‘Most dangerous candidate in memory’

HE’S been labelled everything from a con-man to a rich kid and dangerous bully, but the New Hampshire vote was clear; The Don is in with a real shot at the US presidency.

The outspoken real-estate tycoon scored 35.1 per cent of Republican voters, giving him a sound lead over Ohio governor John Kasich with 15.9 per cent. Ted Cruz and Jeb Bush came in with 11 per cent each while Marco Rubio and Chris Christie trailed behind.

On the Democratic side, socialist Bernie Sanders smashed Hillary Clinton with 60 per cent of the vote to 38.4 in a contest that sent a clear message to the political establishment on both sides of the divide.

With the US just three weeks away from “Super Tuesday” — the March 1 elections which will provide a clear indicator of who the presidential candidates will be — here’s the lowdown on what is quickly becoming the USA’s most unorthodox race.
IS TRUMP REALLY GOING TO HAPPEN?

It’s still seen as unlikely, but there is a real possibility he will score the Republican nomination. In New Hampshire, the reality television buffoon cemented his place as a contender, prompting an outpouring of opinion from those horrified a man who called Mexicans “rapists” and want to ban Muslims from entering the United States could have a place in the Oval Office.

New Hampshire’s Union Leader Joseph McQuaid published an editorial after the vote calling him a “con man” behaving like a “schoolyard rich-kid bully”. Meanwhile, the New York Daily News managed to get its point across with a blunt front page.

Vox’s Ezra Klein called him the “most dangerous major candidate for president in memory” with a terrifying lack of shame that allows him to do and say things other people wouldn’t.
“He pairs terrible ideas with an alarming temperament; he’s a racist, a sexist, and a demagogue, but he’s also a narcissist, a bully, and a dilettante. He lies so constantly and so fluently that it’s hard to know if he even realises he’s lying. He delights in schoolyard taunts and luxuriates in backlash,” he wrote.

The reflection on Sanders was less harsh but many pundits were surprised by the 22 point walloping he gave Clinton, with a once derided fringe message focusing on free college tuition and healthcare, coupled with combatting income inequality.

Chatham House’s US expert Dr Jacob Parakilas said the winners on both sides provided a rebuke to traditional party politics. However “it’s unclear at this point who is going to go into Super Tuesday with the strongest position,” he said.
“Trump needed to demonstrate that enough people would vote for him that he could win first place.

“It makes him a strong favourite but it doesn’t make him overwhelmingly likely to win the nomination,” he said, adding that Sanders was able to prove the same in showing his supporters are willing to turn up and vote for him.

On both sides, it’s clear voters are sick of traditional politics and have turned the current contest into a “full scale revolt”, according to Fox News.