OPINION:
At least presumptively it’s correct to say Donald Trump is the Republican presidential nominee, but we must remember that this is still an unpredictable year with an unconventional presumptive nominee (“The GOP has its nominee,” Web, May 8). In his op-ed Stephen Moore raises some good points and some not so good ones, but we are still seeing the Republican leadership’s current dilemma unfold: a party split in three, with one wing (the establishment) realizing it no longer has any power whatsoever over voters. It is the establishment, not Mr. Trump, that can still mess things up in this election.
Mr. Moore is right in that hijacking a process with a wild closed-door deal at the last minute is ordinarily a bad idea, and not a formula for winning. But it’s mostly about the electoral college. There has to be a compromise that requires committed or bound delegates but still allows independent judgment. If a candidate with a large following (and delegates who are “committed to them on the second ballot”) stays in this late, he or she should remain ’in’ at least through the end of the primaries and state conventions. The remaining states now feel they are unimportant; turnout will be much lower with only one viable choice.
Of course, you can say this now focuses more attention on the Democratic race still going on, but as some pundits have said, that actually was actually good for the Democrats eight years ago.
Yes, the process needs to be fixed, but it may best be done via with a compressed schedule at the end (i.e., another Super Tuesday in May), rather than a more direct popular allocation.
JAMES SCARBOROUGH
McLean
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