AFTERMATH – AT 9:08 A.M. ET:  It is over on the Republican side.  Trump will be the nominee.  This morning the internet is filled with political eulogies for Ted Cruz.  How, his supporters ask, did it happen?  And why did he drop out after last night's loss in Indiana?

It happened because Donald Trump, no matter what we may think of him, has developed the ability to connect with the grievances of very angry voters.  That is the ability of a leader, but is also the talent of the demagogue.  Which way Trump will go may be the biggest political story since the victory of Ronald Reagan in 2008. 

The first reaction to Ted Cruz's abrupt withdrawal from the race was shock.  His supporters expected him to fight on.  I think we should take him at face value when he says he dropped out because, after Indiana yesterday, there was no route to the nomination.  He's a young man.  He has a presidential future...but he must first become more expert in personal political dealings.  Ted Cruz got virtually no real support from members of the Senate or from the Republican Party generally.  He had made too many enemies with his independent, somewhat self-righteous manner.  He can fix that.  There will be an election in 2020, if there's a country left in 2020.

Conventional wisdom holds that the odds favor Hillary Clinton in the general election.  Summing up all I've seen in media this morning, I'd say that the odds favor no one.  This is an utterly unpredictable year.

Consider this:  We've never had a nominee quite like Donald Trump.  The last time someone from outside electoral politics won the nomination of his party was 1952, when the Republican nominee was Dwight D. Eisenhower.  But Eisenhower, even though he'd had no electoral experience, was hardly an outsider.  Architect of victory in Europe, consummate diplomat who'd held the wartime alliance together, first commander of NATO, he was a veteran of the world stage.  Trump is from the private sector.  We'll see if the experience translates well.

May 4,  2016