And Now, a Word from South of the Border

For all the outlandish (the police word...) things that Donald Trump (R-Trump Towers) has been saying about Mexico, what's interesting with the news coverage is that I haven't heard any reporters ask anyone of authority in, oh, say...Mexico what they think.

Until now.

It's not someone currently in power, though clearly an authority figure -- former president of Mexico Felipe  Calderón.

Mr. Calderón was at the AmChan Egypt for Business Conference, and he had a conversation on Sunday with Hadley Gamble of CNBC.

"We are not going to pay any single cent for such a stupid wall! And it's going to be completely useless," he said pointedly.  And added that it was "incredible" that such an "admirable society" like the United States had candidates like Trump.

"No offense, no offense to America. So Donald Trump … is ambitious but not exactly very well-informed man, I don't want to say ignorant, but he is not very well informed," Calderón said..

​The former President of Mexico, who one has to figure has a general idea of such things, also added that "the first loser of such a policy would be the United States - If this guy pretends that closing the borders to anywhere either for trade [or] for people is going to provide prosperity to the United States, he is completely crazy."

Interestingly, this description is pretty much how I feel about people who, for reasons explicable only to themselves, say they would like to see Donald Trump as the head of their Republican Party, President of the United States, Commander-in-Chief of American Armed Forces leader of free world, and most powerful man in the world.

I always love hearing Republican analysts on news shows today try to explain the support that Mr. Trump has in their party, now that they know he has a reasonable chance to be the GOP nominee.  They come up with all sort of metaphoric explanations that have to do with tapping into a general unhappiness with the state of the party -- but that's, of course, malarkey because there's nothing metaphoric about what they're being asked.  They're not being asked, "Do you have a general unhappiness with the Republican Party?" (And after all, given what we've seen, who wouldn't have a specific unhappiness with the Republican Party?)  They're being asked very directly -- who do you want to be President of the United States?

While it is still very possible that Mr. Trump can get the nomination, I nonetheless adhere to my long-standing comment that once people go into a voting booth they will have a harder time casting their ballot for Donald Trump than telling a pollster.

That theory somewhat held in Iowa, but still, Donald Trump is leading among Republican voters in New Hampshire.

But, sure, yes, as GOP analysts stare into the abyss and see the possibility of Donald Trump leading their party to become leader of the free world, you can always explain that Republicans who support him is metaphoric.  Or -- hey, you can just go with the more basic explanation from the former President of Mexico who has a grasp on things about his country.  Completely crazy.