GOP's challenge is to manage Trump

Now that the GOP mob mentality has it turning on Trump, it may find its nightmare scenario is shaping up: Trump as an independent candidate.

What the GOP needs is for Trump to remain in the race for many more months, draining his financial assets. If he were to decide to run as a third party or independent candidate next spring, he would have to build an organization state by state, wending its way through various rules to get him on the state ballots. But in the meantime, he'd be spending his millions fighting for the GOP nomination.

If he drops out of the GOP race now, he can play golf for the next six months, while his team works on the details of getting on the various state ballots. He could even wait until after the conventions, all the while taking potshots at the other candidates. The cost for Trump would be minimized.

No doubt the other candidates would say his sniping doesn't warrant a response; when in fact, they quail under his attacks. Trump's style cannot be fought with normal politics. That's the source of his teflon. You either lower yourself to his level or you have to let him throw his insults without penalty.

He's already shown that his ability to garner free media attention is greater than ever seen before. Even if Fox doesn't pump him as it has done for the last month, he can get lots of attention.

This is the legacy of the current political climate. For decades it has drifted away from policy and substance toward ideology and style. Crowing on stage about who is a real conservative, rather than presenting real concrete plans is just part of it.

Trump is absolutely right that he was attacked from the get-go at the debate. The question about loyalty to the ultimate candidate and disavowing a third party run was only designed to call out Trump. He had to hold up his hand. Not to do so would have been capitulation, which is not in Trump's vocabulary.

The current feeding frenzy, if it drives Trump out of the GOP race, is just what he needs to continue to disrupt the process without bankrupting (excuse me, using the laws of the United States) himself.

And the GOP will be left without the knuckle-dragging, uninformed rabble that it depends on to swing the vote.