The 2016 race so far: Trump is on a roll, and the Democrats are split

Washington

VERY few observers would deny that 2016 is turning out to be the most suspenseful, entertaining and unpredictable American presidential campaign year in recent memory. Add to that the possibility that the main losers this year may be the ruling establishment of both the Republican and the Democratic parties, and this presidential campaign could become a historic one.

Browse through media analyses published in recent years or watch talking heads making predictions about the results of the presidential primaries on old television news clips, and it is very unlikely that you would come across a political pundit drawing an outline of a scenario in which a 74-year-old Brooklyn-born socialist would beat Hillary Clinton, one of the most celebrated American women of our age, in the first Democratic primary of 2016.