Delegate Christian Leinbach would help make Trump president

by Steve Reinbrecht

Update: Commissioner Leinbach has pledged to support Cruz, not Trump.

+++++++++++++++++++

Conservative Berks County politician Christian Leinbach wants to be a delegate at the Republican convention to help pick the party’s presidential candidate.

For decades, the delegates have had little role. The decision has always been made for them.

This time, of course, is very different. In a contested convention, the delegates' votes would matter. 

Many Republicans don’t like the idea of supporting the likely front-runner, Donald “Get ’em outta here” Trump.

They realize Trump is evilly exploiting the rage, hate and ignorance of millions of Americans to get votes. His cartoonish pronouncements have made him the laughingstock of the world, and they don’t want to be connected to him.

So naturally many even staunch Republicans are defecting, pledging not to support America’s Berlusconi, even against Hillary Clinton.

Leinbach, the chairman of the Berks County commissioners, is asking for votes to be the delegate to the Republican convention, which starts July 18 in Cleveland.

It’s good candidates make clear their views on the elephant in the room.

In his statement, Leinbach suggests that as delegate he would vote for Trump for president.

“If we get to Cleveland and a single candidate has a majority of delegates prior to the convention, than [sic] that candidate should be our nominee. End of story!”

“If a single candidate has a large lead over his rivals, even though he lacks a majority, I still believe we must go with the clear will of the voters and that means supporting the candidate with the decisive lead.”

And that means, as I read it, he’d support Trump.

“I’m not going to support any effort to reverse the will of the voters. To do so would be immoral and severely damage the credibility of the process.”

Leinbach would rather preserve the Party and the process than help prevent a sleazeball like “Get ‘em outta here” Trump become president.

If I were running for delegate, my top message would be: “No way I’m supporting that guy. He gloatingly treats women badly, insults whole groups of people, including Mexicans and Muslims. He encourages violence at his rallies and basks in the support of the hateful and ignorant."

The Reading Eagle pretends it covers politics, even reporting on and editorializing about state issues that are well-covered in other  media.

But the biggest political stories – such as Wally Scott’s brother’s challenging Tom Caltagirone, and who among us supports Trump – get little attention.