Trump Delivers a Knockout, and Sanders A Bodyblow (#115)

On Tuesday, May 3, Donald Trump knocked out Ted Cruz in the Republican nomination race.

It was a long and bruising, increasingly no holds barred battle, in which Cruz always seemed to come out much worse for the wear, and Trump seemed hardly to disturb a strand of his carefully coiffed hair.

At the end it was terribly one-sided, as Trump proved a natural at this type of a political drag-down-in-the-gutter street fight, and visibly and repeatedly gored Cruz.

If Ted Cruz had developed any illusions whatsoever about being tough, clever and extreme, from his previous battles in the political arena, which now would seem an almost genteel environment by comparison, those illusions were decidedly shattered as Trump increasingly got dirtier, ripping and scratching and pummeling him mercilessly about every aspect of his life, career and relationships, using every cheap trick and school yard bully dirty tactic known, until Ted couldn't take it anymore, and almost literally as in a school yard fight, in the last days, came at Trump screaming and losing control, and showed the World his pain, frustration and sense of hopelessness, and lost the fight right there, big.

After such a public display of frustration and impotence, Cruz had no choice but to quit. And as he said at his conceding speech, he had 'left it all on the floor'; and Trump wiped the floor with him.

On the other hand, and on the other side of the political spectrum, in an equally hard fought but comparatively downright civil campaign, Bernie Sanders, once again, defied all the odds, proved the pundits wrong, again, and beat Hillary Clinton in Indiana handily enough to safeguard his claim that he has not lost the race yet.

Bernie's race is more of a series of dares that he keeps taking on and meeting credibly enough to confound Hillary and the political pundits.

He had started so far back that no one, but himself, gave him any chance whatsoever.

From that lowly start Bernie has shocked the nation, and those following this race from the outside, by generating a powerful ground swell of support from the working class, the struggling and poor, and most improbably from the hereto politically tuned out and disenchanted youth of America.

They (the youth) have taken to Bernie and his message as some long lost beloved Uncle that just reappeared, bearing exactly the gifts that the young had always yearned for, but had had no hope of receiving.

At the end of the day, with all that was stacked against him from the start (see our commentary on Bernie) his race has been uphill all the way, and will continue to be, and he readily admits it.

But his dogged determination, and his on spot message for the times, in America and abroad, and the rapturous support he receives from the growing wide base of supporters, not the least of which are the inspired youth, have made him a defiant dare taker and an improbable contestant that just will not quit.

And his latest convincing win in Indiana silences those pundits, critics, and Hillary, that have been telling him, specially after last Tuesday when he got trounced in New York and North Eastern States, to throw in the towel and quit.

Instead Bernie Sanders has once again defied the odds, won, and is very much in the race, to the chagrin of Hillary, her supporters, and the Democratic establishment.

At the end, improbable as it seems, it may not be 'Stop Trump' but 'Stop Bernie' by the combined Republican and Democratic establishment, as Bernie's message is far more relevant to the vast majority of Americans, and far more substantive, radical and scary to the American establishment than Trump's. Hence Trump Delivers a Knockout, and Sanders A Bodyblow!