It looks like it might be Trump vs Hillary

Super Tuesday does not deliver the final verdict on the US presidency but it does point the most likely path the contest will take. The March 2 vote in 11 states may have confirmed one thing though, which is that the US is going to have its first woman presidential candidate running for office all the way to the White House. Having performed better in 2016 than she did in the most crucial, vote-heavy Super Tuesday states in 2008, Hillary has stopped just short of declaring that she is already the Democratic nominee for the November 8 election. The number of delegates she still needs to win the nomination is not that far away, and the candidate most likely to oppose her from the Republican party is Donald Trump, the blustering billionaire who is gaining salience with each caucus and every primary notwithstanding the media carping at him at every turn.

In staying ahead past Super Tuesday the real estate tycoon has shown what a state of disaffection the United States of America is in with a strong anti-establishment streak showing among the electorate. India’s prosperous diaspora might even have a small say in which way the final battle will tilt. While a victory for the establishment (read Hillary Clinton) would mean continuity for the relationship New Delhi has built up over eight years with a Democratic White House, the chances of a Republican in the Oval Office will be a twist India will have to learn to deal with. Trump’s position on jobs being taken away from the US by China, India, and the like, and his threat to deport 11 million people are the first signs of what people will face should he become President.

The core Republicans themselves appear floored over how to stop Trump from gaining the nomination ahead of Marc Rubio and Ted Cruz even as the media is decrying his popularity as being “simply the product of a toxic brew of a polarised two-party system and nihilistic tactics on the campaign trail”. It is curious that a candidate threatening to build a wall across the US border with Mexico counts the Latinos as well as African Americans among his supporters in the Deep South where he scored resounding wins. Not even his son Trump Junior’s viewpoint that slavery was the “greatest thing to have ever happened” to African Americans seems to have stemmed the support for his father. The world may dread the advance of Trump, called “Frankenstein” on the floor of the Senate, but this contest appears to be heading towards a tricky climax. Surveys point to 49 per cent support nationally for Trump and, curiously, that Bernie Sanders would be a better candidate against him than Hillary.