by Sandy » Mon Mar 07, 2016 11:02 am
I did not actually see the live event, just the news clips of it. Trump feeds the "herd mentality" and as he's laid out the scattered issues that he's used to feed people's fears and superstition, this pledge is just one more way of helping people check their brains at the door.
It's been interesting to observe, as the primaries and caucuses head into states which require party registration and don't allow crossover voting, what has happened with a lot of Trump supporters. In the states where voting and caucus participation is restricted to registered voters affiliated with the GOP, Trump hasn't done nearly as well. Though he likes to take credit for "bringing large numbers of people into the Republican party", most of his supporters could care less about the Republican party. The GOP's stacked, quirky system for nominating a Presidential candidate might keep enough Trump voters out of the mix to prevent him from getting the number he needs to be nominated before the convention, provided the other three candidates stay in and hang on to the delegates pledged to them. I heard some complaining over the weekend from his campaign that many of his supporters aren't registered to vote in Florida, and will not be eligible to vote in the primary. Trump leads in the polls, except among registered Republicans eligible to vote, where Rubio has a slight lead. But since the deadline has passed, a lot of those pledge takers in Orlando won't be able to vote.