Donald Trump has been underestimated enough times in 2015 that's worth offering him a little bit of benefit of the doubt. The odds against him remain daunting given the way he's alienated the Republican Party's dominant tax cuts uber alles faction but his combination of wealth, celebrity, and apparent popularity against the GOP rank-and-file gives him at least a sliver of the shot. Winning would take a lot of hard work (much of it not very Trump-like) and some good luck. But then again, what winning campaign doesn't? Here's the formula Trump needs to apply.
Seal the deal with conservative talk radio
Conservative talk radio in America is far less "visible" in the media or in academia than its objective importance as a political institution warrants. And as Rosie Gray observes "some of the biggest names in conservative talk radio — Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity, and Savage — have praised Trump and his bashing of the politically correct left and Republican establishment."This is far and a way Trump's biggest and most important bastion of institutional support, and job number one for mounting a winning campaign is to lock it down.
At the moment, the problem is that it's far from clear what exactly conservative talkers are trying to accomplish with their Trump love? Do they actually want him to be the nominee, or are they mostly just trolling the party establishment over immigration? If Rush & Hannity decide to start telling their audience on a daily basis that Trump isn't much of an orthodox conservative and Scott Walker can be trusted not to push an immigration reform bill over the objections of House Republicans (both of which are probably true), then Trump is likely toast.
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