WNU Editor: I live in Canada .... and if you think the commentary on Donald Trump's run for the Presidency was bad in the U.S. .... the Canadian coverage was far worse .... and the French press in the Canadian province of Quebec was many magnitudes above that.
As to when did I realize that he had a chance to win .... I would say around 2 or 3 months after his announcement that he was going to run. The Republican field during the primaries may have been huge, but with the exception of Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio .... the rest of the candidates were not inspiring or interesting. And of the three .... the establishment wing of the party backed Marco Rubio .... thereby insuring that Ted Cruz would fall short .... and guaranteeing a Donald Trump victory. For the Democrat Party .... Hillary Clinton had a lock on the primaries on Day One .... and as we now know from Wikileaks, Bernie Sanders never had a chance.
In the general election I said from Day One that this was Hillary Clinton's to lose. She had the money advantage. The media supported her. The Democrat Party was unified behind her. And she had the organizational structure to get out the vote. Donald Trump's campaign was short of money. The media hated him. The Republican Party disavowed him. And his ground game was lacking. But even with these deficiencies .... it was after the conventions .... and looking at the polls that I trust (who were proven right again in this election cycle .... the LA Times and IBD Investors Daily tracking poll) .... that I began to realize that this may not turn out in the way that many predicted. Wikileaks. The FBI. Hillary Clinton's obvious health problems. Obamacare premiums sky-rocketing a week before the election .... everything that could go wrong for Hillary Clinton in the last month did .... and in the end she lost.
And as for those who laughed at Donald Trump in the past year .... no more now.
