1. It’s Monday, April 4, 2016.

2. It’s snowing! Damn!

3.In election years, I like to hold what I call the Highway Primary. It’s a simple counting of bumper stickers to see which presidential candidate is generating the most support among drivers.

Over the weekend, I took a short road trip to one of my favorite places, Mystic, Conn. It’s about 130 miles away up Interstate 95.

And even though the whole trip was in deep blue country, the Highway Primary should mitigate some of that because of all the travelers from other parts hitting the Interstates to go somewhere.

But of all the cars and trucks I saw in two days on the road, only three had bumper stickers – I didn’t count the truck that had FEEL THE BERN cleaned off an otherwise filthy back door.

And all three stickers were supporting Sanders. None for anyone else. No pick-ups with “Make America Great Again.” No H logos.

In the past, by this point, the Obama stickers would be in double digits. In both runs. And there would have been a few Romney stickers and the occasional McCain – in 2008 – or Ron Paul.

This is completely unscientific. But it is a curiosity. How does a campaign that generates so much attention manage to have little of that reflected in the people who decide? Are people turned off, or are they just not interested yet?

Perhaps it’s true that people don’t really focus on a presidential election until after Labor Day. Or even after the World Series – although nowadays that wouldn’t give you a lot of time.

1. It’s Wednesday, March 30, 2016.

2. Why is anyone surprised that Donald Trump now says he might not support the Republican presidential nominee if it’s not Donald Trump?

And it’s not only because Donald Trump has no real concept of loyalty beyond Donald Trump.

I can’t stand the man and, like John Oliver suggested a few weeks back, I’m waiting for time travelers from the future to come back to 2015 and stop the Trump movement before it starts.

But as the Republican Party apparatchik have made abundantly clear, they don’t want this guy to be their presidential candidate. And they are feverishly looking for a way to stop him.

Now, in recent weeks, Trump’s done a pretty good job of shooting himself in the foot. More on that later. But he remains the front-runner, and just about 500 delegates shy of a first-ballot nomination in Cleveland.

If he gets there and he’s close, how can you stop him? The only way you can do it is to gang up on him with everyone else.

And then he’s supposed to support these people? I don’t understand the logic. A bunch of guys mug you in a dark Ontario Street alley and you’re supposed to say, oh yes, everybody support them.

Keep in mind that Trump is not the only one who has backed off the pledge of supporting the party’s nominee. In the same CNN town hall, Ted Cruz and John Kasich did the same thing.

Is this a mess, a three-way divorce? You betcha, as potential third-party candidate Sarah Palin might say.

3. A couple of weeks back, I speculated that Trump might not have originally wanted to be President. Why would he take a job that requires him to answer to 320-million-plus Americans, many of whom don’t even live in a Trump apartment?

Since he solidified his hold on front-runner status in the Republican race, there are some signs that maybe I wasn’t too far off.

That foreign policy interview in The New York Times. I don’t have a lot of respect for Trump. But he does have a college degree – from a pretty good school. So he should have at least an idea how clueless he came off. Actually, anyone with the ability to read should have an idea about how clueless he came off.

Then there’s his reaction yesterday to the arrest of his campaign manager on charges that he assaulted a female reporter.

If Trump really wanted to be President, the campaign manager would have been canned, pronto. Instead, he defended the guy and made crazy statements about the woman who was allegedly assaulted. “Wouldn’t you think she would have yelled out a scream if she had bruises on her arm,” he said.

I just wonder if he’s getting a little tired of this game he’s been playing. He wanted to see how far he could go.

Now he knows. Time to go back to his Florida crib and work on his tan. Let the Republicans take care of themselves.

1. It’s Tuesday, March 29, 2016.

2. My grandfather was born 121 years ago today in San Ferdinando di Puglia, Italy. I would give a lot to hear him rant about Donald Trump and the Republicans. I believe the word cetriolo would come up quite a bit.

3. Instead of “Make America Great Again,” should Trump’s slogan be “Make Someone Else Pay”?

That’s the takeaway from his answers to foreign policy questions asked by The New York Times. The Mexicans will pay for the wall. The Saudis and other Middle East nations will pay for our protection or we won’t buy their oil. Japan and South Korea need to pay for their own defense. The Europeans need to pay more for NATO. 

All of which highlights the problem with our bankruptcy laws. They discourage responsibility. Trump figures he made money off of them when he was floundering. Maybe there’s some way he can make a few bucks for the USA by stiffing people who have been our allies for generations.

4. We’ve been waiting for the time when Trump would get at least a modicum of scrutiny. The Republicans sure as hell didn’t provide any when they began their nominating process last summer. Now that it’s spring and the GOP has discovered who their front-runner, it’s panic-stricken.

And yet, of course, it’s not the Republicans providing the scrutiny on issues that matter. It’s those lefties at The Times. The Republicans are barking up the “don’t you insult my wife” routine that sounds like it’s from some bad comedy.

Will any of this matter to the Trumpettes, the livestock that actually vote for this maroon? I’m not sure. I don’t live in that world, even though it’s down my block.

5. President Obama is embarrassed by Trump’s success up until now. He echoed comments Secretary of State John Kerry made when he said world leaders are concerned about what they’re seeing in the American political campaign. 

The President also blasted journalists for not holding candidates accountable in this campaign, a remark The Times interpreted as aimed not just at Trump but also, in his own party, Bernie Sanders. “When people put their faith into someone who can’t possibly deliver his or her own promises, that only breeds more cynicism,” Obama told journalists at an award ceremony.

The problem here is simple. Trump is good for business. The news chiefs at the various networks, including my alma mater CNN, have all been quoted about how this campaign has been a windfall. Ad revenue has soared.

Which is why anything Trump says, no matter how ridiculous, gets live, breathless coverage.

Now, however, we’re getting closer to an actual decision, and the thought has to cross people’s minds – is this what kind of campaign we want?

We’re going to find out.

1. It’s Monday, March 28, 2016.

2. Hope all Easter celebrants had a wonderful day.

3. Saturday was a great day for Bernie Sanders. He swept Hillary Clinton in the Alaska, Hawaii and Washington caucuses.

Notice that the word is caucuses. Not primaries. Other than Iowa, Sanders has wiped up the caucus states, and he didn’t do all that badly in Iowa either.

So before Sanders, who clearly has an affinity with birds, crows about his weekend triumph – a word of caution. 

Sanders does well in caucus states because his core support is young and enthusiastic. A caucus is something to do. Hang out with friends and back Bernie. And that’s great. And while some of the caucuses are in states Democrats won’t win in November, Hawaii and Washington are important to Team Blue.

But other than his home state of Vermont and neighboring New Hampshire, Clinton has dominated states with primaries. That five-for-five Tuesday earlier this month — all primaries. Sanders did well in Illinois and Missouri, but Clinton still won.

Primaries are for people who only have enough time to vote quickly before they go about the other things they have to do. They’re for older people, for sure, and they outnumber the youngsters, especially at the polls.

4. So Clinton has more delegates. She also has more votes. Quite a few more. It’s nowhere near as close as it was eight years ago with her and Barack Obama.

Sanders and his people will have more of a case if April is a good month for him. Wisconsin, New York, Pennsylvania and Eastern Seaboard states from Rhode Island to Maryland. If he can win any of these, he’ll have legitimate reason to be excited. If she takes ‘em all, it’s over.

It’s probably over anyway. But the race is still worth watching and running.

It’s March 25, 2016.

It’s Good Friday and the Easter weekend. A happy holiday to all who celebrate.

It’s also time for Friday Yes or No, my cop out way of getting one of these blog posts done. Except that, for some reason, it’s really to come up with at least 10 questions for which the answers can only be yes or no.

But here goes:

Q1: Normally speaking, should the spouses of presidential candidates be fair game during a campaign?

A1: No

Q2: This time around, there is an exception, right?

A2: Yes

Q3: And, for once a justified exception involving her, that would be Hillary Clinton’s spouse?

A3: Yes

Q4: And that would be because his past work experience includes the same job she’s seeking, and she has referenced his job tenure as part of her party’s record of success?

A4: Yes

Q4A: Although the scrutiny applies only to his work experience, right?

A4A: Yes

Q5: Would the same apply if he was just Bill Rodham, investment banker, model, ad executive or college president, the jobs of the other presidential candidate spouses?

A5: No

Q6: So that’s five questions down already, right?

A6: Yes

Q7: Does the word “idiot” adequately describe the governors of Indiana and North Carolina?

A7: No

Q8: Does it seem consistent that the Republican governor of North Carolina doesn’t want government interference in people’s lives, but is ready to monitor who goes to what bathroom?

A8: No

Q9: Does it seem consistent that the Republican governor of Indiana doesn’t want government interference in people’s lives, but is ready to force women in his state to bear children with Down syndrome?

A9: No

Q10: Will Americans be cheered by the fact that the No. 2 ISIS operative is headed for the hell he deserves?

A10: No

Q11: Is that because his miserable existence isn’t worth any one of the 30-plus people the jackals he inspired killed in the Brussels attack this week?

A11: Yes

Q12: And yet, it’s a really good thing that this pond scum died, right?

A12: Yes

Q13: Is it a good thing that the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York is getting replaced?

A13: Yes

Q14: Is it going to be worth the wait to 2026, when it might be finished?

A14: No

1. It’s Wednesday, March 23, 2016.

2. Reacting to the Brussels bombings, Ted Cruz called for the nation’s police departments to “patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods” in an effort to ward off similar attacks in the United States.

That puts Cruz and ISIS on the same team. They both want American Muslims isolated and alienated.

You can understand why ISIS – a collective of sick minds that tries to cloak itself in respectability by appropriating Islam – would feel that way. Like the vampires they are, ISIS’ members want fresh blood for their nihilistic view.

I can’t for the life of me think why any sane American, concerned with the threat of terrorism, wants to create breeding grounds for ISIS.

But then you have Cruz, supposedly more respectable than Donald Trump (just ask Jeb Bush), but at least as big a horse’s ass.

Muslims serve proudly and bravely in our military and our nation’s police forces. Their hard work in businesses across America pays the taxes that pay this dope’s salary as a U.S. senator. Their contributions to our society dwarf anything Cruz has done for anyone but himself.

Turning our law enforcement into a special Gestapo for Muslims is an insult, an affront to anyone with a sense of decency. It is exactly what Cruz and his ilk call “radical Islamists” want us to do in order to give a foothold in the United States.

It’s probably a little hyperbolic to say Ted Cruz is colluding with ISIS for mutual gain. But after a stupid statement like the one he made yesterday, it’s the end result.

3. Hillary Clinton won big in Arizona. Bernie Sanders won bigger in Utah and Idaho. The end result was that Sanders got five more delegates than Clinton in yesterday’s primary and caucuses.

That’s not going to change the basic picture in the Democratic race. And even when, as expected, Sanders sweeps Saturday’s contests in Washington State, Hawaii and Alaska, he still has way too far to go to catch Clinton.

Again, that should not stop Sanders. He’s doing the American people and the Democratic Party a service by raising issues that affect them every day. There are still primaries in some major states – New York, Pennsylvania and California, among others. Those folks have a right to be heard.

In the end, Clinton is likely to be the nominee. She’ll be a better one for having faced Sanders and embraced some of the ideas that he and his supporters have advanced.

4. One of those issues is income inequality and the fact that there are people who are working a full-time job and are still in poverty.

The people in California get a chance to do something about that. A ballot initiative this fall would raise the minimum wage statewide to $15 an hour, more than twice the current federal level of $7.25.  New York’s legislature will have also something to say on this issue, voting in the next few weeks on the $15-an-hour wage advocated by Gov. Andrew Cuomo and many labor groups. 

They’re getting a boost from a University of California study showing that, should New York implement the increase, it will improve living standards without costing jobs. That’s because a higher minimum wage reduces worker turnover and increases productivity, making it a net neutral for employers.

By contrast, Idaho’s legislature has approved legislation barring municipalities in the state from raising the minimum wage, the way certain cities have done elsewhere in the nation. The state’s governor let the measure become law without signing it, partly because even if he had objected, the bill passed with veto-proof margins. 

Of course, that’s Idaho, which doesn’t have as many as people as Queens alone. And, with mindsets like that of its lawmakers, for good reason.

2. Even if it was an exhibition game, I hate when the Yankees beat the Mets. Hopefully, we’ll do better when the games count in August.

1. It’s Tuesday, March 22, 2016.

2. Once again, scum surfaces briefly – this time in Brussels – to snuff out meaningful lives in the process of ending its own miserable one.

Once again, people who should be enjoying the arrival of spring are fearing people in their midst. The ones who don’t look like them, which is an awful lot of the human race.

There is no confirmation as to who launched these horrific attacks.

But I know one thing about them. Once again, the cockroaches of the human race have made their presence felt before dying off in their ignominious way. What they’ve done has nothing to do with religion or even politics, even though that might be how they’ll shroud themselves.

They believe in death, because their lives are so goddamn miserable. And, sadly, they’ve taken people who believe in life with them.

3. Here’s a couple of things you can bet on.

You can bet on the Republican presidential candidates to say that the Brussels attack shows how weak President Obama is, especially because he refuses to say that they’re Islamist terrorists.

You can bet on them to say that this proves that the best way to protect America is to ban – temporarily or otherwise – all Muslim immigration.

Maybe Trump won’t say, again, that Islam hates us. But maybe he will. Maybe he thinks the climate created by today’s attacks will make his lemmings and would-be lemmings more receptive to that message.

4. If you read the amazing interview with President Obama in The Atlantic, you’ll have an idea about how he reacts to attacks like the one in Brussels. While he understands Americans’ need to feel secure, he thinks panic is a stupid way to respond – and that’s what he saw in the response to Paris and San Bernardino.

It’s hard not to get mad and scared when you see something like what happened today in Brussels. But your being mad and scared is the aspiration of the people who do these things. Because they can’t make an impact on your life otherwise. They’re losers. They represent nothing but loserdom.

That’s not being naïve. It’s just that we have to trust that authorities are doing everything they can to keep us safe. And then we just go about our business. Otherwise, we’re just going to crawl in a hole. Just like the cockroaches who did what they did in Brussels, so we can join them in their misery.

5. I’m sorry this is so angry. In some ways, that gives in to the terrorists, too. 

I’ve never been to Brussels. Or Istanbul, which got hit over the weekend. Or Ankara, which got hit earlier. Or Jerusalem, which get hit all the time. Or San Bernardino, although I drove through once.

I’ve been to Paris. I’ve been to London. And, of course, I was in New York on Sept. 11, 2001.

There are things about all those places that are wonderful, because otherwise, why would people live there? That they’re all now associated with blood and murder on a mass scale is sad, but not as sad as the hole left in so many hearts by a wanton act.

My heart goes to all who’ve lost loved ones and friends, and the other citizens of Brussels who now must soldier on and live their lives seeing how much hate hurts.

5. Please God No Moore is no longer running a women’s tennis tournament in Indian Wells, Calif. This after his ridiculous comments that women are glomming off the men’s game and should go down on their knees every night in thankfulness for Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

The outcry against this jerk was swift and strong.

Now he can go home and get on his knees every night and pray to God for forgiveness – if She’s willing to give it.

1. It’s Monday, March 21, 2016.

2. It’s spring! YES!

3. I’m looking forward to the 2017 NCAA men’s basketball tournament. Because my bracket has been dead since day two this year, after my pick to win it all – Michigan State – bit the dust to something called Middle Tennessee.

Even though I didn’t pick them to go far, part of my rooting interest now is the Wisconsin Badgers. For one thing, I love rooting for teams Northwestern beat, and my Wildcats beat Wisconsin 70-65 in January. For another, the school keeps fighting the state’s morally challenged governor, who despite all his efforts to diminish one of the nation’s great public universities will try to bask in the glory of this basketball success.

My other cheering interest is Maryland, my daughter’s alma mater. The Terps held off Hawaii last night and now tackle the tournament’s No. 1 seed, Kansas. Let’s see what happens.

4. Serena Williams is one of the world’s best athletes. She might, in fact, be the world’s best athlete, if there was any objective way of measuring that.

Any idiot who attempts to diminish her deserves all the opprobrium that’s coming. And for the idiot who runs the Indian Wells tennis tournament, that’s going to be a lot.

This meatball, whose name is Raymond Moore but whose given names should be Please God No, made the following remarks about women who play professional tennis: “If I was a lady player, I’d go down every night on my knees and thank God that Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal were born, because they have carried this sport.”

That would come as news to the millions of people who have paid good money to see Maria Sharapova in the current era, and such greats as Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova and Steffi Graf in the past.

And especially to those who root for Serena Williams, who might be the best woman ever to play the sport. She has elevated the overall quality of tennis with her incredible athleticism and her ability to stay competitive for so long in a sport that burns out its stars young.

Ms. Williams is ticked off, and not just because she lost Please God No’s tournament in the finals. She referenced the interest she and her sister, Venus, bring to tournaments around the world, and the fact that they’re as big a draw as any man in tennis.

One other point. In addition to being an antediluvian cluck, Raymond (Please God No) Moore also is not especially patriotic. Federer is Swiss. Nadal is Spanish.

Serena Williams is proudly U.S.A. We should be as proud of her as she is of us.

5. Here’s a question: Where’s Ted Cruz?

Remember him? He’s supposed to be part of a hell-bent mission to stop Donald Trump from being the Republican presidential nominee.

And yet, you’re not going to find a lot of mention of Cruz in the news as this week starts. Trump’s rallies in Arizona and Utah resulted in more attention-getting punching and collar-grabbing.

But after looking around, I found that Cruz spent the weekend dropping in on an Assemblies of God congregation in Peoria, Ariz. The congregation prayed for him, which is touching.

Among the things Cruz told the church members was that each should go out and vote 10 times for him. Then he said that was a joke and that only Democrats committed that kind of voter fraud. 

Cruz’s low profile seems to be a way to lower expectations. He wants to seem like a comeback kid tomorrow when he wins Utah, as expected, and possibly wrestles Arizona from Trump, who’s ahead in the polls.

His big problem is that he only seems interested in people who go to church. The rest of us can, and will, go to hell.

It’s March 18, 2016.

Since I teach a journalism class on Friday mornings, I haven’t done a Friday Yes or No in quite some time. But it’s Spring Break, and so here I am, ready to answer questions I ask myself, simply and to the point.

Q1: Am I surprised that President Obama is supposedly pushing for Bernie Sanders to drop out of the presidential race?

A1: Yes

Q2: Wouldn’t it be better for Sanders to stay in the race, if only to highlight the fact that Democrats are focused on issues and their physical characteristics?

A2: Yes

Q3: Mitch McConnell shows up at the Kentucky Derby every year. Can you imagine how much fun a day at the track with Mitch might be?

A3: No

Q4: Doesn’t Garland Merrick seem like a more logical name than Merrick Garland?

A4: Yes

Q5: Was I disappointed when President Obama nominated Judge Garland (or is it Judge Merrick?) to the Supreme Court vacancy?

A5: Yes

Q6: Two days later, do I see the logic?

A6: Yes

Q7: That logic being that if President Obama picked a liberal dream justice, he wouldn’t be able to capitalize on the idea that he’s being reasonable and his Republican opponents are being obstinate?

A7: Yes

Q8: When I think of Mitch McConnell, do I think of that line from Sheryl Crow’s “All I Wanna Do” about the guy who’s never had a day of fun in his whole life?

A8: Yes

Q9: Do you think Mitch McConnell has ever heard that song?

A9: No

Q10: Was it smart of us to try to ignore Donald Trump’s presidential campaign last summer?

A10: No

Q11: So now we should take him as a serious American politician?

A11: No

Q12: A would-be statesman?

A12: No

Q13: A military leader to inspire confidence in our friends and troops, and fear in our foes?

A13: No

Q14: An administrator of the federal government, with all the things it has to do on a daily and prolonged basis?

A14: No

Q15: Is this presidential campaign scary enough for you yet?

A15: Yes

1. It’s Thursday, March 17, 2016.

2. It’s St. Patrick’s Day. I’m not Irish and will not pretend to be. But I know lots of people who are, and I will celebrate them and their incredible accomplishments toward making this country great. I hope they have a great day.

3. Yesterday was unusual for me in that I spent the day walking through New York. It’s the city where I worked for the better part of 40 years, but that I’ve only been to eight times since I left CNN in October 2014.

There were lots of things to see, some of which I might share in the days ahead. The support for Bernie Sanders as I walked through the city stuck out. Big time.

On the day after Hillary Clinton swept him, Sanders’ supporters didn’t hide. They wore their shirts. They wore their buttons. They wore their hats. They were all over Manhattan Island.

Not to mention all the stickers and posters and graffiti I saw on my trek. From Ground Zero through Chinatown, SoHo through Chelsea and all around Midtown, you could feel the Bern.

4. Normally, you can’t gauge whether a trendy thing in politics is genuine or just people trying to be cool. But when your candidate loses five out of five, and you’re still out there plugging away, it tends to say something about the authenticity of Sanders’ support.

And I see why. I’ve always been a Sanders fan. He is closer to me politically than almost anyone else I can think of. Economic inequality is heading this country in a horrible direction and Sanders’ straight-to-the-point approach of solving America’s problems has tremendous appeal.

5. But I support Clinton for President. She’s the smartest person in this race, and I’m still of the belief that it helps when a President is smart. We are so lucky to have someone like that now.

More important, she can win. Sanders can’t. Once Trump or whatever else the Republicans pull between now and the election start the socialist drumbeat against him, Americans over a certain age are going to be too scared to support him. And, sorry kids, but they vote.

6. And yet, the fact that Clinton won those five states on Tuesday is a sign that Sanders is running a fantastic campaign.

Now that seems contradictory. He lost. In Florida and Ohio, he lost pretty big.

But think back a week. To Michigan, where he shocked her and every pollster with an algorithm. As I wrote last week, it was partly because anger plays well in Michigan, the home state of Michael Moore and Ted Nugent. But he staked out a strong anti-trade position that was a winner.

Clinton, because she’s smart, learned from this. She addressed it in Ohio with similar concerns, and won big.

Now there are some who believe Clinton won because of the violence that has erupted in Trump World – that Democrats see the need to consolidate against the serious threat posed to the nation.

But I just believe Sanders is making her run a better campaign than if she waltzed through the Democratic nomination process unfettered. And he’s conditioning her and her team for what faces them in the fall.

7. There are some Democrats who believe Sanders has had his run, and should step aside. That’s nonsense. First, and foremost, the people walking through Greenwich Village and along the High Line should have their say. That happens April 19. So should the people on Santa Monica Pier and Pier 39 when they vote in June.

Sanders deserves credit for running a solid, issues-focused campaign that appeals to the core of what makes America great – the exact opposite of the campaign waged by someone whose red hats infer that America isn’t already great. There should be a good place for the Vermont senator and his supporters at the convention in Philadelphia.

And that’s where the Sanders campaign won’t end, but join with the Clinton campaign to save this country from catastrophe.