Again, Nate Silver's crew turns to the question of whether Donald Trump will arrive at the Republican Convention with the 1,237 delegates he needs to lock up the nomination. They don't know but they seem pretty sure that we won't know for sure until the results of the June 7 primaries are in.
I hate to break this to you all but that's 77 days from today. This phase of the election may not be over 'til then.
So here's what I'm wondering: If Trump arrives with 1,230 or even 1,236 and then somehow doesn't get the nomination, what happens then? He's certain to have more delegates than anyone else. Forget for a moment that it's Trump. Say it's some other candidate who gets almost enough delegates to win but is denied the nod in favor of someone he trounced in the primaries. Or even someone who didn't win any delegates in the primary. How does that not look like Grand Larceny? How does that line up with the will of the voters? Even folks who are praying for Trump not to be the nominee will say he wuz robbed. How do you bind a party together and rally behind its nominee then?
Because I do not want to see Republicans do well this year — and not just in the presidential race — I would love for that to happen. But I'd also like to see it just because…well, in a reality show, you want these kinds of twists and turns that make people really, really mad and which destroy past alliances. It may or may not be good for the country but it sure makes for fun television.