Seriously, Donald Trump is making a tactical blunder in South Carolina.

Look, I understand that I will never be on Donald Trump’s Christmas card list – but this is a bad tactical call:

Donald J. Trump, the current front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, has declined to participate in one in a series of town halls run by South Carolina’s most popular politician, making the real estate mogul the only high-polling candidate to snub the state.

Because the Palmetto State is third in line to vote on the party’s nominee, because it’s first in the South, and because Sen. Tim Scott’s job approval is hovering in the heavens, his endorsement and support is as coveted as can be — making the Trump no-show all the more conspicuous.

Of the 17 GOP candidates, 15 have been scheduled to participate in Scott’s town hall series, the aim of which is to introduce each candidate individually to the state’s electorate.

Mind you, I wouldn’t really expect Donald Trump to participate in actual – which is to say, ‘unscripted’ – town halls anyway. He could probably handle one hostile question. Two would get him ready to explode.  Three, and he’ll cook off. It’s not exactly an accident that even when he was still allowed to come to the RedState Gathering, Trump was going to be ‘available’ offsite, and in a place where he could maybe have some control over the questioning process. Man’s a prima donna – and I say that as a man of Boston Irish Catholic descent, and who has four sisters.

Still… Tim Scott? You don’t want your candidate to go to Tim Scott‘s town halls? That job approval mentioned above is 83%. I don’t care if your candidate is currently twenty points ahead in the state’s polls: you get an opportunity to shine in that reflected glory, you take it. And if you’re not taking that opportunity because, say, you can’t keep your [expletive] temper? …Well, learn.

(Via Instapundit)

Moe Lane