It’s a 2-man race in the Republican Party. Anyone who can’t see this isn’t paying attention. Cruz and Trump are the only candidates who can win -- fairly and squarely. Only they can get the delegates to win on the first ballot. But the Washington Cabal, including GOP leaders, the press, and large donors who pull the strings, i.e., “The Elite,” “The Establishment” -- don’t want either to win. They don’t care that ordinary, non-elite rank and file Americans have made their choice in the designated way. Screw them. The GOP elites only care about doing whatever they must to get a puppet in the White House. That keeps them in money and power and they’re not, without a fight, going to relinquish either.

So they’re supporting the failed candidacies of John Kasich and Marco Rubio, two who can’t win by majority votes but could take the prize if, by staying in, they keep Cruz and Trump from winning a majority of delegates. They are roadblocks, tree trunks rolled onto the imperial road to keep the convoy from reaching Valhalla. As such, Kasich and Rubio are the personifications of not caring about fairness and will of the people. They have probably made secret, or at least tacit, deals with the elites and, as such, are their puppets. Principles, ordinary voters, and the country they are supposed to serve don’t matter. They want to be president. They’ll do whatever they have to do to get the prize.

The elites may be weasels but they’re not stupid. They have two candidates they are manipulating in case there’s need of a backup -- maybe three, as I’ll explain in a second.

Kasich and Rubio are the GOP equivalent of the Senate’s 2013 Gang of 8. They’re betting their careers on an underhanded maneuver. That makes Rubio twice the fool. I thought he’d learned after going back on his word to his Florida constituents about not backing amnesty. But now the lure is too great. He’s taken the carrot again. Kasich, who always reminds us his father was a mailman, is more like an aggressive car salesman. He’ll use any trick to your vote -- the Bible, care for the sick, claim to be the only gentleman on the debate stage. His latest is a lulu: He’ll grant amnesty. Does he actually think voters can’s see through such phoniness?

A surprising aspect of this charade, at least to me, is that Mitt Romney, former governor of Massachusetts and the last GOP presidential candidate, has jointed this weasel crew. Romney, whatever his failings, had an air of dignity and niceness about him. I regarded him a decent guy, a straight shooter. He went out making a fool of himself telling voters to vote for Rubio in Florida and Kasich in Ohio. He knows they can’t win a majority of delegates, so what is his game? Is he a third possibility to jump in when the power brokers stall the convention and inject their stooge? It’s embarrassing. It’s pathetic. Whatever Donald Trump is, stopping him isn’t worth selling your soul --which is what it looks like Romney has done. What’s he doing out there subverting the process?

Put Fox News in this charade too. The supposed “conservative” network has just announced Kasich, definitely not a conservative, and Rubio, one apparently without scruples, will share the stage with Cruz and Trump in their March 16 presidential debate. More than ever the American people need to hear the two front-runners square off. These are the two who are going to go into convention with the most votes. One or the other might have it all sewed up by convention time. Yet Fox is going to continue with the four man rotation allowing the two pretenders to take time and issues from the two who matter. Why are they doing this? Early on, they penalized low vote getters by putting them on the undercard. Now they are giving the under carders a leg up.

Fox News is supposed to be fair and balanced. In fact, they have a horse in the race. They are part of the Washington elite. These debates are showcases for their finest -- as if we’re picking media stars as well as presidents. The one minute answers, the annoying bells and buzzes designed to cut debate and which yield, at best, one liners to complicated issues, dumb down the information and play to the media egos. The candidates are akin to trained seals, barking and emoting to a master’s voice. “Thank you governor…senator…I want to get to (the next issue.)” What is needed are fully answered questions. The moderators should be like fight referees, interjecting themselves only when the candidates ramble or get in argumentative clinches.

As it is it’s a charade and the elites are pulling the strings.