Why run for president when you know you won't win?

A comment made by the governor of South Dakota sums up the Republican race for the presidential nomination. Governor Kristi Noem was asked on Fox News whether she would be running and she was adamant that while Donald Trump was in the race no one else had a chance. So why run when you can't win, she said. It's probably the most realistic comment anyone in the Republican party has made since the campaigning began. It is true to say that the governor is pretty pro-Trump, thanking him for leaving her to get on with her job without interference when he was the president. And maybe she is angling to be chosen as his running mate. But the fact is, all the Republicans who have stepped forward to run against Trump are whistling in the wind. Florida goveror Ron DeSantis I'm sure felt he had a very good chance to overtake Trump. He had won the governership overwhelmingly and seemed to be on a roll. But it didn't last long. In fact, his campaign has gone downhill fast. The polling figures show beyond any question that he is so far behind Trump that he might as well give up now and take up fishing. All the others, from Mike Pence to Nikki Hayley, might as well drop out now, too. They are just wasting good money and creating a make-belief world which is founded on sand dunes. Ok, it's good for democracy and voters' choice but you do wonder why any of the non-Trump candidates are still running. It must be very dispiriting. Governor Kristi Noem was spot on.