

That's two liberal former Republican governors, who both had successful tenures in office, running as the alternative to two candidates that neither of whose own parties can barely stomach.

I'd say the Libertarians are a pretty attractive option.

If this formidable ticket gains just five more points in national polls, Johnson will be on the debate stage with both Trump and Clinton. And that's where the more than 40% of Americans who say they want a third-party option will really get to know him.

Unless we see a Clinton/Sanders ticket, which would hold on to the Independent vote for the Democrats, the Libertarian duo could give Hillary running sans Bernie some real problems.

This makes it so important for the Democrats to take the both tactical and strategic move of putting Sanders on the ticket.

The popular former Republican governors should cause The Donald even more heartache by luring much of the GOP mainstream to their more-known records and promise of stability,

Third parties have not had any success in presidential elections in modern times. With the exception of John Anderson, Ross Perot, and Gore-spoiler Ralph Nader, they've had virtually no impact .on the races they've been in.

But, of course, this is no normal election. The GOP is nominating a non-viable candidate by any conventional measure, while the Dems' most-likely and very-damaged choice would easily succumb to just about any other Republican nominee.

This could get very interesting.

Third-Party Challenge for Prez Is Certain

Happy slow news day, Friends,

While most of us appreciate this short lull in the presidential race, it makes it pretty difficult on us pundits.

Usually, it's pretty easy to find something to write about. But with the world's focus on yesterday's early-morning crash of Egyptair Flight 804, and no more primary contests until June, I was digging hard this morning.

I could have blogged again about how the Republicans are coalescing, just as the Hatch Principle predicts. Or, I could have talked about Hillary Clinton's Freudian Slip, yesterday, where she affirmed to CNN's Chris Cuomo that Bernie Sanders is her choice for VP.

We'll leave the latter for another time.

It dawned on me, just a few minutes ago, what I should write about this morning, and I think it's a pretty important thing to point out.

If you can't see yourself ticking the box for either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, you should know that there is an alternative--one that is quite viable.

I don't know why this actually is, but it's an option that gets very little attention from the media.

There's a former two-term Republican governor with a conservative fiscal but liberal social agenda who'll be on the ballot in all 50 states. He represents a well-established political party with a platform that nearly everyone who learns about it likes.

This candidate's numbers are slowly and quietly building, and soon he could meet the polling threshold to qualify him for federal campaign funds. If that happens, you'll know his name.

Look. I know you don't know who in the heck I am, but maybe
you will by November. I could be your best choice.

But I'm not going to keep you in suspense any longer.

I'm talking about Governor Gary Johnson, former chief executive of New Mexico, and he'll be the nominee of the Libertarian party.

Normally, being such is a pretty futile effort. But perhaps not so much this year.

By all accounts, Johnson was a pretty good governor. I found a detailed review of his tenure where a staunch Democrat claimed he "loved" the guy. Click on the link and read it for yourself.

I personally like his innovative approach to ending the 'war on drugs', and that he refused to fund any program in financially-strapped New Mexico that didn't pay for itself. His fiscal conservatism helped turn the state's economy around.

The Libertarian party has gotten such a hard freeze from the mainstream news media that many, if not most people, don't even know it exists. But it's been around since 1971, and its candidate will be the only third-party option in every state.

Basically, the Libertarian philosophy is that you should pay for what you use and be treated like an adult. What's not to like about that?

Johnson is most politically similar to Bernie Sanders, but in a younger, less-rumpled package.

He was New Mexico's pick twice and ran the governor's office effectively and until his term maxed out. He's about as mainstream as a candidate can be.

It's an indisputable fact that Gary Johnson will be a third-party option, He deserves serious consideration.

Detailed Analysis Reveals Math Not so Bad for Bern

Dear Friends,

Our hearts go out this morning to the victims and their families of Egyptair Flight 804.

We now enter the longest lull in this primary season with no more contests until the June 4th Virgin Islands Democratic Caucus. Politics is likely not on most of our minds this morning.

There is, however, a rumble slowly building within the leadership of the blue party that it's time for Bernie Sanders to drop out of the race. He's become a distraction and may cause Hillary Clinton, their anointed one, some genuine damage that she can ill afford.

Bernie has vowed to stay in through the last of the nominating contests; Washington, D.C. on June 14th.

Hillary needs just 95 more delegates to clinch the nomination and 930 are still up for grabs; all of them to be divided up proportionally.

It would seem pretty hopeless for The Bern. That is, until you do the math.

Who else but a pundit would  actually sit down and crunch the numbers so
you don't have to? 

After performing a detailed analysis, I can see why the math gives Bernie Sanders every reason to stay in the race until the final vote is cast, and here's why:

Bernie can still lose five of the nine remaining contests and beat Hillary in pledged delegates.

Now, this will not win Sanders the nomination under current rules. Hillary beats Bernie after the polls close on June 7th because of the hundreds of "super delegates" gifted to her by the Democratic party gods.

But if Bernie beats Hillary in both pledged delegates and actual votes, the party leadership will have to face off with the Bernie revolution if she's nominated pro forma.

They'll not only have to reconcile an internecine revolution but also a likely revolt. Millions of voters will simply walk.

The party is cognizant of this and is frantically working on strategies to keep Bernie's followers in the fold. I don't see any way of appeasing most of them, short of putting Bernie on the ticket.

This would be the smartest tactical move, though no one has accused the Democratic party leadership of being smart.

Meanwhile, Bernie will continue to argue that super delegates be awarded proportionally like pledged delegates, which is not exactly an outlandish request.

And as far as the numbers go, here's at least one plausible winning scenario the Sanders' campaign is examining:

Virgin Islands closed caucus--lose--delegates split 5-7
Puerto Rico closed caucus--lose--delegates split 32-35
California open primary--win with 74,7% of vote--delegates split 408-138
Montana open primary--win--delegates split 15-12
New Jersey closed primary--lose--delegates split 70-72
New Mexico closed primary--lose--delegates split  21-22
North Dakota open primary--win--delegates split 14-9
South Dakota open caucus--win--delegates split 16-9
Washington, D.C. closed primary--lose--delegates split 22-23

Bernie Sanders has nearly three weeks to build up his lead in wide open California. A landslide victory there is within the realm of possibility, and it's the only YUGE win he needs.

He'll have to keep any defeats close, but that hasn't been a problem for him lately. And he could do much better than winning just four of the remaining contests.

In this very-realistic scenario. the final pledged delegate count would be Sanders 2,097, Clinton 2,095, and Sanders secures his argument that he's the candidate with momentum, the most pledged delegates and votes.

He's brought in millions of new voters and Independents who are loyal to him--not to the party and definitely not to Hillary Clinton.

It'll be up to the party whether or not to listen.

2,000 Black KY Dems Elect Trump President

Good fallout Wednesday, Friends,

Bernie Sanders is indeed smiling this morning after winning his first closed primary in Oregon by more than nine points and running neck and neck in another closed primary in Kentucky...until the bitter end.

With the last ballots trickling in late from racially-diverse Louisville, Bernie wound up losing the state by fewer than 2,000 votes among some 423,000 cast. Though the results are still 'unofficial' it looks like the African-American vote did Sanders in once again.

The Clinton juggernaut, which has an absolute lock on the all but the youngest black voters, flexed its muscles and extinguished The Bern.

I'm not ready to throw in the towel yet, but even I've gotta admit, it's not looking too
good for me right now.  Maybe I should start measuring the rooms at the Blair House.

Regardless of any rule calisthenics the Democratic party installed to prevent challenges to Hillary Clinton, her complete dominance of the African-American vote was the factor that finished off Bernie, not the rules.

The Clinton machine has owned this vote for decades through its ties to ultra-partisan black churches, a factor Sanders has not been able counter with any efficacy.

What gives the Clintons such dominance in the African-American community (90% of whom vote Democratic) is open to speculation. But it likely relates to President Bill Clinton's racially-progressive administration and the expectation of a similar golden age under Hillary...combined with a slew of promises and backroom deals.

Bernie came out of yesterday's two primaries with a small and temporary advantage, but the mathematics make it virtually impossible for him to win the nomination on a first convention vote.

Hillary can clinch the nomination under the party's arcane rules with just another 92 delegates. Nine contests remain with 930 delegates up for grabs, and they are divvied up proportionally. So barring anything unforeseen, Hillary's got it locked up.

Sanders really needed a decisive victory in Kentucky yesterday to have the momentum to sweep the remaining contests and come into the nominating convention with a compelling argument that he's the stronger of the two candidates. Now, not so much.

Bernie is not likely to make up the gap of 274 pledged delegates and the millions more votes that Hillary holds, and by any reasonable standard, would entitle her to the nomination. As a former high-school math teacher, I can tell you with certainty that numbers don't lie.

The way I see it, Kentucky was the final hurdle for Hillary in the Democratic primary, and she can now lay indisputable claim to being the party's presumptive nominee.

Too bad for the Democrats. Hillary is cannon fodder for Donald Trump, and I can't even imagine how badly she'll be shredded by him over the next six months. 

When The Donald takes the presidential oath of office on January 20th, we can look back to the 2,000 well-meaning Kentucky African Americans who knocked Bernie Sanders out of the race.

Trump Taps His One Secret Choice for Defense Secretary

Another big primary day, Friends,

I've got my best pundit's hat on, and I'm going to stick my neck way out this morning.

Yesterday, I received a Facebook post from The Donald himself. It said he had just had a long phone conversation with a leading Republican Senator who's been an outspoken opponent of his, and he called it "very interesting."

It was 'very interesting' to me because for the past week or so, I've noticed this particular senator's vitriol for Trump melt away. It seemed a little strange.

But it all became very clear to me what was going on, and honestly, if it does happen, it speaks favorably of the decisions Trump may make if he becomes president.

I've kept you in suspense long enough, and when I reveal whom this post was about, you'll probably be as surprised, and possibly as impressed, as I was.

It's true that I may be just a little intense to be president, but I'm the
guy the country needs to watch its back. 

The conversation was with Senator Lindsey Graham, a man who was so put off by Trump's nomination, he went on a three-day rant after The Donald became the presumptive GOP nominee two weeks ago.

Now, he's talking with Trump on the phone. Unthinkable!

Graham, the failed presidential candidate, may not have caught on with voters, but it was obvious to anyone who watched the undercard GOP debates that the breadth of his expertise on the U.S. military was exemplary.

He easily could be any Republican candidate's choice for Secretary of Defense, but the antipathy between him and Trump would have seemed to rule it out.

Trump, however, proving that he's at least somewhat serious about being a "uniter," reached out to Graham, and reports from The Donald's campaign say it went "very well."

We'll probably have to wait, of course, for the general election to find out if this prediction is accurate, and we may never know if Trump loses the election. But here's something to watch--Graham's change in tone. It will be the "tell" that this deal has gone down.

In the meantime, I just want to reiterate how important today's Kentucky primary is for the Democrats. It could be all over tonight for Bernie Sanders if he loses.

I predict, though, that at the end of the evening, The Bern will be smiling.

Hillary Embodies the C Word...No, Not That One

Happy Monday to you, Friends,

The news media is doing it again this morning, and they're making another YUGE mistake among the plethora of them they've made so far in covering this election.

What is this big mistake, you ask?

They continue to treat Hillary Clinton as the presumptive Democratic nominee, and all of their coverage is heavily slanted that way. They're snubbing a candidate who is very much alive, has already run a remarkable campaign, and is about to stage a political comeback for the record books.

Bernie Sanders is still drawing enormous and wildly enthusiastic crowds on the stump, is still raising millions of dollars, and is still polling far ahead of Hillary in a head-to-head race against Donald Trump.

Her poll numbers are going down. Bernie's continue to rise. A new poll this morning re-emphasizes her two big problems: people don't trust her, and they simply don't like her.

Hillary announced this morning that she'll be putting once-again philandering husband Bill in charge of the economy. First, the economy was in collapse when he left office, and second, it presumes an awful lot.

Hillary, you haven't even won Kentucky yet! That's what I call Chutzpah!

These are made out of brass, and Hillary Clinton is an avid collector.
She knows it takes a lot of these to have genuine Chutzpah.

Now for Hillary, having chutzpah is not necessarily a bad thing. It may be the factor that's gotten her through a pretty dismal primary season, considering she was supposed to have been the nominee by acclamation.

Instead, she's having a hard time beating what would normally be a candidate who couldn't get two votes: an avowed Jewish socialist nearly 10 years beyond retirement age, who looks rumpled in a new $2,000 suit.

This should be worrisome and a hint to party chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and the rest of her stubborn leadership. As I've said before, they are totally tone deaf.

We'll see if the C factor can get Hillary a victory in Kentucky tomorrow. A Hillary win there could shut Bernie's campaign down.

She's been stumping there hard because Kentucky's primary is open to registered Democrats only, and to date, Bernie has not done well in closed primaries. It's Hillary's last chance to stop him.

If Bernie can break the pattern, that would be four big primary wins in a row for him with nine contests remaining. They include New Jersey and the wide-open primary in delegate-rich California, A Sanders sweep would change the Democratic party's picture.

The media has already been burned and Berned so many times for their bad punditry in this election, they must either be way off their game or part of the Hillary machine. Neither speaks well of them.

No matter, even the media can't hold back the building groundswell they've been ignoring, relatively speaking. The facts on the ground will compel them to cover Bernie Sanders more seriously after he takes Kentucky.

Hillary may own the C word, but Bernie's got the two M words: Mojo and Momentum.

New Facebook Page

Hi Friends,

I just started a new Facebook page, and it's a good place to get some great discussion going. I really look forward to some lively back and forth!

Here's the link: www.facebook.com/Worldsbestpundit

See you there!

Three Secret Bombshells Donald and Hillary Are Hiding

Welcome to a brand new week, Friends,

We now find ourselves in the midst of the most outrageous presidential campaign in any of our lifetimes.

Two reviled candidates are facing off--a narcissistic, psychopathic, huckster as the bona fide candidate of one party against an anointed candidate who hasn't actually yet won her party's nomination.

Both are sitting on YUGE secrets that would ordinarily sink their candidacies, though admittedly, nothing is ordinary in this election.

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton would rather kill you than let
you break the seal on this envelope.

Donald Trump will NEVER release his tax returns.

As he bluntly told George Stephanopoulos when asked what tax rate he paid last year, "It's none of your business." And he meant it.

As Trump well knows, he's not required to show his returns to anyone. It's simply tradition.

His bombshell is what's in those returns that we'll never see, and here's what I believe it is:

First; he pays less tax than the average middle class family.

Second; he gives next to nothing to charity, especially veterans.

Third; he shields much of his money overseas.

These three things would be embarrassing and difficult for The Donald to explain and would cause a YUGE distraction for his campaign.

It's easier to stonewall until November. If he loses the election, then no harm, no foul. If Trump wins, then he made the right choice.

The bottom line is that unless someone illicitly gets hold of Trump's returns and makes them public, we won't ever see them.

Hillary Clinton will NEVER tell us what she got paid $675,000 to tell Goldman Sachs.

I believe she made them feel pretty darn special and talked about her vision for their integral role in her future presidency.

She probably promised things like continued government indemnity,  non-interference with executives' outrageous salaries, and strong support for maintaining the nefarious cronyism between Washington and Wall Street.

I'm certain she spoke in the parlance of close acquaintancy rather than detached officiousness, and it would all look pretty bad for her if any of it ever saw the light of day.

If I'm wrong about any of this, I'm challenging Hillary and Donald to prove it by releasing the documents,

I can see from my back-office reports that someone in your respective campaigns, if not you yourselves Hillary and Donald, read this blog, so ignoring this post just validates it. Why not just diffuse these ticking time bombs?

Short answer: because you're both hiding something.

The third secret bombshell is this: Bill Clinton has been sleeping with his next door neighbor in Chappaqua, N.Y., and gave her $2 million of Clinton Global Initiative funds to support a for-profit company, in which she owns a 29% stake. Not kosher.

Watch this become the big story of the week (along with Bernie Sanders winning four straight primaries).

Hillary's Last Firewall

Happy Friday the 13th, Friends,

The media is not giving much attention to it, but you can see it slipping just slowly into the news. The Republican nominee may now be a given, but the Democratic primary is far from over.

Our mainstream media was so intoxicated by its narrative of Mrs. Clinton sweeping into the White House as our first female president, it forgot she actually still needed to first win the primary.

The media made a novice's mistake of ignoring Yogi Berra's famous adage, "It ain't over 'til it's over." And Bernie Sanders was far from finished.

The pro-Hillary media is like a gigantic ship in how much force it takes to move it and how slowly it turns. But you can see it starting to budge, and once it starts moving you'd better get out of the way.

An op ed piece in yesterday's Wall Street Journal could, in fact, be the harbinger of a media deluge on Bernie's amazing comeback.

Two significant primary wins for Bernie in Indiana and West Virginia knocked Hillary off course. And she's already conceded Oregon's upcoming Tuesday contest to Sanders.

The changing landscape has forced Hillary to focus on Kentucky's primary, an unexpected distraction and expense.

Kentucky's is a closed contest, and so far, primaries where Independents can't vote have been trouble for Sanders. If the pattern holds, Hillary should win Kentucky and stop Bernie's building momentum in its tracks.

But the outcome in Kentucky is far from clear. The state's minority populations, which have been a pillar of support for Hillary elsewhere, are small. A full 90 percent of the state is white, and so far Sanders has dominated the white vote..

Hillary is also seen as anti-coal after her thoughtless remark that she wants to see coal mines shut down. That crack killed her chances in West Virginia

You'll eat your Hillary Brand broccoli and like it! I don't care if  all
your friends like Bernie Brand. You don't know what's good for you!

Kentucky is Hillary's last firewall. If she loses there on Tuesday, Bernie will run the table and take all seven remaining contests.  .

He still may not technically gain enough delegates to stop Hillary It's now widely acknowledged that the rules were written to prevent any real challenge to her.

Hillary's candidacy is flagging, yet the Democratic leadership insists its voters accept her as their nominee...and like it.

This, even though all polls show Sanders as the stronger candidate in the general election.

If Bernie pulls off the sweep, the party leadership ignores his momentum at its own peril.

The Hatch Has Spoken

Top of the morning, Friends,

If you haven't, I urge you to read my post of three days ago.

I assume anyone who's reading this blog is at least somewhat interested in presidential politics. That stipulated, you're then also somewhat aware of the transformation that's taken place within the Republican party in the last 24 hours.

Not so amazingly, the party establishment is falling in line behind Donald J. Trump.

What? You don't want a piece of this?  Guess you're already tired of winning.

This would not have even been imaginable three days ago, according to the rest of the media.

But as I said in my post on Monday, the late Dick Hatch said it would happen.

The ever-fractured GOP 'always unites for elections' was his mantra.

One by one, the leadership of the party is quickly falling in line behind its presumptive nominee.

The kingpin, House Speaker Paul Ryan, is having his first kiss with The Donald as I write this.

The bromance will then spark, even if there's some vestigial tension for a few days. The Donald didn't become a billionaire in real estate and show business by not being a charmer.

The GOP establishment is as aware of the polls as everyone else, and they're smelling blood.

The polls show that Hillary Clinton is vulnerable to Trump in three key states; Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, and winning any one of these could be a path to a Trump victory.

Even though Marco Rubio has said he's not interested in the VP slot, if the party establishment anoints The Donald, that could easily change.

A Trump/Rubio ticket would be all but invincible in Florida and is strategic for many other reasons, not the least of which is Rubio's strong connections to the Latino community.

I'd like to put a name to the phenomenon we're witnessing for the upteenth time in the GOP.

I'd like to call this idiosyncrasy the 'Hatch Principle' in  honor of my late boss who first observed it.

Let's see if  we can make the Hatch Principle get some traction. After devoting his life to political journalism, Dick deserves to be remembered for this.

If you're not telling your friends to read this blog because it's the only source that's accurately called the presidential race from the very beginning, please help me honor Dick Hatch by sharing this post.

Thank you, Friends.

Understanding The Donald

Happy Hump Day, Friends,

No matter what the news media, other pundits, or the math say, last night's big win in West Virginia gave Bernie Sanders a whole new life, and Hillary Clinton knows it.

That's why she's having to spend hundreds of thousands of unplanned dollars on a media buy in Kentucky--next Tuesday's primary and Bernie's next big challenge.

He's won two important open primaries in a row (and lost closed contests in Guam and Nebraska where a total of 12 delegates were divvied up). But Kentucky is open to only Democrats and has 61 delegates to split.

All indicators say Bernie should lose this one. He's done poorly in closed primaries.

But Hillary suffered dearly in West Virginia for her 'I'll get rid of the coal miners' remark. Kentucky, as we know from Janice Joplin, also has coal mines. So we'll see Hillary's misstep haunts her there as well.

If Bernie pulls out a win in Kentucky, it's very possible that he'll run the table on Super June 7th, which includes the grand prize of California

Despite the official media line, Bernie can still find that very narrow path to a majority of pledged delegates and a contested convention. It's unlikely, but not impossible.
.
With YUGE momentum going into Philadelphia in July, Bernie would have a powerful argument that he's the stronger candidate and should be the party's choice to face Donald Trump in November.

Poor Bernie. I now know what he'll face if he does become the nominee because I've figured Donald Trump's campaign tactics out.

Thanks to some brilliant insight from my wife, I'm pretty sure that this is what he's up to.

Up until 11 months ago, as he likes to remind us, The Donald was just a private citizen like the rest of us. And as such, he got most of his political news from the tube.

I know what I do when I'm watching the tube and a politician says something really insulting to my intelligence. Maybe you do it too, and I'd bet money Trump does. I scream at the TV!

And what comes out of my mouth would absolutely disqualify me from being president, but not Donald Trump.

This is one of those trick pictures like that black and gold dress. This
may look like a picture of a toilet. But if you stare at it long enough, you'll
actually see Donald Trump's mouth.

In fact, Trump takes it to the stump. And all of it resonates with his followers because they're screamers, too.

What he says seems so outrageous, but it's all so much like the stuff you'd yell at the top of your lungs in the privacy of your own home...unfiltered, irrational; never meant to leave the room.

Trump boldly confronts politicians with it, and they crumble. Witness how he took down 16 experienced opponents in record fashion.

It seems so counter-intuitive that such nastiness works so well. But until it stops working, I not so boldly predict we'll be seeing a lot more of it.

West Virginia Could Be Bernie's Deliverance

Another primary Tuesday, Friends,

There are just a couple of primaries today, and only one has any meaning at all--the Democratic contest in West Virginia.

Almost heaven maybe, but West Virginia could actually be hell for Bernie Sanders
if he doesn't win there today.

Normally, this primary would go by unnoticed and have little impact on the race; but not today.

As far as delegates go, there are not very many at stake--just 29. And the Democratic party splits delegates proportionally, so they will likely be divvied up pretty evenly.

But the importance of the race is this. It will determine momentum going into the western swing of primaries, and it's really a must-win for Bernie Sanders.

With a win, Bernie can stay in the race with at least a tenuous claim of being viable as a candidate. But a loss to Hillary Clinton will signal that Bernie's campaign has sprung an irreparable leak.

West Virginia is a "mixed" primary, which means that Independents can vote in the Democratic primary with conditions.

The Independent vote has been key to Bernie's victories in the 18 contests he's won so far. In states that were closed to Independent voters, Bernie has invariably lost.

So West Virginia is a litmus test of sorts.

If Bernie carries the state, he can continue to make the argument that only he can attract the Independent vote in a general election. He can also still make the claim that he's favored by voters under 45 and  by white voters in general.

But a loss for Bernie in mainly white, mainly blue collar West Virginia--two of his biggest constituencies--would be like a punch to the gut. It would completely knock the wind out of the Sanders campaign.

He'll have nothing left heading into California, and Hillary will need fewer than 150 delegates to clinch the Democratic nomination.

The polls are not indicating which way this one will go. It's a dead heat.

But even though I sense a bit of slippage in the Sanders campaign's energy, Bernie still looks like the winner.

Tonight, little West Virginia will either deliver Bernie Sanders or send him packing

Will the GOP Implode?

Happy Monday morning, Friends,

My old boss at Public TV, Richard W. Hatch, was a brilliant political analyst. He devoted his entire 50-year career to dissecting, studying and analyzing all things politics. There really wasn't much about the subject that Dick Hatch didn't know.

Dick had a theory about the Republican party, which he imparted to a group of us young legislative reporters back in the early 1980's, while we were stealing a rare spare moment in the press room of the North Carolina state legislature.

Richard W. Hatch says the Republican party will not
fall apart, no matter what any of the "experts" say.

By that time, Dick had already spent several decades as a political journalist, and his theory was based on personal observation.

Another 30+ years have passed, and I'm writing about Dick's views on the Republican party because they are every bit as valid today as they were then.

Dick believed that the idea of a cohesive Republican party was a complete myth.

He based this on a pattern of behavior, which we can see playing out today in its most extreme fashion.

Unlike Democrats, who have been a relatively stable group whose basic egalitarian ideals haven't changed all that much in at least a century, the Republicans have been a fractious bunch that entire time, if not longer.

The GOP has had an ability to coalesce for an election, according to Dick, but only for that election. After that, it's say hello to Mr. Mayhem. And the party has been unable to break the pattern.

We're seeing an extreme example of a party in pieces right now. But if Dick Hatch is correct, and he'd always been in the past, we'll see the various factions come together before November.

No matter how severe their internal fight appears to be, the GOP is just repeating a familiar, albeit this time exaggerated, pattern.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, the top elected party official, says he's not yet ready to support his party's candidate.

History, Dick Hatch, and I say he will.  The Cleveland convention is still more than two months away, and in politics that's an eternity.

Like the many Democrats who will hold their noses and support Hillary Clinton, the Hatch Theory says most of the GOP will do the same for Donald Trump.

Talk of a spin-off third-party candidate emanating from the Republican ranks is completely idle.

Dick passed away last year at 85. I truly hope he's able to watch this unprecedented presidential race from the other side. If he is, I know he's thoroughly enjoying it.

Dick, whenever I hear talk about the GOP falling apart, I think of you and what you told me that day so many years ago.

Thanks for the memory.

Donald Trump Channels Mel Brooks Plot

Happy Sunday morning, Friends,

If you're not aware of the plot of Mel Brooks' 'The Producers', both the film and Broadway musical were essentially about a swindle that completely backfired.

A deep-in-debt producer and his nebbish accountant team up to woo rich widows and sell them shares of a show they were dead-sure would fail. They sold about 10,000 percent of it knowing it would bomb, and they'd keep all the money.

The only thing was, the charismatic but unstable star of  "Springtime for Hitler" turned this completely wretched play into a smash hit of quirky performance art.  So instead of being rich failures, the producers had a big problem on their hands.

I know. I'll write a play where Hitler disguised in crazy blond hair and  a spray-on
tan runs for President of the United States, Nah--no one would ever believe it.

This absurd situation mirrors the one in which we find ourselves with Donald Trump.

Here we have a denigrating, misogynistic, and narcissistic epitome of possibly the world's worst candidate for president...so bad that no one in their right mind would ever vote for him.

But here we are, Friends, watching a play that might be the most revolting in the history of humankind. And it's also a YUGE hit!

The bigger problem is, though, that we're actually living in the play.

This crazy scenario proves something to me.

Did you ever ask yourself if life was real or just a figment of your imagination? What's going on with Donald Trump proves to me that life is FRICKING real, and we'd better WAKE UP now!

Unless this is all just a figment of  my imagination, I don't believe we'd simultaneously be dreaming this all up. So we'd better start acting like genuine Americans and, more importantly, like adults.

Since his presumptive nomination last Tuesday, Donald Trump has not become more presidential in any way, shape or form. His temperament and tone are still that of a nasty schoolyard bully.

We're talking about the potential leader of the free world here, Friends, and we can ill afford to underestimate this man, his erratic behavior, and the genuine danger he poses.

Though this race has been as wacky as any Mel Brooks comedy, this is deadly serious stuff and a situation where we can't just sit back and watch it play out.

An Obvious Choice

Whew Friends,

It feels as if we've come to a brief respite after a frenzied week in the race for the White House.

I do want to rub it in that Carly Fiorina, as I predicted, had the shortest Vice Presidential run in history.

Indeed, the political landscape changed overnight, and the headliner on the GOP ticket was settled unexpectedly early.

Donald Trump is the most controversial Republican nominee that I can remember since Barry Goldwater, and his nomination has had immediate repercussions within the party establishment.

Both ex-presidents Bush and former candidate Sen. Lindsey Graham will not back him, and House Speaker Paul Ryan also says no for now.

I have already projected what one solution to many of Trump's challenges would be, and I believe he's shrewd enough to know it.

He's already tipped his hand.

Yesterday, Trump said there's a 40% chance his vice presidential nominee will come from his former field of challengers. I say there's a 100% chance.

Alright, so I may look like a young tough right now but just wait
until I have a little grey hair and a couple of chins in eight years.

Sen. Marco Rubio, the third-place finisher is looking for a job and making overtures to the Trump campaign.

While other establishment Republicans are eschewing Trump, Rubio was one of the first to open the door to supporting the presumptive nominee.

He is the future of the Republican party, obviously has presidential aspirations, and has yet to hit his prime with regard to the maturity needed to be president. He is also obviously influential in the Latino community.

And if he didn't before, Rubio now believes from firsthand experience that winners, no matter how unlikely, find a way to win. He knows from his own personal pain that Trump has a genuine chance.

He's probably thinking that four to eight years as second-in-command would give him a clear pathway to the Oval Office.

And Rubio brings a lot to the table.

That includes giving the ticket instant credibility with many in the establishment who are either on the fence or worse.

Strictly as a detached observer, I can't see one flaw with a Trump/Rubio ticket (other than the obvious ones with the headliner himself), nor can I see a better one among the many possibilities.

Let's see just how smart the Trump camp is.

WorldsBestPundit

Bernie's Place on the Ticket

Almost the weekend, Friends,

And it's certainly been a YUGE week! While Donald Trump says that even he was shocked at how fast he actually attained the Republican nomination, Bernie Sanders found new life in Indiana.

The question is: what exactly is that new life, and how will it impact the Democratic presidential race?

The math is pretty apparent and is heavily stacked in Hillary Clinton's favor. She's just 160 delegates away from clinching the nomination because of her 535+ "super delegates," and nine contests still remain.

With all of them divvying up their delegates proportionally, Sanders would have to get nearly every remaining vote to take the nomination. So, he's hoping to force a contested convention by swaying some of her super delegates his way.

This may or may not happen depending on Bernie's momentum going into the Philadelphia convention at the end of July.

What's clear is that Bernie holds sway over a huge bloc of Independent and first-time voters whose likelihood of voting for Hillary is a complete question mark. I say most of them won't--unless Bernie is on the ticket too.

Alright, so we really don't like each other very much, and I think her values are pretty
screwed up, but I'll do anything to stop Donald Trump. Heck, I'll even be Vice President

I had this crazy thought yesterday morning after I wrote yesterday's post. Then, not two hours later, I happened to have NPR on the car radio, and someone casually mentioned Bernie as Hillary's potential running mate. I knew I was onto something.

I, for one, could actually vote for that ticket without holding my nose.

It would be a brilliant way to ensure The Bern stays kindled and he has a personal stake in the race, keep him out stumping where he's so effective, and capture a YUGE voting bloc.

He's already said he'll do anything to keep Trump from being president, and being Vice President ain't a bad way to do that.

I admit, I love Bernie Sanders...but his chances of winning the nomination are worse than that snowball we're always referring to.

A Clinton/Sanders ticket would win by a landslide.  To me, a lifelong political reporter and observer, it's an absolute no brainer.

I say it's going to happen, and remember where you read it first.

Dems Are Tone Deaf

Happy day after, Friends,

The Indiana primary could not have gone more as I predicted, even if I had written yesterday's post after the results were already in.

I absolutely nailed it, and I defy any other political pundit to make the same claim.

As I stated he would be this morning, Donald Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee.

As I stated he would be this morning, Bernie Sanders is a rejuvenated candidate.

The problem is, the Democratic leadership is in denial about the latter.

Here's the deal. The leadership continues to blindly support a flawed and damaged candidate, while the Independent voters she needs to win a general election are screaming they will NEVER vote for her.

Well, this was last time. This time around, the big sign should probably have the word
"No" in front of it.

Their importance is pretty much borne out by the results so far. The states in which Hillary Clinton has won primaries are those in which millions of Independents have been barred from voting.

How ironic, considering the Dems are constantly pointing their finger at the GOP as the party of organized disenfranchisement. .

In a climate that's screaming for  disruption, the Democrats can only get their anointed one nominated by excluding millions.

This behavior demonstrates how detached the party leadership is from its electorate (which normally includes millions of Independents). It's almost as if they're so intoxicated by their own narrative of a Hillary presidency that they've stopped paying attention.

Independent voters are shouting loudly how they feel about Hillary Clinton, but the leadership hears only its own tune. They seem to be listening to a Golden Oldie from the Clinton glory days of 1992.

Being such a known quantity makes it virtually impossible for Hillary to reinvent herself in any significant way between now and November.

There are nine contests left, and aside from New Jersey, I forecast Bernie Sanders will take them. Momentum could even lead to a Sanders sweep of all nine.

A sweep will still not give Bernie enough delegates to wrest the nomination away from Hillary at the July convention. But Bernie will have won the majority of contests and have YUGE momentum going in.

If the party turns a blind eye to the all-important momentum factor and steamrolls Hillary to the Democratic nomination, it will set itself up for certain failure in November.

Any blue ticket will need to include Bernie Sanders in some meaningful and important way, or you can count on seeing Donald Trump take the presidential oath of office on January 20th.

The Landscape Changes Today

Happy Indiana Primary day, Friends,

By the end of the day, Donald Trump will have clinched the GOP nomination. That's not shocking news, but what may be the real story is that Bernie Sanders' campaign could be genuinely rejuvenated.

Last week, I said that Bernie's new strategy appeared to be to prevent Hillary Clinton from getting enough votes for a first-vote nomination at this summer's Democratic convention in Philadelphia.

I read Lew's Views last week and decided he was right. He said I
should shoot for a contested convention, and that's exactly what I'm
going to do! 

A day later, Bernie came out publicly and announced it.

At that point, it did not seem likely that Sanders even had a chance to win today's primary in Indiana.

But the poll numbers have tightened up, and now they show him in a virtual dead heat with Hillary Clinton.

Each time the poll's have forecast a contest this close, Bernie has come up the winner. I believe that will happen again in Indiana.

On the Republican side, the Indiana primary is a modified winner-take-all state, but not for the Democrats.

In all their primaries, delegates are awarded proportionally. That means in close contests, the pledged delegates are virtually split evenly.

At this point, Sanders is more than 200 pledged delegates behind Hillary.

And because the party has already awarded 16% of the total delegates (700+) to Clinton as "super delegates," she goes into each contest with a big lead. A Sanders win, even in a blowout, can actually result in Hillary getting more delegates,

That's why Donald Trump, and now increasingly Sanders, have been saying the system is rigged.

If Sanders wins today he'll already have won some 18 contests. He may wind up winning more than half of them, including the grand prize of California by double digits, and still lose the nomination to Hillary. The math says that's what will happen.

But Bernie will not go quietly, especially if he wins today and eventually winds up with more popular votes and pledged delegates than Hillary. It's still quite possible.

If  Sanders takes Indiana, and has momentum going into the remaining western-state primaries and one remaining caucus in South Dakota, he'll sweep those and go into the convention as the popular favorite.

Even though he'll still trail in super delegate votes, the party would have genuine hell to pay if it flouts the wishes of its voters.

We're not at this point yet, and Bernie first has to win today. But if  he does, the landscape in this crazy presidential race changes yet again.

Rubio Angling for VP?

Happy new work week, Friends,

It will be a dramatic turn of events, but it looks like Senator Marco Rubio is angling to be on the ticket with Donald Trump.

And what a GOP dream ticket it could be!

Presumptive nominee Trump has been saying for a good number of weeks that he intends to select someone who's familiar with the system to run with him.

I'd been thinking from early on that the master deal maker had already struck one with Cruz to be on the ticket with him. But that deal may have gone by the boards as the campaign progressed and got nastier.

Cruz, though a U.S. Senator like Rubio, may be popular with a significant bloc of voters, but is perhaps the most unpopular member of  the upper house.

Rubio, however, is a rising star within the GOP, is popular among voters, especially Latinos, and has strong support inside the Senate. He would make a much better and more strategic choice than Cruz to be a heartbeat away from the Oval Office.

Okay, so I may be little, but I've got room to grow. Maybe in eight years I'll be able
to fill that big chair in the Oval Office.

The former candidate's office signaled yesterday that he may support Trump for the GOP nomination.  I think there's a lot more to that overture than just his endorsement.

According to the GOP's rules, more than 100 of  Rubio's 172 delegate's are unbound. If Rubio were to throw their votes to Trump, the race would be over by Wednesday.

I'm not sure when Rubio will announce his endorsement. Perhaps he'll wait until after Donald Trump takes tomorrow's Indiana primary. That means, we could have an announcement by Wednesday morning.

His choice as running mate would come after.

No one is talking about this, and again I'm sticking my neck out. But if the Republican ticket turns out to be Trump/Rubio, remember you read it here first.

Ted's Cruzin' for a Losin'

Good Sunday morning, Friends,

I just watched an interesting and revealing interview with Ted Cruz. NBC's Chuck Todd tried to get Cruz to answer a simple question, "Would you support Donald Trump if he gets the Republican nomination?"

Cruz managed to duck this simple yes or no question nine separate times!

Ted Cruz is smiling today, but two days from now he's
likely to be staked in the heart by Donald Trump.

At present, Cruz is Trump's most vocal critic, but 'Lyin' Ted' could not find it within himself to answer this question like a real person rather than a slithering politician.

Could it be that my prediction for Cruz way back in January is actually correct?

I said then that Cruz was pulling punches with Trump because the two had already struck a deal to share the GOP ticket. Cruz continues to give that theory credence by refusing to throw a knockout blow at Trump...and he's had a lot of chances.

Cruz could have proven my prediction wrong by simply answering that he couldn't support a Trump nomination under any circumstances. Instead, he fought Chuck Todd's question over and over again.

Having covered politics for decades, I can tell when a candidate is trying to keep the door open.

As of today, neither Cruz nor John Kasich have any mathematical possibility of gaining the GOP nomination on the first convention vote--only Donald Trump does. The former two's only hope for nomination is in a contested convention.

But this coming Tuesday will be their day of reckoning, as Donald Trump will take all of Indiana's delegates with a double-digit victory in the primary there.

After that, if Kasich and Cruz stay in the race. their role is reduced to that of gadfly. There is no way under current rules that Trump doesn't clinch the nomination, and the rules will probably not change.

All the machinations that Cruz has been pulling of late: teaming up with Kasich, choosing Carly Fiorina as his 'running mate', and lobbying delegates behind the scenes, have produced no relevant results.

Ted's simply Cruzin' for a Losin'.