Donald Trump Implodes

The smoke-filled room is a relic of an era when you could actually smoke in hotels, and people actually smoked, but whatever its Internet-connected analogue is today, the GOP brass must be terrified. Donald Trump has unleashed a loud, idiotic, made-for-tabloids campaign that resonates with the base but appears doomed to fail in a general against Hillary Clinton. The possibility of yet another presidential pratfall has Reince Priebus checking the sofa cushions for a candidate, any candidate, who can knock out Trump in the primaries. Trump's remarks characterizing immigrants as rapists will not soon be forgotten by Hispanics, a demographic key to winning in 2016. (Never mind that immigrants tend to have lower crime rates than the general population they come from or go to.) But, some bad news for Trump's inexplicable fan base, which consists of nine parts nativist dingbats and one part lovers of garish spectacle: his campaign had a full-scale meltdown recently, firing his campaign manager in the wake of ungentlemanly speculation about Megyn Kelly's menstrual cycle, something that further got him disinvited from Erick Erickson's Redstate gathering. If this really is the beginning of the end for Trump, it's not a moment too soon — especially for the GOP, who have to view Trump as the kind of loose cannon that could destroy the party entirely.