No, not his plan to Make America Great Again – there’s no real details on that. Deliberately – it is an excellent and effective advertising slogan into which everyone can pour whatever mental content they like. What I’m talking about is Trump’s plan to win.

When I wake up in the morning, the first thing I do is click on the TV – which is set to the local news because right around wake-up time is the time they do the weather forecast, thus allowing me to plan, weather-wise, my day. After watching that, I click over to the national news to make certain the world didn’t blow up in the night…usually, this is about 30 seconds because (a) if the world blew up it would be right there and (b) I can’t take more than 30 seconds of national news mindlessness at a time. But this morning the news was showing Trump at some sort of town hall event – I watched through two questions.

The first question was about the life issue – apparently originating from a couple Catholic guys, one of whom is a priest: once and for all, are you pro-life or pro-choice? Boom, goes Donald – “I’m pro-life”; then a bit of attacks on Cruz for questioning Trump’s pro-life credentials.

The second question was about Social Security – what will you do to save it? Trump’s answer – I’m going to make the economy so strong that we can fund it forever; I’ll never cut it or raise the retirement age; every other candidate will cut it; remember Paul Ryan? They had him pushing granny off a cliff in a wheelchair, they won’t be able to do that to me.

Trump didn’t provide any details, at all – but he said precisely what a winning electoral coalition wants to hear.

Make no mistake about it, the GOP has a disadvantage on Social Security – relentless Democrat lies have convinced a large number of people that in some way, the GOP wants to cut benefits to current Social Security recipients. Don’t doubt this – I personally know such people. That Social Security is a hideously bad program which doesn’t provide near what a privatized retirement plan could provide is neither here nor there: for tens of millions of people, it is all they have for retirement and even the slightest hint of risk to the program gives them a sinking feeling in their gut…and makes them, in the end, vote Democrat just to be sure. Donald Trump just laid down an immovable marker – he won’t cut it in any way, shape or form. Hillary tries to attack him with that, he’ll be able to smack down such talk and be convincing about it. Elderly voters already trend GOP…Romney won 56% of their votes in 2012…but Trump, by being absolutely firm on this, could increase the GOP share of the elderly a significant amount.

Trump is now officially pro-life, but he’s no Holy Joe and he’s never been involved in the fight over abortion, and thus hasn’t built up any “hate factor” on either side. The United States is becoming a more pro-life nation all the time, so being pro-life, aside from being crucial in the GOP primary, is in tune with the broad majority of the American people…who, though, still in their majority don’t want an actual end to abortion, at least in the early part of a pregnancy. Given the nature of Trump, a “War on Women” campaign against him would probably roll off…and do keep in mind that 21% of professed Pro-Life people voted for Obama in 2012, which is an absurdity…Trump could pull even more Pro-Life people into the GOP voting booth.

What this all boils down to me is that Trump, by keeping it vague but firmly on the side of the vast majority of the American people (gotta protect SS; you know, it is just better to be Pro-Life, etc), his plan is to win the GOP nomination and the Presidency by sheer out-appealing everyone else. Trump is not looking for wedge issues to divide the electorate and pick up just enough of it to secure victory (a long-standing Democrat tactic which the GOP has never been effective at) – Trump is looking to convince a gigantic majority that he’s for them.

Whether or not he can do it remains to be seen – just as it remains to be seen what, precisely, he’d do as President. But if he can do it, then he’s not only going to be the GOP nominee, but he’s going to utterly crush the Democrats in November.

I’m still hopeful that Cruz or Rubio can somehow stop him – but time is rapidly running out and I’ve yet to see them hit Trump where it would actually hurt…in the fact that he’s a rich man. Trump is rich, Hillary is rich – attack the rich. Go full-blast after corporations, rich people, the use of money by the Establishment to twist things. Still might not work, but hitting Trump on the fact that he used to be pro-choice or that he’s not a true conservative won’t get you anywhere…people don’t care about that. They are disgusted with business as usual and are searching – in both Democrat and GOP ranks – for whomever seems most likely to be a political hand grenade in DC. Just as in 2008 the whole exercise was to find the politician who was least like George Bush, so 2016 is all about finding the politician who is least like a politician. Hence, Trump.

I will never be a Trump supporter – because Trump, bottom line, is just another Progressive…a more patriotic variety of Progressive than we’ve seen for some decades. There used to be a lot of them, you know? Teddy Roosevelt was one, for instance. If he becomes President, I’ll support anything he does which actually works towards Conservatism, oppose anything he does which doesn’t. But if we in the GOP don’t want to have a Progressive, Patriotic Trump as President, then we’d better get our act together very fast…and that really means Cruz and Rubio getting their acts together.

Didn’t expect this – I was resigned to Trump doing well, perhaps winning, and Hillary pushing back the Sanders challenge. As of right now, Cruz has definitely won it on the GOP side while Rubio surged to a very close-behind-Trump third place. Over on the Democrat side, it is razor-close…last I checked, only 0.2% separated Hillary and Sanders.

GOP turnout beat the previous GOP Iowa caucus record by about 50% – and we probably do have to tip our hat a bit to Trump on that, but it is clear that the other candidates had a hand in it, as well. Haven’t been able to find raw numbers on Democrat voters – which makes me suspect the numbers were unspectacular. If that is the case, then what we’ve got is a worn-out Democrat base which is bucking against a coronation of Her Majesty.

Everyone is still playing the “only my guy can win” game – ie, my candidate is the only one who can beat Hillary. Well, first off, the GOP might not square off against Hillary, to begin with, but even if we do, I’m more and more feeling that Hillary can’t win. Sure, she’s not as monstrously unpopular (by approval rating) as Donald Trump, but she’s darned sure more unpopular than any of other GOPer in the race…and her popularity is highly unlikely to improve between now and November. True enough, she and her operatives are nasty people and will use every dirty trick in the book against whomever the GOP nominates, but I don’t think that will work…not least because the American people may be growing tired of Democrat nastiness in the service of raw power.

At any rate, I’m highly encouraged by tonight. We’ll see how it goes to November…

I noted yesterday that Trump appears to have trademarked “Make America Great Again” as early as 2012 – right after Romney lost. This indicates to me that Trump’s decision to run for President wasn’t some seat-of-the-pants decision and would also indicate that what he’s saying on the stump is not just whatever pops into his head at the moment but is, instead, a careful script designed to get Trump to where he wishes to be. As an aside, that slogan isn’t brand new – it was used before. By Reagan, in 1980. Reagan, for those old enough to remember, won by bringing over to the GOP large numbers of people who had been voting Democrat.

Almost all polling so far shows that Hillary would beat Trump. Some Trumpsters try to argue against the polls, but no serious person is going to dispute a trend which has something like 10 out of 11 national polls showing Hillary ahead. Bottom line, this is pretty much a fact – if the election were held today, Hillary would beat Trump (do keep in mind that the GOP establishment keeps hyping this fact because they want to scare GOP voters away from Trump…as if “electability” is something which can be known prior to election day). But the election isn’t going to be held today; it will be held at bit less than 11 months from now. Trump when he entered the GOP primary was a bizarre candidate no one in the GOP took seriously – and then over the past 5 months, Trump hammered on his themes and now is securely in first place for the GOP nomination. It takes no great stretch of the imagination to understand that if Trump is following a plan (and he probably is), then he’s also got a plan for what to do against Hillary – and I think that the past couple days as Trump has started to open fire on Hillary are the start of his beat-Hillary plan. Trump managed to clear the field of two stellar GOP governors (Jindal and Walker), and has forced the Establishment candidates (Buch, Kasich and Christie) into also-ran status. That is not a bad bit of politicking, if you ask me. In fact, what he’s done is about the most astonishing political effort I’ve seen in all my life…and that includes Reagan’s masterful plan for 1980. Polls show Hillary ahead – but the man who has done what Trump has done in the GOP primary is probably going to do pretty well against Hillary.

Trump still has to win the primary, of course. Not a single vote has been cast and Cruz is leading in Iowa. A win there for Cruz could propel him to a decent showing in New Hampshire which would, in turn, allow him to do well in South Carolina. Cruz wins Iowa and South Carolin and that would put a massive hole in Trump’s prospects. Other things could also come up. But Trump isn’t going to lose because he says something – he’s winning because of what he says. Our leaders don’t feel we’re in a crisis because wealth and power have sealed them off from the reality of the United States and the world – but millions of Americans are feeling the heat; they don’t like it; they want it fixed…and only Trump is speaking to them as if there is a crisis. If Cruz or Rubio want to be the nominee, then over the next two to three weeks, they are going to have to let the voters know that they are on their side. Trump is perceived as on their side because he attacks, relentlessly, all those persons and institutions the American people believe are ranged against them: the political class; the corporate class; the media class. No one will beat Trump except by convincing people that they, too, are fighting the enemy – and fighting them tooth and nail, with no apologies.

But if no one steps up to beat Trump at his own game, then Trump will almost certainly be the nominee. If Trump does win the nomination, what does he do against Hillary? Anything he wants. Trump, one way or another, figured out that what the people want is a leader who will go for the jugular. Don’t hold back. If the other guy lies, call him/her a liar. If the other guy says or does something stupid, call it stupid. If the other guy is awash in corruption, point that out. If the other guy is weak and wishy-washy, say just that. Don’t try to snow the people – don’t try to rise above and be polite. Don’t, that is, sit there worrying about what the establishment is going to think – care about what the people care about.

Hillary is a bundle of corruption and dishonesty – there’s nothing in her background which cannot be successfully attacked. Think about this: probably 75% of the American people are unfamiliar with the events surrounding the Clinton’s “charity” organization. We know that someone like, say, Jeb would never attack that aspect of Hillary. Trump, I believe, will. Why not? What’s to stop him? The only reason Jeb wouldn’t is because he’d feel it rude to do so…but Trump, I’ll bet, doesn’t believe it rude. And, truth be told, it wouldn’t be rude – it would be completely acceptable and, indeed, a service to the nation to bring before the American people just what the Clintons have been up to. Let Hillary try to explain it all away – the millions of dollars in donations from unsavory, foreign donors. And that is just one relatively small aspect of the whole Clinton mess. A candidate willing to relentlessly hammer on Clinton’s weaknesses will force the nation to pay attention to those weaknesses and take them into consideration when it is time to decide whom to vote for. Trump is a rich man and the son of a rich man – but Clinton has gotten rich, quite recently, by parlaying access to herself into a plush lifestyle. No matter what slick deals might be discovered in Trump’s background, none of them will quite have the stench of Clinton garnering donations to her “foundation” from Arab oil princes and Russian mobsters-turned-businessmen.

Of course, even with those sort of attacks, it could be that Clinton emerges victorious. She will have the MSM as much in the tank for her as they are for Obama. But, I wonder: will that work? An interesting article over at the Washington Post indicates that when people are allowed to back Trump without everyone knowing about it, plenty of people do just that. Trump is speaking out loud what is on a lot of minds…and minds which are afraid to speak for fear of losing jobs or social standing. What I find most remarkable about the Trumpsters I come across is just how many of them simply shouldn’t be. The most recent Trump convert I’ve come across is an older guy I know – not at all a political person, generally patriotic, Army veteran…voted once for Obama. Moderate in his views. But here he is – think I’ll vote Trump. This goes along with the youngsters, African-Americans and single moms who are also trending towards Trump. Why? Because things are loused up – and I mean really badly. People know things are loused up. Who is acknowledging this? Only Trump.

Of course, I could be wrong. Trump could just be an accident. Decided to run, made his outrageous statement and here we are…and if he does win the nomination, he goes down to flaming defeat next November. I acknowledge this could be the case. I also acknowledge that I haven’t the foggiest notion of what he’d really do, supposing he won. Trump will not get my vote in the primary. I just don’t know enough of his actual plans to cast my vote that way – but I do know that in the general he is almost certain to face a Hillary Clinton who definitely would be an utter disaster as President. In that case, I’ve got no choice – I’d have to vote Trump. But I’m starting to suspect that we’re seeing unfold before us a very carefully crafted plan by a man who, turns out, is a masterful politician – and unless someone comes up with a counter-plan, then Trump will be around for a long while to come…