[Hoot Gibson]

So if I understand things from your perspective, everything you come up with is fact, and everything I come up with are emotional outbursts or personal insults. That about right? While you would never insult anyone I take it?

The 'rules' of this year's GOP Primary schedule, (under which the nominee is to be selected BTW) clearly set forth certain givens, one of which being the 'fact' that the vast majority of available delegates, are to be assigned to the prospective nominees by virtue of a quaint but time honored practice known as voting. Party officials and self absorbed conservative media personalities associated with the traitorous #NeverTrump movement, have indicated they would by hook or crook, deny Trump the nomination if it's the last thing they do. Now, I know a towering intellect such as yours has little patience with the dullards that frequent this forum, none the less, that represents a clear intent to disenfranchise certain voters in my book.

Mr Trump's approach is not without merit according to those I have heard commenting only this morning. In any case, I would refer you to the last paragraph in post # 40 , I have not defended Trump's lack of political prowess.

More insults, more emotion, and more opinions with nothing to back them up. If you want to take an inventory of who has consistently linked references to support his opinions, you might be surprised at how little evidence you have cited to back your opinions in the Trump threads.

Every state has its own rules on delegate selection. In rare cases, winning candidates get to choose a few of their their own delegates, but that is the exception. In most cases, delegates are selected at state conventions or other meetings of party activists. That is where the Cruz campaign has run circles around Trump. If Trump loses the nomination, it will be because he failed to recognize the importance of a strong national ground organization. Had Cruz skipped state conventions and failed to organize at the state level in advance of conventions, he would be out of the running.

If neither Trump nor Cruz had worked to get their delegates seated, it would have been easy for the establishment to have filled those slots, changed the rules, and allowed Ryan to be nominated. As it is, Cruz will probably control the rules committee and will be able to block rules changed.

If Trump is unsure about being able to win 1,237 delegates before the California primary, then, if I am not mistaken, Kasich could withdraw from the race and his delegates would be committed to Trump on the first ballot because of Ohio's primary rules.

There is no conspiracy to steal anything from Trump. The rules are the same for everybody, Trump just did not bother to learn them. He relied heavily on his name recognition and free media coverage. If he wins on the first ballot, then he well look like a genius but if he loses on the second ballot, then it will be nobody's fault but his own for not preparing for the contingency of a contested convention.