Three-For-One Entry

What Republicans Must Do to Win In November; Rubio Might Be Ted’s Ace in the Hole; and Kudos to Ohio State Treasurer.  Three-for-one on this entry; let’s get to it…

Every civics high school class in America should be covering the national party presidential primaries this year; they might very well prove to be of historical significance.  In the Republican’s case, I am fascinated by the increased anticipation that there might be an open or brokered July convention in Cleveland.  Some very intelligent people are putting forth opinions on this matter and once you get past their obvious candidate bias, many of them make compelling arguments.  First off, it is ridiculous for anyone to assert that any candidate should be ordained as the nominee if they come to the convention with a plurality lead in delegates short of 1,237.  The majority rule has been in place for decades and everyone understood what the magic number was when the primary season started.  Secondly, if in fact any candidate fails to reach the 1,237 number on the first ballot, I see no reason why one of the original primary candidates cannot once again be considered as the nominee.  To me, the fact that they originally contested for the nomination should be sufficient to make them eligible for consideration in the case of deadlock.  Now a move to consider someone other than one of the original list of candidates (i.e. Paul Ryan) strikes me as a deviation too far from the will of the voters.  If an open convention occurs, primary voters will have expressed their will that no single candidate had clear majority support and therefore, a further winnowing or determining will be required on the convention floor.  Trump wants it confined to a plurality; Cruz wants it confined to the two leading delegate holders; Kasich wants it confined to only the remaining candidates.  The point is that for the campaigns that are no longer actively pursuing the nomination, their operations were suspended…not shut down.  The likeliest outcome is Trump or Cruz, but I see no problem with the delegate process leading ultimately to any one of the original candidates.  The goal for the Republican delegates should simply be to nominate someone who has the best chance to defeat the Democrat nominee.  That someone must be viewed by the general electorate as qualified, reasonable, and with sufficient vision to lead this nation out of the troubles it is now in.  If the delegates do that, then the Republicans will enter 2017 with the White House and Congress in hand and the prospects for some long overdue, fundamental changes in our government will rise considerably.

Another interesting topic that has been surfacing recently is the status of the Rubio campaign.  Folks are wondering why he has not yet endorsed any other candidate.  He has come tantalizingly close to endorsing Cruz, but has not done so explicitly.   Furthermore, his campaign organization has been reaching out to states that have already concluded their primaries in an attempt to retain the loyalty of the delegates he had won prior to his campaign suspension.  Given his rhetoric, one has to believe that Rubio supports Cruz over Trump and Kasich.  One would also suspect that since his withdrawal from the campaign following his home-state Florida loss, he has had some communication with the Cruz campaign.  One might venture a guess that Rubio’s endorsement of Cruz is a fait accompli and has been presented to Cruz to use to his best advantage.  If that is true, the Cruz campaign may have decided that the value of having the Rubio delegates in hand (as much as one might) at an open convention exceeds the perceived value of a public Rubio endorsement of Cruz at this time.  If in fact Rubio’s delegates have been presented to Cruz in this fashion, they could be a Cruz ace in the hole for a convention card game.  The unknown factor is this: Rubio might simply be withholding any public endorsement in hopes of being the fallback winner of a contested convention.  I see this as a very distant possibility and therefore ascribe to the previous conjecture.  Time will tell.

As a final note, Ohio State Treasurer Josh Mandel has instituted a new system in his state that takes governmental transparency to a whole new level.  Read about it @ http://www.weeklystandard.com/transparency-ohio-treasurer-creates-searchable-database-for-government-spending/article/2001857.  According to the article, several other states have been looking at the Ohio model and are considering similar searchable databases.  One can only hope that this type of effort expands across the nation to all levels of government and ultimately, to the nexus of all political mystery…WDC.