Remember, It's Still Early And The Republicans Are Still Nuts

I keep hoping it's all a bad joke, an elaborate hoax, but I'm probably wrong.

Every article mentioning him on the Huffington Post ends with this instructive Editor's Note:

Donald Trump is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist, birther and bully who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims -- 1.6 billion members of an entire religion -- from entering the U.S.

Truth!  But even so, the tiny-fingered vulgarian won the New Hampshire presidential primary last night.  Which means next to nothing!  It's still very early, and "winning" New Hampshire is chump change.

New Hampshire is insignificant in size, population and electoral delegates.  It's presidential primary proportionally assigns just 23 Republican delegates.  Trump won 9 of 'em yesterday.  On the Democratic side, 24 delegates were up for grabs, and Bernie Sanders won 13.  (By way of contrast, Florida will assign 99 R delegates and 214 D; Ohio 66 R, 143 D.)

Nationally, a GOP contender needs 1237 delegates (of 2472 total) to win the party's nomination.  The count so far at this early stage:  Trump 17, Cruz 10, Rubio 7, Kasich 4, Bush 3, Carson 3, Fiorina 1, Christie 0.  Despite all the breathless, over-excited, non-stop media coverage, nothing has been decided on the Republican side.  Not even close.

The eventual Democratic nominee needs 2382 delegates (of 4763 total).  The count to this point is Clinton 44, Sanders 36.  But Democratic party rules allow for 700-plus "super-delegates," party big-wigs who are not bound by primary results and can vote any way they want at the convention.  They can also pledge their support in advance.  About 350 of them have already come out for Hillary, just a few for Bernie.  When you include the committed super-delegates, it's Clinton 394, Sanders 42.

That does not yet make it a done deal for Hillary, but Bernie has a tall task ahead of him.  I like 'em both, and either is far preferable to the Planters Assortment found on the other side.