By Margaret Mulvihill

We’ve been trumped. It’s time to stop giggling at the Donald Trump entertainment phenomenon. There is nothing remotely entertaining at the prospect of handing the White House keys to Donald and Melania Trump.

While we were all being greatly entertained by the crude comments of the Trump campaign spokespeople, and while we were being collectively taken aback by Trump’s personal attacks on his main competitors, the man himself was scheming his way to the top of the political leaderboard.

Here’s an alphabetical list of the more well-known Republican Party candidates for the 2016 presidential nominee race:

See all those WITHDRAWN candidates? Trump did that. Who’s next on his list? Heading into Super Tuesday, it looks to be a one-man race. Donald Trump. Most of us only sat up and took notice when Trump crushed it in South Carolina, taking all the delegates.  Jeb! the politician formerly known as Jeb Bush, wisely suspended his candidacy. On to Nevada last night, where the major networks called it for Trump within the first ten minutes of poll closings. Now five candidates remain.

Carson and Kasich are a puzzlement to me, I don’t understand why either one of them is still running. Rubio and Cruz can battle it out for second and third places all they like – neither one of them will ever be #1.  Trump did that. 

I’ve heard a lot of criticism from all sides about the paucity of candidates running on the democratic ticket. True, one can but agree. The Democratic Party is a hot mess, and will stay that way until Wasserman Schultz is fired. If President Obama had any interest in retail party politics, she would have been gone two years ago when she vocally failed to support one of his initiatives.  It’s a small consolation that the two remaining democratic candidates are equally electable. Take that as you will.

The Republican Party as we grew to know it is no more. What began with a huge and odd assortment of candidates has reduced itself to three equally deplorable candidates.

I suspect the last man standing after Super Tuesday will be Donald Trump.

Margaret Mulvihill is Director of Communications at Lawson Mulvihill Media Inc., in Washington, DC.  Follow her on Twitter: https://twitter.com/political_pr