AP: Ted Cruz now mathematically eliminated from clinching GOP nomination

[silverhandorder]

How so? I would say they support it.



Yes, to win a caucus you need to organize a small amount of people. To win a primary not much organization (at least when compared to a caucus) is really needed. If you have enough name recognition, media exposure and are a perceived front runner, most of it will take care of itself.

There is a lot more. You need to figure out what voters want. That takes polling and smarts.

You need to get endorsements.

You would be surprised how local actual voting patterns are.

 

[goldwater's ghost]

People have different #1 issues. Some care more about foreign policy, which I honestly don't get. To me, economics is #1. Having a candidate who at least understands the unintended consequences of stupid economic policies is so important, especially now that the left is moving even more to the left and are pushing for disastrous policies.

We have a republican party afraid to challenge these idiots on the minimum wage because they fear being called names. Some republicans like Kasich even support the idea! As far as the choices we have now, there is not even a question in my mind as to who I would rather have as the nominee. While I don't like Cruz, I would much rather have someone who will challenge Hillary in the general, on these issues, and even global warming.

Trump has no clue how to defend the free market position. He proved this when he was asked about the minimum wage. He gave the worst $#@!ing possible answer he could have. The man is clueless. The man stated that healthcare is one of the main functions of the government. Again, $#@!ing clueless.

Economics is the most important issue right now because young people are becoming more open to socialism. This is dangerous $#@!.

me too. economics is number one , two and three on my list of most important factors and cruz is clearly, at least to me, the best spoken on the topic out of any of the remaining five candidates. trump scares the hell out of me. not because he's evil but because he's incompetent imo. i can deal with a jerk in the office but fools are what ruin countries

 

[Mani]

I've gone back and forth on this.

On the one hand, the best way to destroy the Trump "movement" is to let him win the nomination and then get destroyed by Hillary.

...as will happen, sure as the day is long.

On the other hand, this chimp is really going to be the GOP nominee?

He'll destroy he party as an instrument for, well, anything, including libertarian activity, for many years.

I'm at a loss.

So, by default, my position will be whatever most irritates the Trumpanzees.

Therefore, Go Cruz.

Let's have a brokered convention, with Trump losing in public due to his own electoral incompetence re delegate selection.

Let him be revealed for the imbecile he is.

...Oh, and if anyone challenges the logic of this plan, my retort shall be: "burn it all down," or sumpin.

I'm wondering, would it be more helpful if trump doesn't get enough delegates, but is the clear leader and when they get to convention tons of obvious blatant cheating is recorded for many to see, and for some reason people will be actually watching said cheating, (instead of last time around) and people wake up and realize the whole damn thing is a charade? Pulling away the curtain and causing the masses to see the thing is fixed?

Would that do enough harm to do good?

Cruz goes forward as the disgraced, challenged winner that everything thinks is BS, coz the GOP is caught propping him up and he's the most unpopular candidate ever. Only bad thing is Hillary wins. But out of that chaos does something good happen?



Or will people be outraged for a couple weeks, then a Kardashian or Jenner gets pregnant and everyone forgets what they were mad about and just bitches about Hillary now and then.

 

[erowe1]

I'm wondering, would it be more helpful if trump doesn't get enough delegates, but is the clear leader and when they get to convention tons of obvious blatant cheating is recorded for many to see, and for some reason people will be actually watching said cheating, (instead of last time around) and people wake up and realize the whole damn thing is a charade? Pulling away the curtain and causing the masses to see the thing is fixed?

Would that do enough harm to do good?

They probably won't need to cheat. If it goes to the second ballot, I don't think there's much chance that Trump will ever have the support of 50% of the delegates after that.

What's more likely is that Trump himself gets caught cheating and bribing delegates, than that the establishment does.

 

[erowe1]

There is a lot more. You need to figure out what voters want. That takes polling and smarts.

You need to get endorsements.

You would be surprised how local actual voting patterns are.

In most cases you're right. But with Trump this isn't the case. The MSM is doing most of his work for him.

 

[CaptUSA]

At this point, Trump isn't running against Cruz, he's running against the majority of GOP delegates. It remains to be seen whether he can win over the majority prior to the first vote or not. If not, it means (by definition) that the majority of GOP delegates want someone else to represent their party.

I find it hard to believe that if Trump doesn't win over a majority on the first vote, that Cruz would win over a majority on a second, or subsequent, vote. Thus the reason why Kasich is hanging in there.

I really don't care which one of these guys the GOP picks. They're going to lose. But I do want to break out the popcorn watching them fight it out.

 

[erowe1]

I find it hard to believe that if Trump doesn't win over a majority on the first vote, that Cruz would win over a majority on a second, or subsequent, vote. Thus the reason why Kasich is hanging in there.

I think you're right about Kasich. But it's a strange strategy. He doesn't need to keep campaigning in primaries and caucuses in order to be eligible on later ballots. If he wanted to win the nomination the case could be made that he would be better off focusing his efforts on campaigning directly to the delegates who have already been elected as delegates bound on the first ballot to other candidates so that he could win their votes on the later ballots.

He's probably just there to help make sure that neither Trump nor Cruz can win.

He's also an ideal VP choice no matter who gets the nomination. So using this opportunity to build his national name recognition helps him in that too.

 

[CPUd]

One of Kasich's main strategists is Charlie Black, hired on March 15

Trump's old guy is Roger Stone, who was quitfired early in the campaign, but still acts as an unofficial surrogate.
Trump's new guy is Paul Manafort, hired on March 29.

They are all longtime partners:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black,_Manafort,_Stone_and_Kelly

 

[enhanced_deficit]

Overheard: Rafael "send Obama back to Kenya" Cruz says Hillary is beter than Trump. Need to verify quote.

 

[r3volution 3.0]

I'm wondering, would it be more helpful if trump doesn't get enough delegates, but is the clear leader and when they get to convention tons of obvious blatant cheating is recorded for many to see, and for some reason people will be actually watching said cheating, (instead of last time around) and people wake up and realize the whole damn thing is a charade? Pulling away the curtain and causing the masses to see the thing is fixed?

Would that do enough harm to do good?

Cruz goes forward as the disgraced, challenged winner that everything thinks is BS, coz the GOP is caught propping him up and he's the most unpopular candidate ever. Only bad thing is Hillary wins. But out of that chaos does something good happen?

If Trump goes into Cleveland with a plurality but not a majority (a distinction which his supporters evidently cannot grasp..), and doesn't walk out with the nomination, his people will linger for months/years, re-energized by what they will have wrongly perceived as fraud. We'll have to suffer these people for a long time. On the other hand, if Trump does become the nominee, that will be quite possibly a death blow for the Republican Party. And, no, not in the way that Trumpanzees think; it may become a one party system dominated by Democrats (like Trump, for instance).

And, obviously, Trump will never be President. Hillary will beat him in the worst Republican defeat since FDR.

Trump will lose the South.

...and then go golfing with his rapist friend Bill.

...who called him to encourage him to run last year.

Or will people be outraged for a couple weeks, then a Kardashian or Jenner gets pregnant and everyone forgets what they were mad about and just bitches about Hillary now and then.

Trump is the fat girl you met at the bar one night in a moment of excessive exuberance, whom you greatly regret the next day...

One year from now, people (and also Trump supporters) will look back on this like a bad dream.

...wondering just WTF they were thinking, as they look forward to 8 years of Hillary.

And anyone associated with Trump will be blackballed, personae non gratae (and rightly so).

...which makes the talk from Trumpkins about Rand endorsing Trump hilarious.

At this point, there's nothing to do but watch the trainwreck.