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As it stands, the two people most likely to accept their parties' nominations at this summer's national conventions are Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Each has a sizable lead in delegates; each, we are assured by their opponents, will somehow end up losing. Those opponents, Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders*, are hardly objective observers of the situation of course, any more than was Marco Rubio, whose last-minute insistence that he would win Florida was heartbreaking in the manner of an afterschool special. ("You'll get 'em next time, Tiger," we all sniffed. "You'll get 'em next time.") But it's an interesting...

Ohio Gov. John Kasich rebuked Sen. Ted Cruz's call to "patrol and secure" Muslim neighborhoods in the wake of the deadly explosions in Brussels on Tuesday. "We are not at war with Islam--we're at war with radical Islam," Kasich told reporters in Minneapolis, according to the New York Times. "In our country we don't want to create divisions where we say, 'OK, well your religion, you're a Muslim, so therefore we're going to keep an eye on you." He added, "The last thing we need is more polarization." ISIS has since claimed responsibility for the attacks, which have killed at...

RNC chairman Reince Priebus joined George Stephanopoulos on ABC's This Week to discuss violence at Donald Trump's rallies and this summer's Republican National Convention. Asked whether the idea of a contested convention was still "an extreme hypothetical," Priebus explained: Uh -- uh probably not still the case, no. I think it's possible. We're preparing for the possibility. I think it's my job is to be as open and transparent as I possibly can be. Why I'm trying to get out there on the convention a lot, out in the media. Talk about the rules. What they are, what they're not....

What's that famous saying? "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." It's time for Ted Cruz to wake up and make the phone call that changes history, changes the GOP, changes the course of America. It's time to face reality. Donald Trump will be the 2016 GOP presidential nominee. Only Trump has a path to the nomination. Ted Cruz is delusional if he thinks he can win the nomination...or deserves to win the nomination. He was shut out on Tuesday night. Shut out as in zero, zilch, zip, nada. It was Trump 4, Kasich 1, Cruz 0, Rubio cut from...

Polling begun and completed after the March 10 debate shows radical changes in Ohio and Illinois ahead of their March 15 primaries. In both primaries, Ted Cruz is surging, on the strength of a strong debate performance. In Ohio, a winner take all primary with 66 delegates on the line, the latest poll by CBS, conducted from March 9-11, shows Trump and Kasich tied at 33% each with Ted Cruz surging to 27% up from his pre-debate showing of 19%. Easy to dismiss as an outlier? Not if you also look at CBS' Illinois poll that has Trump leading by...

Ohio Governor John Kasich, who has staked his Republican presidential campaign on the upcoming contests in the Midwest, said on Monday he would not need a lead in the delegate count before his party's convention to win the nomination, according to media reports. "In order to be the nominee, you have to have a certain number of votes," Kasich said after a town hall in Monroe, Michigan, which holds its presidential primary on Tuesday. "You've got to win. You don't just say, 'Well, I have more than anybody else, therefore I'm in,'" Kasich said, according to the Washington Post. Kasich,...

A series of new polls released Sunday show Sen. Ted Cruz surging in key Tuesday battleground states, including Illinois, Ohio and Florida. In Illinois, a new CBS Battleground Tracker poll has real estate mogul Donald Trump and Cruz now locked in a statistical dead head, 38 to 34, for first place. In the NBC/WSJ poll for Illinois, Trump leads with 34 percent, with Cruz close at 25 percent. Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Sen. Marco Rubio come in at 21 and 16 percent, respectively. In Ohio, Cruz is now nipping at the heels of both Kasich and Trump for first...

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump has postponed his Monday night rally scheduled in Florida and will instead hold an event in Ohio. Trump was planning to hold an event Monday night at Trump National Doral. Instead, the candidate will hold a "massive rally" in Youngstown, Ohio, according to the campaign.

Really, now: Who really knows what any of this means; and I say "tie" advisedly if you factor in the Margin Of Error. OHIO: TRUMP: 33% KASICH: 33% CRUZ: 27% FLORIDA: TRUMP: 44% CRUZ: 24% RUBIO: 21% But, I think it does mean there is a powerful reason to believe that a Vote for Ted Cruz, is, well, a vote for Ted Cruz. In Florida, as well as in Ohio, it means that some sort of clever-by-half strategy to Stop Trump needn't necessarily be employed. This is a shift in the political tectonic plates. Imagine if you substitute the word...

BALLWIN, Mo.--While Ted Cruz suggested on Friday night that Donald Trump's campaign "affirmatively encourages violence," he said on Saturday that he would still support Trump if the New Yorker wins the GOP nomination. "My answer is the same," Cruz told reporters here at a suburban St. Louis high school. "I committed at the outset, I will support the Republican nominee, whoever it is." "Ted Cruz is going to be the nominee," interjected Carly Fiorina, a former GOP presidential candidate who is now backing Cruz. But pressed again on whether Cruz stands by his decision to back Trump if he is...

Just got a call from a Trump phone bank volunteer to remind us about voting Tuesday. He said that it was very important that Trump's name is on the ballot twice, and if it's not marked in both places, this would go as a vote for Kasich. This was a "Trump for President" official campaign caller, as based on all the disclaimers and asking if we supported Trump. Does anyone know anything about this? How can it go for Kasich if you don't check The Mailman's name?

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Seventeen-year-olds who will turn 18 before the fall presidential election can vote in Ohio's presidential primary, a judge ruled Friday in a potential boost for Democrat Bernie Sanders as he fights to open elections across the country to the young people who are among his key supporters. The judge's decision reversed instructions from the swing state's election chief just days before Tuesday's primary and amid early voting. Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted initially vowed to appeal the ruling, then opted not to fight it after a state appeals court set a hearing for Monday....

Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.wkyc.com/news/politics/four-reasons-ted-cruz-could-win-ohio/72520313

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vExmqVkv1ds

Republican campaign veteran Ed Rollins calls Trump an "asset" to the party who is "energizing voters who haven't traditionally voted." However, Rollins said, Trump needs to define what he means when he calls himself a "commonsense conservative." "I think he carries every state right today that Republicans have been traditionally carrying, which is what Romney did," Rollins aid on FOX News this morning. "He probably puts Michigan in play, which we haven't in a long, long time. Certainly Ohio is the key. Again, he's ahead of a very popular governor we see in the polls. My sense is that Donald...

Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.kens5.com/story/news/2016/02/23/ted-cruz-marco-rubio-super-tuesday-states-fundraising/80802330/

This is already the most fascinating Republican presidential primary campaign since the fabled Ford-Reagan fight of 1976, But at the moment it looks like it won't turn out as well from the establishment's perspective. Back then, the establishment managed to put their candidate over the top against his right-wing challenger. That's not likely to happen this year. That's because the Ford-Reagan race was essentially a two-man race. But the Trump-Rubio-Cruz race has three men in it. One is likely to keep getting around a third of the vote while the other two split up most of the remainder. The hope...

If you think the arguments between the Republican candidates have been bad, well, you ain't seen nothing yet. Pundits, reporters and political analysts are going to really have at it. Two competing theories about the Republican race are about to come to a head, and both of them can claim a victory of sorts after South Carolina. The first theory is simple. It can be summarized in one word: Trump! The more detailed version would argue the following: * Trump has easily won two of the first three states. * Trump is ahead in the polls in pretty much every...

An aide to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's (R) likely presidential campaign resigned late Tuesday night just a day after her hire was announced. Liz Mair, who was a digital strategist for Walker, came under a storm of criticism for her advocacy for some relatively liberal policy positions and colorful tweets that critics claimed were insulting to Iowans. "In other news, I see Iowa is once again embarrassing itself, and the GOP, this morning. Thanks, guys," Mair wrote about a January event hosted by conservative Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), according to the Associated Press. "The sooner we remove Iowa's front-running status,...

Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.expressnews.com/business/eagle-ford-energy/article/Cruz-is-big-oil-s-new-crush-as-donors-cool-to-6843524.php