Well, the Stop Trump movement collapsed and ran like a Civil War army that had its flanks turned.  And now, once it stops running and reforms its lines, what next? My guess, is that the Republican “establishment” lines up behind Trump with all the grace and coordination of football fans rushing towards just-opened turnstiles.

All over the country, there are Republican staffers who, even this afternoon, were working around the clock to whip convention delegates into the Stop Trump movement and are now suddenly erasing whiteboards, shredding the delegate tally sheets, and texting their spouses and significant others that they are finally coming home.  Dozens of local Republican office holders, who this morning were being offered jobs in the state department of transportation, are now planning their next race for county clerk of courts. 

They will fall in line despite the fact that, during his unnervingly measured and professional victory speech, Trump at times sounded like a Democrat from 1982:  “Bring back our jobs!”  “Keep the factories here!” “Keep the mines open!” On foreign policy, he sounded like a combination of a 1930’s isolationist and a post-Vietnam Democrat.

Principled conservatives and true believes on the right will all have to struggle with their conscience about what to do in November. But, congressional Republicans are almost entirely post-policy and Trump is non-policy, so issue dissonance isn’t going to be a factor.

I know that all the polls and demographic break outs show that Trump is headed for a shellacking on the scale of William Jennings Bryan or Barry Goldwater. And, he’s likely to bring down Republican senate candidates in places like Florida, New Hampshire, Ohio—and even puts guys like John McCain and Chuck Grassley in danger. But . . . as they say in sports, there’s a reason we actually play the games.

I do think that tonight increases the likelihood that Clinton might pick Sanders as her running mate.  Not only because he won—and is likely to win a few more smaller states in May—but, watching him tonight criticize Trump in a measured, detailed, but very effective way, suggests that he could do well playing the traditional vice president attack role. And, he gives Hillary credibility when she tries to start sounding like a change agent who really is outraged about income inequality.

Still afraid. Still very afraid.