Monday, October 31, 2016

US Election

I was writing about the US election until March, when it all went haywire.

The Republicans said their rule was proportional allocation of delegates to the nominating convention; however, with about 35% of the vote, Trump had 48% of the delegates. Then all his opponents dropped out, and Trump ended up with more than 50% of the delegates and the nomination, even though less than 40% of the voters voted for him.

As people like the author of Dilbert point out, the first task of any politician is to win the nomination, and Trump did that perfectly, saying exactly what needed to be said to win a majority of the delegates and thereby win the nomination.

But then, the politician needs to appeal to those who are not such rabid party members and who vehemently reject the platform planks that appealed to primary and caucus voters. And everything Trump does seems tailored to offend women and Hispanics.

Is Trump running as a favour to Billary, who would have lost to any other candidate?

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