mulberryshoots

Boy, if you have been breathing here in the U.S. of A. you’ll know that what we are seeing happen on TV and in other news could be only be described as “March Madness” – and I am talking about politics, and not basketball either!

Now that Super Tuesday has come and gone, there is finally talk about the possibility of brokered conventions, at least for the Republican party should no one including Donald Trump have the required number of delegates required on the first ballot. That magic number turns out to be 1237. And Trump now has only 285, 952 short of the required number of delegates. That’s a long way from Tipperary if you ask me – and so I don’t really understand all the hype that says that Trump is now unstoppable. Really? Even with plump Chris Christie playing the royal syncophant standing by in case the Donald wants a drink of water?

Last night, Greta Van Susteran devoted almost an hour to featuring Melania Trump in an “up close and personal” peek at their luxury apartment in Trump tower. I have to say that Melania does well in the couple of interviews I’ve seen on TV. She even offers up good marriage advice: be your own person and speak your mind. Just don’t expect the other person to do what you think they should, even if you disagree with their behavior. Most of us know how to voice our opinions, but implicitly, at least I find, you want the other person to follow your advice. That doesn’t work, it seems.

Anyhow, the growing rumble of conversations about how to stop Trump have revealed a few other idiosyncracies about the Republican National Convention rules – more than you or I ever wanted to know, probably. It turns out that if there is no majority in the first ballot, then ALL the delegates can vote for anyone they feel like on subsequent ballots. Apparently, there could be as many as 100 or more ballots if you read about past brokered conventions! Sounds like voting for the Pope and seeing when the grey smoke will appear, it sounds to me!

The only Catch-22 is that there is a current rule that says no one can be nominated as a candidate who hasn’t won a majority of delegates in EIGHT STATES during the Primary. Well, I guess that lets out Paul Ryan, who seems to be champing at the bit to be the putative nominee, a dark horse who seems to be trying to become more visible by the day.Have you noticed that the Koch brothers have been sitting on the sidelines, along with some of the other billionaires although the Ricketts family seems to making its move now to fund a Super Pac to oppose Donald Trump or to support a third-party candidate. Is this a reality show or what?

Sure, Donald Trump has brushed Ryan’s viewpoints away, threatening him, just as he has anyone else who has gotten in his way who has said a cautionary word about him. People are not silent either about Christie’s stooge-like stance beside Trump for over a half hour as though he’s already the VP candidate to the Donald. Six New Jersey newspapers published a joint editorial complaining that Christie is spending taxpayer money running around the country campaigning, first for himself and now for Trump while ignoring his responsibilities to New Jersey. But what do they expect from a lame-duck governor whose hubris and ambition is so obvious that it is painful to watch? Even the New Hampshire Union Leader published an editorial saying “Boy, Were We Wrong!” to have endorsed Chris Christie prior to the NH primary a couple of weeks ago.

And so it goes. Ted Koppel appeared briefly on Bill Reilly’s show last night in which he succinctly placed the responsibility for the shift of news broadcasters from Walter Cronkite  (as “the most trusted man in America”) to Reilly’s influence in the past decade by making it all about HIS opinion, rather than providing objective news to the American public. This trend has now opened a Pandora’s Box where each and every broadcaster now feels it’s their right to voice their opinions and ask dumb questions while they are on the air. Never mind that the major networks spend all of their budgets showing EXACTLY the same news features with only a few customized People-Magazine human interest features every night!

Oh, how I wish Tim Russert were still alive. He would have made this political season truly interesting. As it is, we get to watch Megyn Kelly joust with Donald Trump tonight.

What must the rest of the World be thinking about what’s happened to us and what’s going on in this country?

Don’t answer that!