And for me one of the many, many morals of the story so far is that the two major parties really need to get a better handle on whom they nominate for president. This task may be too serious to leave to the whims of primary voters.
While I'm all for caucuses, primaries and democracy (especially in the general election), I think both parties need to have more, not fewer, super delegates. That way they can assure us -- and the rest of the world -- that the nominee of their party is at least minimally qualified, and temperamentally suited, for the most consequential job on the planet. (Gee, that sounds important, doesn't it?) No matter what you might have thought of any of the other Republican and/or Democratic candidates for president in 2016, they at least all met that standard -- you could credibly see any one of them in the Oval Office.
(Think about it for a second: would you let a jackass like Trump even run your homeowners' association?)
Now if some eccentric businessman (like Ross Perot) or celebrity (like the Rock or Kanye West) wants to run for president in the years ahead he or she can run as a third-party candidate and garner some protest votes. (And if they're really that good they can win; I'm not saying we should abandon democracy entirely.) But if that individual wants the nomination of one of the two major parties he or she would have to earn the approval of the party elders. They may take a close look at him and all agree, "Yeah, this guy is real. He can be our standard-bearer." Or they might say to a Ronald Reagan or an Al Franken, "Why don't you run for governor or senator and see how that works out first?"
We simply cannot be subjected to something like Donald Trump again.
* Do I think Trump will serve out his term? Who the hell knows?
Here's 1 vote for President Franken.
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