The release yesterday of National Review’s Against Trump special edition (blogged here by Victory Girls) has really stirred things up in conservative circles (Jonah Goldberg has a substantive response to the critics here and Mark Steyn gives his perspective on why Trump is winning here). There are also reports of current politicians implying or actually saying they would support Donald Trump over Ted Cruz. To many this seems a little strange, since of all the Republican candidates, Cruz probably represents the clearest conservative stance, but he is also apparently on the persona non grata list when it comes to hanging with his peers in the halls of Congress (not likable enough, said Obama). Put that together with the big criticism of Trump, which is that he hasn’t a conservative bone in his body, and you’ve really got some strange bedfellows. And we haven’t even begun to contemplate the meaning of the newest player on Trump’s team, our [once?] beloved Sarah Palin.

So let’s take stock of what the facts appear to be right now. If we are to believe the polls, Trump has some pretty big leads, though Cruz bests him in a few others. No one else is coming close. Rubio might only be able to step in if both Cruz and Trump go down. (But The Federalist makes a good case for a solid three man race here). On the whole, with the present information, anyone winning the nomination besides Trump looks iffy.

This has propelled some people head first into the Five Stages of Grief. They have quickly moved to the inevitable stage and have accepted Trump as their savior — uh, nominee. Trump already had some die-hard supporters from the beginning, but these are not the people I am talking about; rather, the people who have accepted an outcome that includes Trump are an enlarging group of Washington power people – elected “establishment” Republicans and K Street lobbyists, the very groups that many Tea Party types believe are the problem. Some have said they can work with Trump, whereas, in comparison, they already know Cruz will shut them down. They want to win [a.k.a. keep their power], and with the glaringly poor performance by Jeb!, they seem to be jumping ship and getting onto the bandwagon.

I don’t know where this is going to end up, but the primaries begin in a few days and that might begin to give us some answers. This has been a really crazy election cycle, and I can easily see it getting even more insane. So what do you think? Who is going to win the Republican nomination? Trump’s the easy pick right now because of his lead in the polls, but is he the sure pick? If your choice is not Trump, how does he or she do it? Let’s game this out. Let’s crowd-source this path to the nomination!