The movement to stop Donald Trump is looking with hopeful eyes to the Republican National Convention this summer, where the front-running billionaire may finally know defeat. Anti-Trump forces are banking on enough candidates denying Mr. Trump an outright majority of delegates, allowing another contender to block him on the convention floor. As of today, this is the best—and maybe only—way to keep the incendiary real estate developer from becoming the Republican nominee for president.

The Republican establishment should still think twice before heading down that road.

If Mr. Trump enters Cleveland with more delegates than any of his rivals and finds himself on the losing end of a floor flight, the backlash the Republican establishment and, more importantly, their candidate for president would endure could be nothing short of titanic. Does Mitt Romney think Mr. Trump, with his acid insults, furious tweets and increasingly belligerent rallies, is bad now? Imagine, for a moment, a scorned Donald Trump, whipped into a truly righteous fury with an army of supporters who would like nothing more than to burn the political establishment down to the ground. Imagine him occupying the high road—a man of the people denouncing a cadre of insiders who screwed over a candidate the voters really wanted. Imagine 10,000 Trump voters massing in the streets of Cleveland.

There is no good way for the GOP establishment to get out of this. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, briefly their great hope, is tanking, and may be forced from the race if Mr. Trump wins the Sunshine State next week as polls suggest. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas appears to be in the best position to slow down Mr. Trump, but his colleagues despise him and “best” is all relative; he’s a candidate who performs well with deeply conservative voters and could be throttled in the larger, more cosmopolitan states, like New York and California, that go to the polls over the next few months. John Kasich, the Ohio governor, is in the flower of a nice comeback, but it looks like he’s too far behind to catch up to Mr. Trump.

http://observer.com/2016/03/should-the-republican-establishment-give-up-on-2016/