It looks like the sun will be shining on a Donald Trump victory in the Republican primary in New Hampshire this week. I am now wondering if his opponents are chasing their party’s nomination for the presidency – or for a job in a potential Trump administration, preferably the vice presidency.

Doesn’t it surprise you that while Trump attacks his opponents in his familiar way, mocking even their names, insinuating that they are not pure Americans, they treat him… with kid gloves?
Take Nikki Haley, for example, his most serious opponent at the moment, who, by the way, was the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. Haley has been limiting herself for months to talking about Trump along the lines of “while I agree with his policies and many of the things he says, nevertheless…”

Doesn’t this indicate that she doesn’t believe she can beat him? Doesn’t it seem like she’s not doing everything she can to avoid bothering him too much, not to anger him?

This mistaken, gutless strategy only changed recently when she raised the issue of his mental health after he repeatedly confused her name with Nancy Pelosi’s.

Is it too little and too late?

Another reason his opponents may have avoided making substantive attacks on him is that they don’t want to provoke the anger of Trump’s fanatic supporters. That’s a possible explanation too.
However, I repeat, how will a candidate distinguish himself from another candidate – I am thinking of the tried-and-true marketing theory about the importance of differentiation – if he/she does not present his/her own proposals and if he/she does not really fight against him?

If he/she does not strongly criticize a political opponent who is an easy target: he served as president for four years, was twice impeached in Congress, is accused of dozens of criminal acts, is running from court to court, has been accused of major scandals, etc., then what kind of opponent will he/she be able to criticize?

And in any case, what reason does someone who disagrees with him on only a few things have to claim the presidency?

Peggy Noonan in her column in the Wall Street Journal this weekend makes one of the most inspired observations about Trump that I have seen: “He got 51% of a modest turnout in a small state, but a win’s a win and a 30-point win is a landslide. Still, part of what we saw in Iowa was Donald Trump’s continual losing battle with himself.”

Don’t his opponents see this? What were they expecting?