Trump, Mr. ‘Win, Win, Win!’, Doesn’t Know How to Play – Even When the Game Goes His Way, by Andrew McCarthy. The non-vote in Colorado, where Cruz picked up all the Republican delegates at meetings of national delegates by party insiders and activists, has revealed two important shortcomings of Trump as possible President:
First … The process of choosing a Republican nominee for president, while far from simple, is not as complicated as many of the challenges that cross an American president’s desk. … Yet, Trump has been out-organized, out-smarted, and out-worked by the competition – in particular, Ted Cruz … Trump is not being cheated. Everyone is playing by the same rules, which were available to every campaign well in advance. Trump simply is not as good at converting knowledge into success – notwithstanding the centrality of this talent to his candidacy.
Trump is constitutionally incapable of admitting errors – a flaw exacerbated by a campaign premised on a personality rather than a program. So his now familiar, repulsive reaction is to smear his opposition as cheaters, liars and even law-breakers … He grossly miscalculated the task at hand, he is scrambling to find suitable staff way too late in the game, and in a vain effort to divert attention from his own failings he is slandering others.
Apparently the Trump campaign in Colorado completely mismanaged their slate, making mistake and after mistake, even “mistakenly directing votes toward other candidates’ delegates.” Last week they fired their organizer and hired a new one, who promptly made an official flier which sent votes to the wrong delegates.
Second … despite having won only a little over a third of all votes cast in primaries to date (37 percent), Trump has been awarded nearly half of the delegates (45 percent). … Senator Cruz … has been awarded 32 percent of delegates upon winning 28 percent of the popular vote. … The fact that this process is “undemocratic,” as Trump now complains, was immaterial to Trump as long as he appeared to be the beneficiary.
UPDATE: If Trump can’t anticipate his opponents’ moves in a straightforward game like this, where the rules are written down and publicly available, how’s he going to do with foreign policy?
