Yeah, This Really is How Low We've Sunk To

It has been an eventful 24 hours, or so in what now passes for American presidential politics.

Hillary Clinton won four of five state primaries last night, while the lunatic, formerly known as, Donald Trump swept all five republican contests.

The immediate reaction from the great pinball machine known as the media has been that the Cruz campaign is now, for all practical purposes, doomed. This after several weeks of portraying the senator from Alberta as some sort of political version of the wily, Norman Schwarzkopf running amok in the Kuwaiti desert.

Of course the prospect of a contested convention has been a wet dream of the modern press for decades. Let's face it, generations of Americans have never seen one which didn't have a foregone conclusion. These raucous political coronations have, honestly, become about as interesting to the average human being in this country, as binge watching C-Span.

The very notion that huge numbers of people might actually switch from re-runs of "NCIS" in order to see a new, palpable, version of reality TV has,  without question, caused massive erections, not just among members of news departments, but network advertising sales reps as well.

Hey, if you're a television executive you are praying downtown Cleveland will resemble the streets of Chicago during those days of rage in the summer of 1968. Fuck public safety, it is all about ratings, baby and we won't score them if, The Don gets to 1,237 delegates before the first gavel sounds.

Fresh off his victories last night, Trump delivered what was billed as a, "major foreign policy address," today in Washington. Wishing to look more presidential--not to mention keeping himself from sinking into crude insults and repetitive banality like he usually does--he used a teleprompter to deliver the speech. It is something he has continuously derided others for doing.

Too bad he didn't say anything he hasn't already said without it. It was more of the same from the candidate. You know, as president I'll, put American security above, "all else," and allies must, "pay their fair share," when it comes to a common defense, such as NATO.

It went downhill from there. "To our friends and allies," he said, "I say America is going to be strong again. America is going to be reliable again. It's going to be a great and reliable ally again."

Yes, but only so long as you pay us protection money--and--just in case you were wondering, from now on it's cash up front, you socialist weenies, no checks, or credit cards will be accepted.

This afternoon, Ted Cruz, in a desperate attempt to distract the press from its never ending, slavish, coverage of Trump, announced Carly Fiorina would be his pick as a running mate.

That certainly makes sense when you're on the verge of losing to a crazed faux populist who is preaching to millions of mostly WASPish blue collar types that nefarious inside forces are driving every decent job in the country overseas. According to one Cruz aide, "Carly is bright, knowledgeable, brings great financial experience, and she's a woman."

She also got canned from Hewlett-Packard after a merger which threw 30,000 Americans out of work. Her severance package included $21 million in cash and $19 million in stock options.

Ah yes, quite a woman of the people.

This insanity might be over next Tuesday in Indiana. If the strange and madcap alliance Cruz and John Kasich have forged fails there it won't matter who Cruz chooses as his potential vice president.

Finally--yesterday, Brother Trump told a cheering crowd that if Hillary Clinton wasn't a woman she'd only get 5% of the vote. This is rather like saying if Larry Bird hadn't been white he would have never become an NBA all star.

But then Trump doesn't seem to be much of a basketball fan. His entertainment of preference is pro wrestling. Unfortunately he doesn't appear to understand the difference between the WWE's scripted violence and ever shifting alliances and a real, not to mention, complex world.

Yeah, this really is how low we've sunk to.



4-27-16