Donald Trump's approach to appointing people

There are a lot of things I do not like about Donald Trump, but in one way he's making me feel more comfortable supporting him (at least, in the general election). He's made some moves I think show his good talent in one area: appointing the people a President has to.

1. He has chosen Chris Christie to head his transition team. Governor Christie was early on my choice for the Presidency, and having run a state for several years he has the ability to help choose people for a Trump administration who would have the abilities to compensate for Trump's inexperience.

2. To reassure the Senate that his appointments to the Supreme Court will be more conservative than any Democratic president, he has said that he will rely on recommendations by the Heritage Foundation.

3. And finally, Trump's choice of former Mayor Rudy Giuliani to lead a commission on dealing with Islamic terrorism is a retreat from earlier proposals that just would not work — and were called out by Giuliani when he made them!

All of these selections make sense to me.

Donald Trump is starting to make the right moves

Now that Donald Trump is essentially guaranteed to get the Republican nomination for the Presidency, he has begun to make the preparations that a candidate needs to do. He has picked someone to head the transition team that will prepare, if he wins in November, the list of appointments Trump will have to make to replace the team chosen by President Barack Obama. And he picked well. The man he has chosen is one of the two people I would have chosen for the Presidency itself: Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey. And I think with Christie in charge of the transition team, if we have a President Trump following the November election, we will have a good team working for him.

And now it's over

With yesterday's decision by John Kasich to end his campaign, Donald Trump has no opposition, and will be the nominee of the Republican Party for this year's Presidential election. He's not the one I would have wanted to see, but when it comes to November, I'll have to vote for him, given the opposition.

Kasich's leaving was fore-ordained. After Ted Cruz left, Trump was sure to make the 1,237 delegates he would need, so Kasich had no chance to get a later ballot where he might get the nod. It was futile to continue.

My wife has a visceral feeling against Trump. She will be supporting Clinton — even, just yesterday, gave the Clinton campaign a small sum of money — though she has some misgivings about her. For me, I'm more negative about Clinton than she is, and more willing to give Trump a chance, so my vote is going to go the other way. And in this very blue state, it won't make much of a difference. Clinton will win it. But I'm hoping Trump turns the polls around. We certainly don't need four years of Hillary Clinton after eight years of Barack Obama.

Right now, this blog is not endorsing Trump. That will happen if and when he is nominated. But on the chance that some unpredictable event happens that changes the picture of an inevitable Trump nomination, I'm holding up on a formal endorsement.

Ted Cruz has left the race…

…and while John Kasich continues to run — I got an e-mail from his organization today asking for funds — it doesn't really look to be at all likely that Donald Trump can be prevented from getting the nomination. The only way a contested convention can be brought about is if enough votes go to Trump's opponents to keep him from getting a majority of the delegates. And that would require Cruz to win a fair number. And he's not going to gain any more. So it looks as though Trump will be nominated.

I'm no fan of Donald Trump, as you know if you have been reading this blog. But in a race against Hillary Clinton, I have to support Trump. Clinton will continue President Barack Obama's unfortunate policies, and if anything, expand them. She was for Obamacare before Obama was. And she's exercised bad judgment in things like the e-mails.

Now I will not deny that Hillary Clinton is competent. But that makes the prospect of her in the White House even more of a scary proposition. While Trump's more outrageous proposals will never come to pass — Congress or the Supreme Court will knock them out — Clinton might actually get hers through, and I shudder to think of what she'll do, and this worries me more.