A presidential race that defies description arrives in Mississippi
Odd. Peculiar. Eccentric. Outlandish. Freakish. Grotesque.
Get busy, neologists, because America needs a new word to describe the presidential campaign unfolding across the land. Tuesday, it arrives in Mississippi, which once boasted the gold standard for unusual primaries -- the 2014 Republican race between U.S. Sen Thad Cochran and challenger Chris McDaniel.
But that campaign -- with its nursing home burglaries, walking-around money, vote-buying allegations, quirky bloggers, Tea Party Express tours and all the rest -- had been far outstripped by the 2016 race even before private parts last week became part of the national debate.
Most of the hubbub has centered on, and been created by, Donald Trump, the real estate mogul-turned-reality-TV star. He has taken the Republican Party by surprise, to put it in the only acceptable-for-a-family-newspaper term that comes to mind. He feuded with Fox News and questioned the pope's Christianity. And Thursday night, before a national TV audience of millions, he assured the voters he was well-endowed.
But nothing is too outrageous for Trump supporters, the angry swath of America fed up with "the establishment."
McDaniel knows more than a little about swimming upstream against the establishment tide. After he edged Cochran in the primary, the GOP unloaded its full force -- and some dirty tricks, he says -- against him in the runoff.
McDaniel still rails against the establishment.
"The establishment and the corrupt system they've perpetrated must come to an end," he posted to Facebook just Thursday.
Social media's role
But he's no Trump man. McDaniel's outsider of choice is Sen. Ted Cruz. They've been on the same page since the Texas senator led the 2013 government shutdown.
And McDaniel has mastered social media, where more than 58,000 people follow him on Facebook. His more-strident posts get thousands of likes and hundreds of shares. And he uses the soapbox to promote the candidate he says has become a friend -- and to stoke the anger that is dominating the race.
"People are getting their news from social media," he said. "It's driving the awakening and the anger. If you're an American and not angry, you haven't been paying attention.
"What we're seeing is the game has changed. The establishment no longer had control."
Still, in Mississippi, Trump seems to be the anti-elite candidate of choice. He packed the Coast Coliseum the day after New Year's Day and both he and Cruz will be back in the state Monday -- Cruz in Ellisville at noon at Jones County Community College and Trump in Madison at 7 p.m. at the Madison County school district.
Democratic race
The Democrats have their own, more-sedate version of insider vs. outsider. Hillary Clinton, the former first lady, senator and secretary of state, is running against Sen. Bernie Sanders, who until this summer was an independent from Vermont. Like Trump, Sanders has been drawing huge crowds as he rails against income equality. But unlike Trump, those crowds haven't translated into a string of primary wins and front-runner status.
Clinton has name recognition, big-ticket donors and a list of endorsements in mostly red Mississippi. Most observers, and the one poll that's been done, have Clinton and Trump winning handily with their opponents hoping to pick up a few of the proportionally allocated delegates.
Democratic Chairman Rickey Cole hopes to match the more than 434,000 people who voted in 2008, when then-Sen. Barack Obama beat Clinton.
"They (Clinton and Sanders) have got a lot of volunteers, they have offices in Jackson," he said. "Clearly, Mississippi is going to count."
Cole's prediction
Cole believes Trump will be the Republican nominee.
"And the vast majority of Republicans in Mississippi are fine with that," he said. "He doesn't have any appeal to independent voters and what few moderate Republicans there are in Mississippi."
Republican consultant Brian Perry of Jackson, who's working for Ohio Gov. John Kasich, is among Mississippians who don't fancy the idea of Trump as commander in chief with his finger on the nuclear trigger.
"I think there's a lot of support for Mr. Trump here in Mississippi just like everywhere else, but there's a huge contingent of people who are opposed to him," he said. "There's a lot of groundwork being done by John Kasich as well as the Cruz people. I haven't seen much from Rubio but from what I'm hearing he has a lot of support."
The key for the anti-Trump candidates would be to keep him from getting more than 50 percent of the vote in any congressional district. Three delegates will be awarded in each of the four districts -- two to the first-place finisher and one to second place, unless someone tops 50 percent and gets all three. Then there are 25 at-large delegates who will be awarded proportionally to candidates who get at least 15 percent of the vote statewide. And three delegates are pledged to the primary winner.
Democrats also award 36 delegates proportionally to candidates who receive at least 15 percent of the vote.
Perry said if Kasich can hang on and win his home state and Rubio wins Florida, that will make it hard for Trump to reach the 1,237 delegates needed to win the nomination.
"I think the tide is slowly turning across the country," he said. "I think people are growing tired of Donald Trump."
The problem nationwide, he said, has been trying to rise above Trump's noise.
"When Donald Trump speaks, it's like a train wreck is happening," he said. "It's good TV."
This story was originally published March 5, 2016 at 3:43 PM with the headline "A presidential race that defies description arrives in Mississippi ."