Political columnists Mark Shields and David Brooks usually sit on different sides of the political aisle, but they currently agree on one thing: Donald Trump is looking like the Republican nominee for president. “It’s been an open assault upon the establishment, and he has captured it,” said Shields, a syndicated newspaper columnist, on Friday. Brooks, a conservative commentator and New York Times columnist, pointed out that while Trump has won most of the Republican primaries, much to the surprise of Republican leadership and even Brooks himself, 40 percent of the voters in most of the big “Super Tuesday” states said they would consider a third party candidate. “Donald Trump has a monopoly on audacity and he’s the only one who takes action,” Brooks said. He added that Trump could still lose the nomination if Texas Sen. Ted Cruz manages to gain some of Ohio Governor John Kasich’s votes if he drops out, or by “fiddling with the rules” at the National Convention, which Brooks, an outspoken critic of Trump, supports. On the Democratic front, while Hillary Clinton has kept a strong lead over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Shields noted how Sanders has run an “absolutely exceptional campaign” and has succeeded in moving Clinton more to the left on issues like trade and social security. In a two-person race, anything is possible, he said. While Clinton has not performed well with young voters, Brooks said she’s been solid in attracting the votes of minorities, middle class and moderate Democratic voters.

demagogue — a political leader who seeks support by appealing to popular desires and prejudices rather than by using rational argument defector — in politics, a person who abandons a candidate, cause or doctrine to which they are bound by some tie, such as political party lame duck — an official (especially the president) in the final period of office, after the election of a successor