Hmmmm. With Ted’s ground game, he could easily get it on the 2nd ballot.
Get what? If the nom is stolen from Trump he pushes the GOP destruct button on his phone. Ted Cruz will never be POTUS.
If there is a Brokered Convention and G.O.P pisses away it's momentum with Shenanigans, than they are going to Lose in November, even if Cruz is the Nominee.
Whoever it is going to be needs to win outright. Too Much Bad Blood would have been brewed in our own ranks for the Repub Nominee to win. (We control our own destiny, 2016 is ours to lose)
And The GOPe and Bosses are perfectly fine with a loss.
Why? Because what difference would it make? Hillary is Pres? oh no....They still have their Buffets, Their Crackers and Cheese and they get to go to Nine Rivers Country Club every Sunday, so shut up base.
As you know, every other debate was a spectacle aimed at the “reality - pop culture” TV audience. Every other debate was purposed to raise ratings and revenue for whichever network was the sponsor.
Trump needs to show everyone that he has a detailed grasp of issues he will face when he is President. He needs to show everyone that he is not one-dimensional (”I’ll sue, it’s very big, you have a horse face, believe me, big wall, tweet-tweet, tariffs, excuse me, and I’m very rich”)
Trump needs to go one-on-one with Cruz to show off his over-powering understanding of economics, the bureaucracy, world history, US history, military strategy, current events, foreign policy, his political prowess, his grasp of judicial review, and his knowledge of the US Constitution and federal law.
It should go well for Trump - so why not?? He has nothing to lose and everything to gain.
One on one, Trump will have a chance to make Cruz look like an idiot, everyone will see it, and Trump will waltz to victory.
As an added bonus, he’ll strike fear in Hillary’s heart! She’ll get a taste of what she will face in a meaningful debate. During this Cruz debate, Trump can slip in a veiled warning to Hillary, I suggest “I haven’t even started on her yet” or something equally frightening.
Trump is so smart... I’m sure he knows this already. He’s probably just waiting for the right time to propose a real debate with Cruz (not like these pansy debates we’ve seen already.)
If Trump is that close he’ll cut a deal with John Kasich for the VP slot. That would get him the nomination on the first ballot.
Not that isn’t pretty
Trump's campaign has been a gamble -- he believes he can beat everyone else into the ground, and so doesn't have to worry about being liked by anyone other than his own supporters. The problem is that his own supporters haven't been a majority.
Trump hasn't been a politician, but the inescapable reality is that he's running for a political office, and so some political skills are required. And a successful politician needs to be able to build alliances.
This is just a prediction, albeit a relatively pro-Trump Breitbart prediction. It’s up to Trump.
What ground game..you mean the weaseling he does after losing a primary election?
Hence why cry baby Donald had such a hissy fit after Wisconsin
WTH is this unbound delegate crapola?. People vote for a candidate but the delegates can vote however? What kinda BS system is this? And the DemRats have superdelegates beyond the voter representation. Corrupt tasbards extreme.
Radio host Mark Davis said a solution to this would be Trump promising to put Ted Cruz in Scalia’s Supreme Court seat.
Does this include the stolen delegates?
If Trump is that close, he will win on the first ballot with uncommitteds and released delegates. That would be the same as Ford in 1976.
The idea that every delegate not 110% for Trump would never vote for him just isn’t true. Delegates who have a long-term commitment to the GOP as a viable party want it together to fight another day.
All that is assuming Trump doesn’t somehow disqualify himself.
I think the Donald long time ago said something about if the GOP screws him over, he will run as Independent.
Cruz getting nomination without having one the majority of states will result in Trump running as an Independent.
After which, either Sanders or Hillary win, and likely get to appoint the next 5 Supreme Court justices. And then you have an entire GENERATION of 6-3 and 7-2 liberal decisions.
Good luck preventing illegal immigration, socialism, more pro-gay, pro-tranny, pro-Muslim stuff with Sanders or Hillary appointing 5 justices on top of the 2 Obama appointed.
I’m not even sure how far they’ll go with that kind of supremacy in the Supreme Court. Probably see an end to religious rights. The US will probably become as cluster*#*$ like the EU.
Michael Patrick Leahy
Any relation to Leaky?
> “He would need to win 58.9 percent of the remaining ***pledged*** delegates to obtain the simple majority necessary.”
Flynn and Leahy are a pair, aren’t they? A pair of unlikable stooges, why?
Because by their own statement they reveal they understand there are ***pledged*** delegates. Which means they understand there are other types of delegates. In fact, there are 323 unbound delegates.
In fact again, the Trump Campaign via its delegate mathematician Barry Bennett had allowed for ZERO delegates in WI to be added to the tally on target for the nomination, yet the campaign picked up 6 delegates there. These are BONUS delegates. Trump is actually ahead of his plan. WI was always viewed as a loss but the campaign team worked the outlying areas and came away with 6 bonus delegates to their tally.
And of the 323 unbound delegates, it is realistic that Donald will get at least 100+ of those, thereby pushing him over the top of the 1237 threshold.
So Flynn and Leahy, go back to your cubicles and try again. This time, don’t come back out as flunkies.
172 is an outsized number relative to the number of Republicans left in California.
I don’t care what “ground game” St. Ted has. You guys really, really have to face reality. There are only two choices in this election, neither ending in “z.”
It’s either Trump or a candidate of the GOPe’s choosing, probably Ryan, maybe Kasich, but not . . . NOT . . . Cruz.
His “ground game” isn’t going to miraculously corral 700 delegates, which is what he needs, especially considering that IF anything goes to round 2, Rubio and Yeb are right back in the mix because they haven’t released their delegates yet.
Some of you Cruzers really are dense and fail to see the stark choice facing our nation. Cruz from about January on has been one of those little steel traffic stops that can be lowered when you push a button. The GOPe will push the button if and when they stop Trump.
So Trump only needs 74 of the 300 something uncommitted delegates to put him over the top. I think he can afford that.
It will be a phyrric victory if he does i will NEVER vote for the gay Cuban Lothario.
Trump needs to get his act together. If Cruz teaches him the importance of a good ground game by the end of the primaries, that will be will worth the stress when Trump has that good ground game for the November general election. Playing a casual game will not cut it against the Clinton Crime Syndicate and the far left. If Trump can’t beat Ted Cruz, he’s not ready for the general election.
Trump needs to find loyal delegates he can choose from PA and push for their selection. He needs a full slate of NJ delegates (last I heard, he didn’t have anywhere close to that), or a sweep of NJ will do no good at all, not even in the first round of voting. The same for several other states. He needs his people involved in choosing state delegates, even where he already won, so that he will get loyal delegates who are not eager to defect.
It’s Trump’s job to demonstrate that he is the master of The Art of the Deal, make the deals he needs to get the right delegates and keep them loyal, and win. He needs to “negotiate great deals” with the unbound delegates from the many states he won and even with the unbound delegates from the relatively few other states. Preferably, he should win on the first round ballot, but he needs to already be working on the second round ballot. If Trump doesn’t win the nomination, knowing at the start that this game is dealt from a crooked deck, it’s his fault. Not Cruz. Not Kasich. Trump.
Trump can win on his own - if he does this right. Trump can win easily if he coordinates with Cruz. Perhaps Trump needs to offer Cruz a great deal. I will be voting for Trump, but if Trump can’t play politics well enough to get the delegates he needs for the convention, I’d rather see Cruz as the nominee.