Bush donors jumping en masse from Jeb! to Marco!

I've been saying since the South Carolina primary that, if the GOP wants to avoid nominating Donald Trump, it will have to get to the point where it's putting up one - and only one - candidate against him to battle for whatever delegates are left. And that can't take too long to happen because Trump is racking up a fairly significant lead already in the delegate race. Both Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio beat Trump in one-on-one polls, but we don't have a one-on-one race. With whatever respect may be due at this point to John Kasich and Ben Carson, we have a three-way race that's splitting the anti-Trump vote between Cruz and Rubio and keeping Trump on top. The only way you change that is for one of them to bow out. You can argue amongst yourselves about which one that should be, but there appears little doubt who party regulars and donors want to stay in the race:

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Parts of Jeb Bush's formidable donor network already are gravitating to Marco Rubio within days of his exit from the race, sensing a quickly narrowing window to disrupt Donald Trump's march to the nomination. While the more than $150 million of campaign and super PAC cash pumped into Bush's bid did little for the former Florida governor, his money men and women hope they can put their cash to more effective use this time. “This has been a relatively seamless transition for me, and I believe for so many others,” Bush donor and former Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman told FoxNews.com, citing Rubio's electability and vision among the reasons for backing him. “The folks I was working with on the Bush campaign, my sense is almost unanimity in them moving over to Team Rubio,” Coleman said.

The stop-Trump people in the Republican Party have a real problem on their hands. The Democrats empower so many "superdelegates" who are not obligated to follow caucus and primary results, they can essentially rig their nomination race in Hillary's favor no matter how many votes Bernie Sanders gets in the primaries. I'm not saying it's wise to rig a race in favor of Hillary Clinton. I'm the last person who would ever say that. I'm just saying they have the ability to do it. The Republicans don't have superdelegates, so if people with no previous history of supporting the Republican Party turn out to vote in Republican primaries for Donald Trump, the people who run the Republican Party can do absolutely nothing to counter that occurrence. And as it stands right now, the trend in the primary races has Trump on a trajectory to win the nomination. Do I think that either Rubio or Cruz would defeat Trump and take the nomination if it became a two-man race from this point forward? Yep. Do I think they both realize that? Yep. Do I think either one wants to bow out for the other? Nope. Do I think anyone can make it happen? Nope. Do I think putting gobs and gobs of money behind Rubio can make it happen anyway even if Cruz stays in? Nope. So what happens next? I do not know. Maybe Hillary gets indicted.

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