Ken's Comments

Reading this article Why Cruz, and the G.O.P., Lost to Trump - The New Yorker Why Cruz, and the G.O.P., Lost to Trump - The New Yorker From the J.F.K. assassination to Monica Lewinsky, it was a long day in Indiana. and two things caught my eye that I thought I'd mention. First, since when is it "Cruz and the GOP?"  I think John Boehner's labeling of Cruz as Lucifer and an SOB is an accurate depiction of how little the GOP likes Cruz.  Not that being disliked by the Party is an indictment, it's clear the Party bosses accepted the support of the Tea Party to get majorities in the House and Senate and then wanted nothing further to do with those voters.  Personally, I agree with Boehner on this one, though. The second point is Cruz stating that Donald Trump is "utterly amoral" in response to the asinine remarks by Trump quoting the National Enquirer to ...

Donald Trump has a point with his complaints about the non-voter determined processes for selecting delegates. True his campaign should be doing a better job of fighting for these delegates but the fact is the processes he complains about are anti-democratic. The question people are overlooking is why are those processes set up?  The answer is to do exactly what Donald Trump is suggesting - to accumulate the selection power in the hands of a smaller group and remove it from the popular vote. Why do party committee people endorse candidates?  Not to make sure the Party picks the best candidates but to enable smaller groups of people to make the choice of who runs or doesn't, which in turn makes the candidates beholden to them. The different methods that Donald Trump is decrying fall in the same categories.  Caucuses that are attended by a fraction of Republican voters.  State Committee meetings where a tiny group of Party officials meet.  These are mechanis...

How are conservatives able to call Ted Cruz the real conservative candidate when he calls for police targeting and patrolling Muslim neighborhoods?  That's less government?  That conforms to the spirit of the Bill of Rights?  That's different than Donald Trump? Other candidates and Republican Party officials pushed Donald Trump to sign the pledge to support whomever is the nominee.  Now that Donald Trump is the nominee, where is their support?  What about their Pledge? Is that what the Republican Party stands for?  We lie to people we don't like to get them to play by our rules and then if the voters who make up the party pick someone we don't like we'll stab them in the back. Montana is like the last primary before the Party Convention and it looks like the Primary will actually mean something.  I don't know who I will vote for, I've never been a fan of Trump, but I'm pretty disgusted with the Party leaders and leading Republican...

Well I was sort of right about the Republican Primary. Two of the Governors did well enough to move on, as I thought.  I was wrong about which one would come in last - thinking it would be Bush not Christie.  That's one I should have seen coming - Christie was a tough guy in the debates but really did not have a solid message.  I was not surprised by Gov. Kasich doing so well.  His name came up a lot when voters when media types were talking to voters. Cruz did drop - but not as far as I thought.  Rubio, on the other hand, did drop like a stone as I predicted. Sorry to see Carly Fiorina drop out of the primary.  I was hoping she'd stay a bit longer and see if getting a space on the main stage of the debate would help boost her numbers.  It was a crime that she was not allowed to the New Hampshire Republican Debate.  Glad to see Dr. Ben Carson is staying in and I hope he does well in South Carolina.  Apparently he's been working that Sta...

Have to revise my predictions based on the debate that occurred Saturday night. Senator Marco Rubio's performance was a disaster.  I believe he's going to plummet.  Rather than a strong second, I think he'll be in the middle of the pack of the so-called "Establishment Candidates." I think Governors Kasich and Christie will rise up as a result.  I still think Sen. Ted Cruz will be lucky to get 3rd, but will more likely be 4th or 5th behind the Governors.  The incident with Dr. Ben Carson will haunt him.  I still think Gov. Jeb Bush does poorly. Donald Trump should win New Hampshire but the reality is if you add up the votes others will receive the non-Trump votes will far exceed the Trump votes. The only person who may leave the race after this is Carly Fiorina but that depends on her campaign funding and also whether she'll be allowed at future debates.  Her comments prior to the New Hampshire primary made perfect sense.  She has outlasted many...

The headlines are that Senator Ted Cruz won, Donald Trump came in second and Senator Marco Rubio third but let's look at why and what else happened that is significant. First, the why.  To begin with, Trump did not have quite the organization that Cruz did.  Winning a caucus process is not the same as winning an election.  Trump's personality got a lot of voters out but there are nuances to getting enough and winning in the caucus.  Also, I do believe some of the last minute dirty tricks by the Cruz campaign had an effect.  I think the letter from Cruz kept a few people home who were probably Trump supporters and passing on the incorrect information about Dr. Ben Carson resulted in Cruz picking up some of Carson's supporters. Some things that need to be recognized.  \Cruz's margin was not that big.  He was sagging in the polls.  Not quite enough to lose but close. Where people felt Trump skipping the Iowa debate was a mistake, I think it cost ...

A friend of mine shared this article by Larry Elder.  The topic is two fold - first why Trump scares the Republican establishment and what the Party should do to make Donald Trump a successful candidate if he gets the nomination.  I found the observations and recommendations spot on. http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/elder011416.php3 On the recommendation side, Mr. Elder recommends that Mr. Trump be advised to pick the best people to support him once in office.  If you really take a look at The Donald's campaign you'll see he is doing that already.  Trump engaged a campaign coordinator for Iowa who has long experience being successful with helping candidates with the Party Caucuses.  Also, for all Trump's bombast about illegal immigrants from Mexico, the plan he actually published drew upon recommendations from Senators and Representatives who have put forward reasonable ideas in Congress.  One thing about Donald Trump that is an advantage for him...

So Donald Trump wants a database with the names of (insert a group here - Muslims, immigrants, illegal immigrants, whatever).  Is it really that bad? Governor John Kasich's campaign has an ad with a minister comparing the idea to Nazi Germany registering Jews.  Gov. Jeb Bush, Dr. Ben Carson, Sen. Ted Cruz, Secretary Hilary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders also were critical of Donald Trump's comments.  Carson said that singling out a specific religion is a bad idea.  Cruz said that a registry of Americans is wrong. First of all let's clarify.  Originally, Donald Trump was calling for a registry of illegal immigrants.  Now he is now saying he wants a registry of Syrian immigrants.  I've not seen any clip of him saying all Muslims or American citizens of any religion. But let's consider the question of whether a database is a bad idea.  Is it like Nazi Germany registering the Jews?  Well, if it is then Hilary Clinton is a Nazi too....