[TheRealThing]

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.

LOL, as to the bolded, we're getting closer. :biggrin: There is a coaching euphemism of which I have grown quite fond that applies to 'the one that got away,' and goes something like this; "That coach needs to learn when he has won the game." The gist of which is to suggest that a game that was for all intent and purposes won, was lost anyway due to tactical error by the coaching staff.

In the case of this particular debate, I refuse to bail you out by rehashing and reanalyzing what I consider to be tabloid level speculations. So, inventory away if you feel that you have not been less than gracious with those you have debated regarding any disagreement they may have had with your duly sourced Trump criticisms. In more succinct terms, I do not normally cite sources to refute innuendo and gossip, supporting websites and bloviators notwithstanding. I said the vast majority of delegates are awarded through the voting process and I am right. Therefore, thick though I may be, I am prepared to accept my own understanding of your very direct style of aggressive opinion sharing. If I have to agree with your contempt of Trump to avoid your bad list, I can accept that. After all, there is the teeniest of probability that you are wrong about the intentions of The Donald no matter how unlikely that may seem to you.

But, I agree too, that the #NeverTrumpsters are anything but a conspiracy. They are unashamedly oppositionist to the point of voting for Hillary or going 3rd party; which is like the story of the police officer, who being in a shootout and realizing he was down to his last bullet, decided to shoot himself. Senseless. No, those who purport prophetic clarity of a Trump Presidency are the ones I believe deserve the conspiracy theorist label, and the list of offenders is long. Heck, even Glen Beck had to deal with his conscience concerning his withering character assault on Trump.