It can be said the commentariat dismissed Donald Trump as a viable threat to Secretary Hillary Clinton. Given that Matthew Dowd’s prediction of Hillary’s chance of winning was a fair and balanced 95%, it’s fair to say they viewed his candidacy as a complete joke. Although they couldn’t tar Trump with the stupid brush that they did with President George W. Bush, their approach involved focusing on how mad, how unpredictable, and how flippant he was. Granted, his foot and mouth did seem to constantly meet, but there was once again a method to his madness.

Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert (and a trained hypnotist), predicted that Donald Trump would win due to two simple reasons. Firstly, he spoke in “visual ways”. According to Adams this resonated with voters as using a visual approach connects with the “most persuasive part of the brain.” To demonstrate, he used visual devices like pointing to his “crowd sizes”, describing ISIS as, “putting people in cages and chopping off heads”, and always linking illegal immigration to a, “beautiful, big wall.” Donald Trump is a businessman and a television star – two industries which rely heavily on advertising. He knew exactly how to sell a product and sell he did.

Secondly, Trump used a business approach of A and B testing. While it would appear he was flippant and often contradicting himself, Adams believed he cleverly tested his policies with the electorate through his campaign rallies. When something didn’t test well, he was quick to change his position. While his detractors saw this as contradictory, they missed the genius in his shaping and honing his positions before that first Tuesday in November. While Hillary road tested 84-85 slogans, somehow ending up with what sounded like an advertisement for mixing scotch with bourbon – ‘Stronger together’ – Trump really knew what his electorate wanted because he constantly honed it on a live audience.

After President Bush beat Vice President Gore, the excuse from the left was the election was rigged. When President Trump beat Secretary Clinton, the excuse was the Russians hacked the election. If President Trump wins re-election in 2020, what do you think the chances are that the left trot out another excuse? Tell Matt Dowd I’d be willing to go higher than 95% on that one.