The Winners

The old rules of what it takes to be an effective presidential candidate are over.

U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont trounced Hillary Clinton in the New Hampshire Democratic primary by twenty-one points - with, as of this writing, 33 percent of precincts reporting.  On the Republican side, Donald Trump won going away, with 34 percent of the vote (and, as of this writing, 34 percent of precincts reporting).

Sanders won because people got sick and tired of being told by Hillary and her establishment cronies that positive change in America had to come incrementally, although people have been waiting interminably for even baby steps.  Trump won because his supporters saw America failing in so many many ways and were looking for a rabid nationalist to fix things, even if it meant smashing a few things in order to save them.  People are just fed up.

Here's an even bigger story; Governor John Kasich of Ohio, perhaps the least scary Republican still in the presidential campaign, came in second, suggesting that he could be the establishmentarian who could take on Trump and save the GOP from self-destruction.

Kasich is no moderate, though.  He's against public transit, he has a reputation as a union-buster, and he has a very arrogant attitude toward police officers and black people.  But everyone who has met him or covered his town-hall meetings in New Hampshire think he's a nice guy.  At least he's not an angry guy, like another governor I could mention.  Forget it, Chris Christie - it's over.

Yes, I'm still angry that Martin O'Malley didn't make it to New Hampshire, though, as of this posting, he did win 218 votes.  But he was never going to win the nomination.  Let Batman explain it:

And while I'll happily support Sanders - yes, I know I don't sound very enthusiastic about it, I'll explain that in another post - if Hillary's the nominee, I may just support Martin . . . Van Buren. Because even a deceased Democratic President from the 1830s is preferable to Hillary. 

I'm fed up too.