Rick Pearlstein Razzes Nate Silver

++Earlier today, Nate Silver tweeted that Bernie Sanders has more followers than Donald J. Trump. Of course, he is right when you read all the polls and tally up Democrats versus Republicans. 

++Rick Pearlstein chides Nate for his constant belief that the Donald will implode  and never win then nomination. An example of this is in the infuriating fivethityeight piece on "What if Ted Cruz wins the Iowa election." Read it and it will drive you crazy. Harry Etten and Nate keep pushing the line that an "establishment" Republican is destined to emerge after New Hampshire.

++Pearlstein responds that pundits felt the same way about Ronald Reagan when he ran for the governor of California. They said he had as much chance of winning as "Lassie". What people forgot was that Ronald Reagan had a television show for years The General Electric Theater that had larger ratings than Ed Sullivan and after that he had "Death Valley Days" where he came across as an understanding uncle. All the stories had a happy ending. And that's the image had when he ran for Governor.

++Now Donald J. Trump has been on television for a decade with a program that drew 10 million ,which is vastly more than any news show. He comes across as the omniscient executive who knows management and the economy. So why shouldn't the American voter know him and relate to his image?

++Pearlstein chides Nate that Silver says people aren't paying attention yet. But then why are primary debates generating ratings three times those of the past? Pearlstein is an historian that has documented how the Republicans turned right. He's saying that Donald J, Trump is the inevitable product of a decades long process that began with Nixon's southern strategy. 

++Martin Longman today has a piece about the missing White voters. Sean Trende of Politico that influenced the Go All White strategy of the GOP this year says that those voters are the missing "Reagan Democrats" from Macomb county, Michigan. He claimed that 3 million of them sat home in 2012 and now has revised that number to 6 million. They are the Trump voters.