The Long and Winging Road to Tomorrow's Election Day: What Have We Learned From the Candidates?

After 12 years of running for President, Hillary is Hillary. She is the same avaricious, arrogant, duplicitous, mendacious, snarky candidate as ever. She is the epitome of the Peter Principle in action. After 1 year of running for President, The Donald remains The Donald. He remained the same thin skinned, misogynist, bloviating, hyperbole braggart, not-ready-for-prime-time candidate. The reality TV star was not quite ready for prime time. We know every sin they may have committed in their life, but little of their policies. They tell us, but the media doesn’t cover it. Thus the campaign became one of negativity between two of the most unpopular candidates in American presidential history. They offer us two candidates with strong negatives. Senator Obama 8 years ago offered America “Hope and Change,” a positive message during the Great Recession. Secretary Clinton famously said “When they go low, we go high.” The closing 5 days of her campaign has been a rabid campaign of negative ads. She could emulate President Richard Nixon in 1972 by winning a landslide election, but then flaming out. WikiLeaks is not going away. Donald Trump is right in calling her “Crooked Hillary.” Hillary Clinton could be this year’s Dilma Rouseff. She is proven corrupt. She’s always been avaricious, but became thoroughly corrupt with the Clinton Foundation and the State Department. Both candidates understand “Pay to Play.” Donald was a constant contributor to politicians, usually Democrats, who could help his developments. “Pay to Play is a form of business expense for developers like Donald Trump. Campaign contributions, within established rules, are both legal and corrupting. Hillary Clinton understands “Pay to Play’ as she and her husband benefitted from it during her tenure as Secretary of States. Donald Trump had many opportunities to gain an advantage during the election, but squandered them on unfocused personal attacks on Muslims, Mexicans, women and fellow Republicans. If Hillary Clinton wins it will because Donald Trump unified the Obama coalition of Millennials, women, African Americans, and Hispanics for his opponent. She could not have done it on her own. And yet, he’s still competitive. Or am I acting like Charley Brown with the football? Every time Charley is about to kick the football, Lucy pulls it away. Once again it looks like the Republicans have a solid chance for the White House. Will it be yanked away yet again? The Republican leadership recognized 4 years ago that the Republican Party could not succeed as a Whites only party. It had to open itself to Hispanics, Asians, and African Americans. Donald Trump is trying to prove a Republican can win the Presidency by courting under-educated Whites without a strong ground game and worsening the gender gap. That would be like pulling an inside straight. He’s in danger of becoming this year’s Sharron Angle, Christine O’Donnell and Todd Akin. They lost winnable Senate seats. He may lose a winnable Presidential election. His campaign is a case of “Rage Against the Machine,” the corrupt machine of the establishment. Donald Trump is campaigning for The Forgotten Man and Richard Nixon's Silent Majority. Her campaign is “More of the Same,” or SOS. He has allied against him the mainstream media, Hollywood, Silicon Valley, the elites, women, minorities, the FBI and Justice Department. And yet he’s still competitive. The Republicans need to change their primary rules if he loses the general election. First is to allow more superdelegates. Donald Trump could not have won the republican nomination if the republican nominating process had the same proportion of Super Delegates as the Democratic National Convention. The second is to eliminate cross voting from the Republican primaries. Only registered Republicans should be allowed to vote in republican primaries and caucuses. The non-republicans provided his early caucus and primary victories. And yet he can win. Where is Charley Brown? Two alternative outcomes Tuesday night would be a fitting climax to this election. The first would be if Hillary Clinton, like Al Gore, won a majority of the votes cast, but Donald Trump wins the electoral college. That outcome is possible because of the enormous Clinton majority vote expected in California. The second would be if neither candidate achieves 270 electoral votes, throwing the election into the House of representatives.