Will the Real Contestants Please Come In and Identify Themselves…

Opinion by George McClellan:

Mitt Romney came, he saw, he stumbled… and confirmed my original pre-debate assessment that his enlistment to denounce Donald Trump as the very personification of wickedness and evil was simply the establishment Republican’s latest desperate attempt to save the Republican old guard from the destruction they truly deserve. The GOP is being remade. Get over it!

My essay of yesterday, Self-Destruction, was written after Mitt Romney made his grand speech and before the GOP’s debate in Detroit. As an aside, I might add that if Romney had made such a speech against Obama four years ago, he might have been President now running for re-election instead of acting as a shill for the desperate GOP crony capitalists who are watching their fortunes going down the drain. Can we be through with Mitt Romney now?

The debate was a Fox News presentation. Megan Kelly was lovely in white and, as I supposed, she did not repeat her direct attacks on Trump but, correctly, asked him questions that have since presented themselves and should have been asked. Trump didn’t need too be there.

It irks me to say it but John Kasich was the only candidate on the dais who actually looked and talked presidential. He has more than enough experience to be Commander-in-Chief and does, in fact, know how to make a budget and control money, but he’s still an establishment man and we all know it. I suppose if gentle Ben had not left the campaign, even Kasich might have looked rabid up there.

Marco Rubio, “Little Marco” as Trump dismissively labeled him, reminded me of my aunts little Yorkshire terrier, an annoying creature always yapping, never stopping, yapping constantly, its little eyes bugging out but able to stay just out of range of a good swift kick and nobody even remotely understanding what it was yapping about. Good by Marco.

Ted Cruz desperately attempted to remain calm, collected and reasoned. He made his usual good points but still allowed himself to be sucked in by the Donald where even he, as accomplished a debater as he is, lost his self-control and ended up in shouting matches while The Donald, shrugged his shoulders and gave the Italian salute.

Ted Cruz, it appeared to me, is joining the ranks of the near exhausted and was losing control of his argument. The media, Fox News included, are looking for the small, slight changes in policy that the candidates want the voters to know, then they will spend hours discussing the minutia that makes news for them. The candidate becomes wearied by the exercise, forgets a point and the press jumps on ‘em like a hen on a June bug.

Except Trump. He’s like the once famous pool player, Minnesota Fats, calm, collected, cool, who never missed an opportunity to quietly refresh himself, shave, even change into a clean shirt and tie, while his opponent, after hours of pool table combat, was slowly reduced to a losing heap of gelatinous protoplasm, sweaty, smelly, out of control, exhausted beyond further play and, soon out of the game. Beware Ted. I think you might be getting some bad advice.

I quit watching after an hour and a half. These things have been reduced to shouting matches where nothing new is revealed, opponents cling to old arguments and point fingers of accusation at the others. In the end, Rubio would never stand a chance against the Clinton machine. Cruz and Trump definitely can. Don’t know about Kasich. Remember, Freedom is the goal, the Constitution is the way. Now, go get ‘em! (4 Mar 2016)