When he launched his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, hardly anyone thought Donald Trump stood a chance. Even The Donald must have had secret doubts. Now with his victory in Indiana and the withdrawal of Ted Cruz, his only credible rival, he is on course for the July Republican convention in Cleveland with the assurance that he will have amassed the 1,237 votes, and probably more, necessary to clinch the nomination. Party leaders who loathe Trump and the idea of his candidacy had been considering procedural maneuvers to frustrate his confirmation. An establishment candidate from right field would then have been put forward. But Trump's support has now reached such a level that any ploy of this nature could cause the party's meltdown. The bombastic, ludicrous, Islamophobic bigot seems sure of the nomination. It also remains more than likely that Hillary Clinton will take the Democrat candidacy for the White House. But her race is not yet over. In Indiana on Tuesday she suffered another defeat at the hands of her rival Bernie Sanders. Widely seen as tainted political goods, Clinton's problem now is that she will face the full blast of Trump's invective while she is forced to continue fending off the telling assaults of the Sanders' campaign. The opinion polls say that Clinton is likely to beat Trump in the presidential race. The key reason, say the pollsters, is Trump's anti-feminist invective. He has lost the female vote. But then the pollsters originally said that Trump's entry into the race hardly registered with the Republican electorate. Moreover, many female voters judge Clinton harshly and disapprove of her slippery Establishment politics in which she presents herself as all things to all people, her policies changing depending on which constituency she is addressing. There is also strong anecdotal evidence that female voters more than men are particularly disgusted with the bipartisan politics that have paralyzed Congress, seeing the Establishment as keen to wheel and deal to protect and promote its own interests rather than those of ordinary Americans. Clinton is a product of that deeply-discredited political machine. It is the Democrat denizens who are once again working to put Hillary into the White House. They were frustrated eight years ago by the upstart Obama. They have locked out Sanders and in doing so have surely alienated a significant part of the party's Main Street supporters. Those who saw Sanders as a chance to change the smug fat face of Democrat politics are not going to vote for a woman who represents that face in every respect. While many women will not vote for Trump on principle, they seem likely to stay home and avoid supporting Clinton. If the female vote abstains in sufficient numbers, then Trump could win the White House by default. These are worrying times for those who are already dismayed at Obama's wayward Middle East policy. Clinton in the White House would be an enthusiastic supporter of Israel. Trump has vowed to take on Iran. But then he has also vowed to stop Muslims traveling to the United States. By his words, Trump has demonstrated that he is not a man to be trusted. Unfortunately, by her actions as Secretary of State, Clinton actually proved in Libya and the Middle East with her slavish pro-Israeli politics, that she is absolutely unworthy of the trust of the Arab world.
