Inspired from this bit, from here:
In a “normal” election year, endorsements from high-level politicians would carry a lot of weight with voters. This year they are the kiss of death. The voters do.not.want.the.GOP.establishment.
The last people the GOP establishment would endorse is Ted Cruz and especially Donald Trump. This year, that actually lends these candidates credibility. The scoring is like golf rather than baseball or football- the less establishment endorsements a candidate has, the better the score.
Why? Because voters want to get rid of the GOP establishment. They want them out of office- all of them. Before the midterms, a president Trump could say, “Look at all these losers who would not endorse me. Why wouldn’t they? Because they are the establishment, that’s why! Vote 'em out, vote 'em all out.” (Christie probably made the right move for his political survival in endorsing Trump. He sort of became a subordinate, but maybe he’ll have a political afterlife in a Trump administration. Surely not anywhere else). And a president Trump could go around the country to all of the districts of the establishment congresscritters and exhort the citizens there to vote them out. They’re fired, you see. It would be a grand political service to our nation and the world.
I strongly suspect all of this is just a fantasy. In reality, HR Clinton is the professional choice. Yes, she sure comes across as equivocal sometimes, but then again she is a professional politician at the highest level. The only other candidate in the whole race who can say that is Bernie Sanders (who has better ideas IMHO though perhaps less varied experience. Still, decades in the Senate = pro). Clinton’s untrustworthiness is also part of her qualification- she understands how to do this job. The Chinese can’t really trust her either. Absolutely not the GOP establishment, to an exquisite T. Not the Russians, certainly not N. Korea, the Saudis, ISIS or even the fucking Brits for that matter. She needs to explain to us in detail how she will avoid selling us all out to the banks and MegaCorps, but OTOH I do believe she will have a tendency to fight for the general public, even if it ultimately turns out to be for tarnished motives. Sanders is purer.
After that is Kasich. Once you get to this point on the professionalism scale, the quality of the platform proposed takes an across-the-board nosedive right into the shitter. Kasich represents the outer limit of candidates we can consider to be “at the highest level.”
Cruz is next, then Rubio. Trump is last, though he gets an asterisk because he does come across as a professional at whatever it is he is. He is mature as a businessman, whereas Cruz and especially Rubio aren’t fully mature as politicians.
If that “powerful outsider” thing really pushes your buttons, then Trump is your guy. But I think we want a professional at the helm of the nation during this dangerous era, so Bernie or, if we must, and, under more regulations, Hillary, are the better choices. Maybe there will be a way to keep Trump (and his heavy, Christie) around to get rid of the GOP in a Clinton administration.