Donald Trump has only One Path to the GOP Nomination. And he has Himself to Blame for it

(Reuters)

Conventional wisdom is now set: Because of his lack of organization at the delegate-selecting level, Donald Trump only has one chance to be the Republican presidential nominee: He needs to win it on the first ballot at the Republican National Convention in July.

That's right. And it's been true, roughly, since Trump became a candidate.

Okay, that's a slight exaggeration. But only a slight one. Better put: It's been obvious that Trump's best/only chance was to get the 1,237 delegates he needed on the first ballot since he made clear that he would be running as the Donald Trump of TV fame/infamy. That is: brash, unapologetic, controversial, hugely divisive and little concerned with the x's and o's of grass-roots politicking.

There is simply no gray area with Trump. You either love him (see picture above) or you really, really hate him. And that's just Republicans!

So while it is undeniably true that Trump is being badly out-organized in the local and countywide processes that select delegates to the convention (many of which who are free to vote for whomever they want on the second and third ballots), it is also undeniably true that Trump was never going to win any sort of insider's game — which a multiple ballot convention fight certainly qualifies as.

Trump has taken to blaming his organizing failures on a "rigged" system, which is a good message for him but fundamentally misses the mark. The reason it's first-ballot-or-bust for Trump is not because of a rigged system or poor organization. It's because of Donald Trump.

Read the rest of Chris Cillizza's op-ed HERE.

If you like what you see, please "Like" us on Facebook either here or here. Please follow us on Twitter here.