Has Trump Hired the Best People?

by Kim D.

Outside of Twitter and other social media outlets, it you have a serious conversation with someone supporting Donald Trump, the first point typically promoted is that the GOP frontrunner has been a successful businessman and will know how to hire the best people to manage the country. If that is the true standard for support, many previously on the Trump Train may be reconsidering and looking at another alternative to represent the Republican party, especially after the downward turn the campaign has taken recently, culminating in the YUGE Wisconsin loss this week.

The recent shakeup in the Trump campaign and hiring of the new Convention Manager Paul Manafort may indicate that the frontrunner is acknowledging his campaign has not been staffed with all the best people, and while he is still clinging to his contentious campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, bringing on board Manafort indicates Lewandowski is not the head honcho anymore.

Friends, lobbyists and former foes say that Trump is picking the right man for the job at a time when he is seeking to professionalize his political operation as it fends off talk that he will be unable to secure the 1,237 delegates needed to clinch the GOP presidential nod outright. If that doesn’t happen, then Trump will be relying on the longtime party operative to corral delegates in a race that could go to a second ballot and beyond.

Manafort comes with the right calling card: He fiercely protected Gerald Ford’s delegates at the last contested convention in 1976, in what Bay Buchanan, national treasurer for Ronald Reagan’s insurgent campaign, called “hand to hand” combat.

Some pundits claim that hiring better people like Manafort may have come a little too late if Trump cannot win the required 1237 delegates and the primary goes to a contested convention.  Others disagree and see Manafort as Trump's possible savior:

“Paul is very much into the basics of this business,” Reed said. “Blocking and tackling. Message discipline. Those are the things that really matter. We’ll see if he can get it done. The jury is still out.”

If anyone is capable of whipping the Trump campaign into a more organized, disciplined operation, it’s Manafort. He was recommended for the job by Roger Stone, the longtime Trump associate who officially parted ways with the campaign last summer but remains influential.

Neglected often in this conversation is the fact that we have an alternative to Trump who has already proven he can run a smart and effective campaign: Ted Cruz. Yes we can admit Trump isn't the normal politician or candidate, but that's no excuse for having not hired the very best people to run his campaign on day one. The country needs a strong leader who can bring his best on day one, not through trial and error, a year or two into the first term.