Angry rank-and-file Republicans have gotten what they wanted: a presumptive presidential candidate, Donald Trump, who is running a campaign based on resentment, grievance and fury at the establishment and the status quo.
Trump’s strong victory in the Indiana presidential primary Tuesday means that the billionaire real-estate developer from New York is on a firm path to the Republican nomination, and the general election campaign has begun.
He took a kinder, gentler approach in his victory speech Tuesday night, praising the Republican adversaries that he he had insulted, excoriated and ridiculed during the past few months. He even praised Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, his main surviving rival for the nomination, after Cruz dropped out Tuesday night. “Ted Cruz, I don’t know if he likes me or doesn’t like me, but he is one hell of a competitor,” Trump declared. “He is a tough, smart guy and he has got an amazing future.”
This was an uncharacteristically generous appraisal from Trump, especially since a few hours earlier, before the Indiana results were in, he repeated an unproven allegation made by the National Enquirer that Cruz’s father Rafael had been photographed with John F. Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald before the Kennedy murder. This bizarre outburst prompted Cruz to immediately condemn Trump in the harshest terms, calling him amoral and a pathological liar. But there was no indication that the exchange affected the outcome in Indiana.
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Now it is Trump’s vulnerabilities, the ones that he created himself such as his derogatory comments about women and Latinos, and his superficial policy stands, that will be the focal point of his opponents led by Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton. He remains very unpopular with key segments of the electorate.
Trump adversaries are already on the attack. Brad Woodhouse, president of the liberal Americans United for Change, told reporters that Trump is “a racist, sexist, misogynistic, nativist, isolationist, pathological liar.” And the attacks will only get worse, as will Trump’s own attacks on Clinton.
Trump secured his path to the GOP nomination by taking 53.3 percent of the vote in the Indiana Republican primary, compared to 36.7 percent for Cruz, and 7.5 percent for Gov. John Kasich of Ohio, according to The Associated Press.
On the Democratic side, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont won in Indiana with 52.7 percent and Hillary Clinton got 47.3 percent. But her loss didn’t throw her off her path to the Democratic nomination because she holds an enormous lead in delegates from her series of overwhelming earlier victories.
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Trump has a lot of work to do, and he says he will go negative on Clinton soon, calling her “crooked” and untrustworthy. But there are many doubters. “I think he’s going to get his clock cleaned by Hillary,” said Republican strategist Mike Murphy in an interview with MSNBC. Murphy ran a political action committee supporting former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida, who dropped out of the presidential race weeks ago.
“He has the biggest upside and the biggest downside of any candidate I’ve ever seen,” former House Speaker Newt Gingrich told The Washington Post. “If everything comes together and clicks, he’ll be a historic figure. And if everything goes south, we’ll think of Goldwater and McGovern as medium-level disasters.”
Gingrich was referring to the embarrassing losses of Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater in 1964 and Democratic nominee George McGovern in 1972.
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It’s Trump’s Party Now originally appeared on usnews.com
