Deja Vu

See if this story sounds familiar: A man from outside the Republican establishment takes over the party. Many, including a former president, do not support him. His followers are very loyal. When his chief rival speaks at the Republican National Convention, he is booed off the stage. Rather than trying to expand his base, he focuses just on his core constituency.
Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Certainly all the facts fit Donald Trump and 2016. Actually, I was writing about Barry Goldwater and 1964. The difference is that we know how that story turned out. Goldwater lost to Johnson in an absolute landslide getting only 39% of the vote and 52 electoral votes.
I’m certainly not predicting that kind of result. The election was less than a year after the Kennedy assassination and Johnson was far more popular than Hillary Clinton is now. Right now the Trump campaign is far from ready. They still have a tiny organization controlled by Trump and his children. They are badly outspent and outorganized by the Clinton campaign.
Trump certainly deserves a lot of credit for what he has accomplished so far. Like most people, I never dreamed he could pull it off. He has dominated the media and brought millions to his side. However, he needs to find a way to attract millions more. The shoestring, seat of the pants approach won’t put him in the White House.
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