The Donald is back at again, crying over the fact that the rules governing the Colorado method of selecting delegates to the Republic National Convention is rigged against him and that the powers in the party are trying to "steal" the nomination from him. That seems to be his common complaint when something doesn't go his way. The rules for the selection of delegates were well known before he ever entered the race and certainly before the delegate selection. The fact that he didn't know the rules, or knowing them didn't do the necessary work to put together the forces in that state to do better job is his fault.
As far as stealing the nomination from him; you can't steal something from someone if they don't own it. And he doesn't own the parties nomination for President. No one owns it until they gain the necessary majority of the delegate votes as specified by the rules as laid down by the party before this race ever began. Can the party change the rules? Of course they can. If they see it to their advantage to do so, they might very well just change something.
For instance a rule in place at the moment would prevent anyone but Trump and Cruz from securing the nomination. When the rules committee meets, they may delete that rule, for obvious reasons.
Let's be clear. Political parties are private organizations. They can select their candidates any way they want to. There is no constitutional right for the voters have any say in that selection at all. If the party wishes to hold primary voting to help in selection of that candidate that's up to the party. If they choose to select their delegates to the national convention by a caucus method, that's a choice the state party can make. If they wish to select their candidate in the proverbial smoke filled room, they can. The party can set up any rules they want to in order to present the candidate that they think has the best chance to win the election. They can even stack the convention by use of Super Delegates, as the Democrats have in order influence the outcome of the convention.
Those facts seems to be lost in the vitriol surrounding this years run for the White House. Some of the candidates understand the rules and are using that knowledge to put together an organization that can take advantage of them. Others are living in ignorance and crying foul when the results don't go their way.
Even some of the media, especially on the Fox News Channel seem to be ignorant of some of the facts and are joining in the chorus lamenting what that see as the voters will being thwarted. How they came to that position isn't clear to me, but some of the commentators seem to have some idea that there is some "right" involved with the candidate showing up at the convention with the plurality of the delegates. They seem to have the opinion that denying that candidate the nomination would be "stealing" nomination.
In any event, this a great year for the media and political junkies, but a sad year for the Republicans. In a year where capturing the White House, with a congressional majority, was a slam dunk, The Donald has entered the fray and literally torn the party apart. I don't know whether the party can salvage anything at the convention, but whatever happens it might not be enough.
