Trump: On the way to a ‘10’

With some advice, the Donald can be a knockout candidate

Illustration by Greg Groesch/The Washington Times 

By Mary Claire Kendall - - Tuesday, May 10, 2016

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

In the wake of Donald Trump’s huge win in Indiana, the shotgun wedding is complete. Republicans are hitched to “the Donald.” The honeymoon has now begun.

Well, not exactly.

The more apt analogy would be the runaway bride representing much of the Republican establishment — including, notably, former Presidents George H.W. and George W. Bush, Sen. John McCain and former Gov. Mitt Romney, the latter two the party’s 2008 and 2012 presidential nominees, respectively; and, now House Speaker Paul Ryan.

Admittedly, Mr. Trump is not exactly a “10.”

But neither are his rivals in the GOP.

It’s time to recognize the moment for what it is — a great opportunity for all of us in the Republican Party to come together and see what we can do differently to be at our best.

This Thursday, our prospective presidential nominee will have a sit-down meeting in Washington. Here is some of what the establishment should tell him.

The way you warmly embrace your audiences as you did in West Virginia in your first campaign stop after Indiana, where the scene was set by John Denver’s “Country Roads,” is awe-inspiring. And your earnest pledge to “make America great again” puts a bounce in our steps.

But we need to talk about how all of that good is sometimes undermined by your habit of talking in less-than-flattering terms about certain groups of people and individuals. Sure, it’s all part of your schtick as a larger-than-life New York business mogul and reality TV star. And a certain amount of candor is refreshing.

However, it’s a new day. You’re on the path to the presidency, and certain things must change.

For starters, you need to speak more inclusively about women. They’re about 54 percent of the electorate. We have no doubt you “love women.” But your words and deeds must align so that they feel the love.

Hispanics and Muslims, too. Building a wall the entire length of the southern border to keep out the former and indiscriminately banning entry to our great country vis-a-vis the latter, are nonstarters.

And you should think about reaching out and building a bridge to Pope Francis — the word “pontiff” means “bridge builder.” Calling His Holiness a “disgrace” in the lead-up to the South Carolina primary and Super Tuesday based on incorrect reporting, while perhaps good politics, is no way to heal religious and sectarian divides.

Regarding Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and their relationship to tackling the deficit and corollary gaping debt, we agree. Our Dudley Do-Right approach might need some retooling. Nonetheless, please acknowledge the reality that, in preserving those programs, we also need to ensure our nation’s fiscal health is restored.

And do not threaten NATO. We need NATO now more than ever.

Also, regarding tax policy, your constantly shifting positions are unhelpful. If you want to be Reaganesque, stake out a position and stick with it.

We know you can be a “10” and we’ll do our part, as well. Together, under your leadership, Americans will build a brighter, more secure future.

Mary Claire Kendall, a Washington-based writer, is author of Oasis: Conversion Stories of Hollywood. She served in the George H.W. Bush administration.

 ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE WASHINGTON TIMES.

It’s Not Whether You Win or Lose…

By Mary Claire Kendall 

This piece was originally published in The Daily Caller on May 2, 2016 at 4:19 PM EST. Since then, Senator Ted Cruz has lost in Indiana and suspended his campaign. 

Donald Trump’s trouncing in the Acela primary — including in the bluer than blue liberal bastions of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Delaware, with 58.1, 56.5, 59, 64.7 and 62.6 percent of the vote, respectively — does not a nomination make.

It’s going to be a liberal-conservative smack-down in the state of Indiana this coming Tuesday as Republican voters try and make heads or tails of this dizzying race.

As if to underscore the point, in the wake of his Acela losses, Ted Cruz, winner of 9 states to Trump’s 27, picked conservative businesswoman Carly Fiorina as his Vice Presidential running mate.

A Cruz-Fiorina Indiana win would give the delegates the power to decide, at the convention, which candidate would be strongest against, presumably, Hillary Clinton in the fall. (The answer is not obvious. Trump, while engaging and guided by common sense, would, polls suggest, get clobbered by Hillary. Cruz, while young, brash and loathed by the establishment, is as brilliant as Abe Lincoln, and as skilled a debater.)

It’s as the founders intended it.

Wisely, our forebears built protections into the system to guard against someone ascending to power who does not quite have the qualities needed to steer the ship of state deftly.

Initially, the protections were seal-tight. Presidential candidates of national parties were chosen by Members of Congress. Period.

Then, in 1831, the era of conventions began when the small Anti-Masonic Party held the first such gathering.

The following year, the two national parties, Whigs and Democrats, adopted this new model and selected, respectively, Henry Clay of Kentucky and Andrew Jackson of Tennessee as their nominees. When all was said and done, Jackson ascended to the presidency bringing with him his mud-caked, unruly, and enthusiastic supporters. It was a great moment for American democracy. But, in fact, his band of followers were not the ones who had actually elected him. Rather, it was the electors, as established in Article II, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution. And, I quote:

“Each state shall appoint, in such manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States, shall be appointed an elector.”

Electors sometimes upend the popular vote. Recall that in the year 2000 George W. Bush lost the popular vote but won the Electoral College and became President of the United States — just as John Quincy Adams, Rutherford B. Hayes, and Benjamin Harrison did in 1824, 1876 and 1888, respectively, dashing the hopes of Jackson, Samuel Tilden and Grover Cleveland, respectively.

For 140 years, nominating conventions elected their party’s respective presidential candidates. There were some quite dramatic moments — perhaps none as dramatic as the 1924 Democratic convention when it took 17 days and 103 ballots for the delegates to finally settle on John W. Davis as their nominee.

In 1972, everything changed.

The contentious 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago, four years earlier, had ushered in democratic reforms and the era of primaries — with hopes of giving voters more say in the choice of president.

Even so, voters were still choosing delegates, who would, in turn, choose their respective party’s presidential candidate at the nominating conventions.

It is those delegates who still have the ultimate say over who will be the party’s nominee. And, the state parties set the rules over their own delegate selection process. The national party weighs in, too. For instance, after the 1972 Democratic primary process produced the disastrous choice of George McGovern, the Democratic Party gradually instituted “Super Delegates” to ensure more electable candidates going forward. McGovern had lost 48 of 50 states, including his own state of South Dakota, while losing the popular vote in the second biggest landslide in American history.

Which brings us to the present primary season and the contest over who will be the next President of the United States.

Problem is, only one can be president. And, as Lee Atwater used to say, those who can be president occupy a little boat and there are only so many in that boat.

Which brings us to Grantland Rice’s famous line.

“It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game.”

Now we are playing the biggest game in American politics. As in sports, this game has rules, which those who are truly presidential will follow with grace and class. (Robocalls to delegates threatening their well-being if they do not vote a certain way conjures up the exact opposite image.)

The stakes, in terms of realizing America’s vast potential, while mending the hole in her soul and infrastructure, to say nothing of her fiscal picture, and national security, could not be higher.

Mary Claire Kendall, a Washington-based writer, is author of Oasis: Conversion Stories of Hollywood Legends.