March 5, 2016 --

What on earth were you thinking when you met with the New York Times editorial board, January 5. If you were hoping to win their hearts and minds, you clearly failed.

See the paper's lead editorial, March 2, referring to you as "a shady. bombastic liar," a candidate "whose quest for the presidency revolves around targeting religious and racial minorities and people with disabilities, who flirts with white supremacists and the Ku Klux Klan, who ridicules and slanders those who disagree with him."

Yes, Senator Marc Rubio and Senator Ted Cruz ganged-up on you, at the GOP's March 3 "debate." John Kasich appeared to be the adult, suggesting that while the name-calling three are going at it, the American people are suffering from Democrat policies the past seven years -- but of the anti-Trump gang of three, Kasich might be the most dangerous; he made it clear that he is a war-party hawk on Ukraine and Putin, and, as president, could very well bring us into armed conflict with Russia -- for regime change purposes, probably.

Donald, stop the name-calling and take Newt Gingrich's advice to inject some humor into your remarks. You might begin by dropping claims of poll-propelled popularity and, instead, deprecate today's polls as not being a very reliable guide to the mood of the public on November 8, 2016. Even if they tab you today as beating Ms. Clinton! Finally, why not cite the wisdom of James Madison in Federalist No. 57?