The Terrible Choice Ahead

Quinnipiac came out with what Matt Drudge in his own inimitable manner called a "SHOCK POLL" in screaming headlines this morning.  The poll was a "shock" because it shows the presidential race a dead heat, with Hillary Clinton leading Donald Trump by just 42% to 40%.

Presumably the other 18% were gagging too hard to answer the question properly, because the poll's other results show that the majority of the voting public absolutely hates, detests and is horrified at the choice before them in this election.  To which I can only respond, well, guess what?  The public is who made this choice in the first place.

Let us never forget that, regardless of how "rigged" the nominating processes of each party are, ultimately it was the voters in the various state primaries and caucuses who ended up choosing these two specific presumptive nominees.  Yes, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and the evil minions at the Democratic National Committee did everything they could to tilt their contest in the favor of Mrs. Clinton, and yes, her opponents ranged from the stark, raving crazy Bernie Sanders to a circus clownish ex-governor from Rhode Island, with only the terminally tedious Martin O'Malley in between, but still, there was a choice, and the Democrat voters chose The Most Corrupt Woman In America to be their party's standard bearer in the November election.

Assuming, of course, she isn't indicted prior to the convention.  But Democrat voters were well aware of that possibility, and chose her anyway.

The decision by GOP voters to leave their party's presidential hopes in the hands of a man who often wanders off into side-shows that do untold damage to his electability was also a conscious, very intentional choice that reflects the abject failure of the party's leadership in Washington to do anything effective to slow the Obama agenda in the last 8 years.  It was very clear that Trump was an undisciplined political wild card as far back as the first primary debate that was held in August of last year.  But GOP primary voters didn't care - they wanted something different, and boy has Trump delivered that.

So now that the decisions the voters have made are before them, and it is clear that there is most likely no turning back from this precipice, you have a big case of buyer's remorse settling in.  Many Democrat voters are no doubt standing back and thinking 'geez, if we'd have just nominated someone who isn't a career criminal, beating Trump would have been a cakewalk', just as many GOP voters are no doubt thinking 'geez, can  we give Marco Rubio a do over?'.  Well, no, you can't.

Here's the truth:  All the Republicans needed to do to easily defeat The Most Corrupt Woman In America was nominate someone who could run a disciplined, professional campaign.  All the Democrats needed to do to easily defeat Trump was to NOT nominate The Most Corrupt Woman In America.

Here's where we stand:  Trump still has an opportunity to discipline himself and let Paul Manafort run a professional campaign for him.  If that happens, he'll win.  If it doesn't, he won't.

The Democrats, meanwhile, are stuck with Hillary, barring a sudden, extremely unlikely burst of professional integrity at the Justice Department.  She is who she is, and there's no going back from that.

The fact that she is stuck in such a close race with Trump, after the horrid month Trump has had in June, is an overwhelmingly bad sign for the Democrats.

Regardless of how this election comes out, never forget that the voting public has only itself to blame, because they had the opportunity to vote for someone else.