Posted on 05/02/2016 1:18:37 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Since Trumps entirely predictable sweep of the liberal Republicans in the Eastern primaries, the conservative as well as liberal media under the banner of Trump the Inevitable have been endlessly repeating their wishful thinking that Cruz is officially DOA. Which brings to mind the truly hilarious spoof Cruz himself does on YouTube of the epic scene in The Princess Bride in which Billy Crystal as Miracle Max declares the Dread Pirate Roberts only mostly dead. But the Dread Pirate didnt have the unpledged Republican Convention delegates, and Cruz just might.
If the media clairvoyants who tally up delegate projections would step away from their giant number screens stacked with guesses they might notice events turning in Cruz favor.
A recent Washington Post survey of delegates found Cruz could pick up an additional 130-170 delegates on a second ballot if Trump doesnt have enough to win the nomination on the first ballot. And most of the high foreheads sitting at their shiny media election desks say he wont.
Its also possible that Marco Rubio could bestow on Cruz many or all of the 172 delegates hell bring to the convention even though he has officially suspended his campaign. Some read Rubios interview with prominent radio and TV conservative Mark Levin as hinting at exactly that. I hope that theyll nominate a conservative. Rubio told Levin. The only (candidate) that fits that criteria is Ted Cruz. Certainly the beliefs and policies Rubio voiced during his campaign would more closely ally him with Cruz than any other contender.
For now, Rubio is playing his delegates close to the chest, perhaps to mount a surprise Ted Cruz rescue on the first ballot. But if the GOP retains its current convention rule that a contestant must have won eight states to be nominated, many of Rubios delegates will go to others according to state guidelines since he hasnt qualified.
Still, something is happening to shift delegates to the principled conservative Senator Cruz even in states where Trump won the primary. At Arizonas Republican Convention a few days ago, Cruz pulled off what the AP is calling a strategic victory as he won a large majority of delegates to the RNC in July. Cruz supporters were elected as virtually all of the 28 at-large national delegates and roughly split the 27 chosen by congressional district. Though all 58 delegates are required to vote Trump on the first ballot because he won the primary, they will doubtless shift to Cruz on the second.
Trump devotees predictably sent up a great howl of unfair! at the results. But they didnt complain when, although Cruz and Kasich together won 35 percent of the primary vote, because of Arizonas rules neither got even a single delegate. Rather, Trump seized all the delegates with his 47 percent of the vote.
Cruzs victories on state convention floors may be righting some of these inequities. In Indianas crucial contest, 27 delegates from nine congressional districts were elected before the actual May 3 primary, many or even most of them Cruz supporters.
According to the Indianapolis Star, some of these Cleveland delegates say they've already received threatening messages from The Donalds supporters after expressing a certain hostility to the real estate mogul in media interviews.
Some got emails warning that the delegates are being watched and imply they could be targeted. Some send sinister wishes to delegates' families. Trump's Indiana campaign called the threats "deplorable."
But Indiana primary voters are also watching, and thuggish threats against their local Republican leaders may turn them against Trump. Craig Dunn, a delegate and Republican chairman of Indiana's 4th Congressional District, said, Its very disappointing. I probably received 25 to 30 hate emails, phone calls, and voice mails, posts on Facebook. Now theyre hunting down friends of mine and posting that kind of stuff on their Facebook pages.
Another 27 at-large delegates will be selected May 4, after the Indiana primary. They must vote for the winner of the primary during the first balloting round at the convention, but after that if no candidate has a majority of delegates, theyre unbound and can vote for the candidate of their choice.
Under the headline, Trumps getting trounced in Indiana Politico writer Kyle Cheney declared, The state hasnt even voted and convention delegates are already lined up against the front-runner. Interviewing Republicans there, he found, Anti-Trump sentiment runs hot among GOP leadership in Indiana, and its driving a virulent rejection of the mogul among likely delegates.
Cheney quoted Kyle Babcock, a delegate who expressed doubts about Trump winning the general election. "Donald Trump talks about polls, polls, polls," Babcock said. "Thats been the theme of his campaign. Using that methodology, Im looking at polls, and that leads me to believe at this point that Donald Trump can't beat Hillary Clinton."
Hes right, according to the latest Real Clear Politics average of polls which has Trump losing to Clinton by 8.5 points while Cruz is within three points of her: margin-of-error striking distance.
Indianas activist Republicans seem to mirror the growing awareness among the electorate that a closer look at Trump reveals a plethora of warts. The Real Clear Politics average of polls has Trump only up by 4.1 percent, whereas as just a few weeks ago he was trouncing Cruz. One poll actually predicts Cruz beating Trump by a whopping 16 points.
It looks like Trump disillusionment is settling in. Maybe its the violent demonstrations that increasingly plague Trump rallies. Or the fact that the man has bounced back and forth his whole life from Democrat to Independent to Republican, telling CNNs Wolf Blitzer that his views are probably more Democrat than Republican and Democrats are better at the economy. Oh, and Hillary was a great secretary of state. Or maybe The Wall doesnt have the allure it did before he started promising the big fat hole hed carve in it so immigrants could come back right after theyd paid a short visit to their home countries.
In the battle for delegates, Miracle Max may yet show up for Ted Cruz.
Just saw that episode a few weeks ago. Yeah, I’m way behind because I only see reruns. They are at about 2010 and early 2011 right now.
He's more like the BLACK KNIGHT, in MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL, than anything in PRINCESS BRIDE!
Counting on a win, in a contested convention, on the second or third or fourth, or 100th ballot is akin to believing. back in 2008, that Obama was going to unify this nation, bring peace to the world, and lower the rising seas. ;^)
I’m going to stick up for 2DV just a little bit. This is a (conservative) political forum for the discussion of differing points of view. It is important to know what is being said. It is not useful to any of us to just parrot what we want to believe. Alas, Ted Cruz is still there, not as a viable candidate, but as a spoiler, and it is helpful to know that. We just read that yet another state convention (Arizona) chose a full slate of Cruz delegates instead of allowing a slate of delegates that reflected the fact that Trump won the state. There is a problem here and we need to face it. The delegates can change the rules of the convention, and if the delegates are packed with Cruz sympathizers they may very likely elect to do so, changing the rules in such a way as to allow Cruz’ name to be placed in nomination, refusing to seat delegates won in open primary states, etc. Ted Cruz is still a menace, and can still thwart the will of the voters and ensure the nomination of himself or an establishment candidate such as Jeb Bush.
It is important to be aware of what is going on, and the fact that 2DV posts these things is helpful, albeit distressing. More than anything though, I wish Cruz and Kasich, would do the right thing, respect the will of the people and withdraw to stem the damage being done to our party and to all of our candidates.
Been here quite a bit longer than you Zoomie.
How does Trump not get to 1,237 if Cruz steps aside?
For that matter, how does Trump not get to 1,237 if Cruz doesn't step aside?
Either way, what's your logic?
It's just a matter of unifying the party sooner, rather than later, at this point.
Sooner is much better than later.
Ted Cruz is a caricature. If the situation with Donald Trump was reversed, the outcry for Trump to step aside would be widespread and deafening.
Ted Cruz already criticized Kasich for not dropping out once he didn't have a path to 1,237. Well, Cruz doesn't have a path either, now, so now he just keeps moving the goalposts. He'll continue to do that, but it will never make any difference.
Where I come from, that's called rank hypocrisy.
Ted Cruz is acting the GOPe spoiler, plain and simple, and he won't even accomplish that.
Cruz is blowing his future Presidential aspirations at this point. His current aspirations are already a dumpster fire.
It's been awkward to even watch him for awhile now, and it's just getting worse...
Vote Trump
OW!
Oh I can’t do it. Even though I am heartless, I can’t do it.
Is there such a thing as hair cancer?
His threads are lively, gotta give credit where credit is due.
Yes, it does!
I always stop reading when I come across a line like this. Marco Rubio has no delegates because he suspended his campaign. All of his delegates have become unbound as soon as he suspended.
From Republican Party Rules of Procedures - Revised September 25, 2015:
RULE 10 Selection of Delegates and Alternate Delegates to the Republican National ConventionB. All Delegates and Alternate Delegates Awarded to Statewide Winner of Florida Presidential Preference Primary
The Republican presidential candidate receiving the highest number of statewide votes at the Florida Presidential Preference Primary shall be awarded all delegates and alternate delegates to the Republican National Convention. The delegates and alternate delegates shall be elected as prescribed by Rule 10(D). The Chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, or his or her designee, shall be bound to count and cast all delegate votes for that presidential candidate during the first three convention ballots unless the convention rules state that delegates are bound for more than three ballots. If the candidate to whom the delegate votes are bound releases the delegates or withdraws his or her candidacy, then the delegate votes will not be bound to any candidate. No delegate, other than the Chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, or his or her designee, shall be entitled to cast any vote on his or her own behalf until the fourth convention ballot.
I know that Rubio has "suspended" and not "withdrawn," but then RNC convention rule 16(a)(2) says this:
(2) For any manner of binding or allocating delegates under these rules, if a delegate (i) casts a vote for a presidential candidate at the national convention inconsistent with the delegates obligation under state law or state party rule, (ii) nominates or demonstrates support under Rule No. 40 for a presidential candidate other than the one to whom the delegate is bound or allocated under state law or state party rule, or (iii) fails in some other way to carry out the delegates affirmative duty under state law or state party rule to cast a vote at the national convention for a particular presidential candidate, the delegate shall be deemed to have concurrently resigned as a delegate and the delegates improper vote or nomination shall be null and void. Thereafter the secretary of the convention shall record the delegates vote or nomination in accordance with the delegates obligation under state law or state party rule. This subsection does not apply to delegates who are bound to a candidate who has withdrawn his or her candidacy, suspended or terminated his or her campaign, or publicly released his or her delegates.
This subsection is about enforcing state binding rules. It says at the top that a delegate who does not vote as the state directed them to will be discharged, and their vote will be recorded as the state initially directed.
Then it says that the subsection does not apply to delegates whose candidate suspended their campaign, meaning they will NOT be penalized for unbound voting. Since Rubio suspended, this rule says that the penalty no longer applies. If the penalty no longer applies, then delegates bound to Rubio are free to vote for any candidate in nomination without penalty, regardless that the state rules only say "withdrawn" and not "suspended."
-PJ
Hair cancer is the worst.
If we're measuring dicks, mine's longer.
The party will not unify behind either Trump or Cruz. Exhibit A is freerepublic. If the candidates cannot unify, the party won't either. The benefactor of strife on the GOP side is Hillary. Trump and Cruz are not a threat to the First, Second, or Tenth Amendments. Hillary is.
Furthermore, unless Trump and Cruz somehow unify either before or at the convention, the GOPe will install one of their show ponies like Jeb, Romney, or Kasich. 1237 is not guaranteed for any GOP candidate.
Never Hillary!
If you don't like the thread topic, don't click it. Don't simply attempt to remove a poster from the forum due to your “intolerance”.
It would really suck to have everyone on FR think the same thing. Groupthink is not a valued asset.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OV9p348boM0
I like him as well, he keeps us all educated on what is being said, where, and by whom, etc. and he’s “anybody but Hillary” :)
“The political vultures are already picking at the scraps left from Teds dead campaign.”
The stench of death has attracted them to the corpse. Yet, like a ghost who doesn’t realize that its life has ended, Ted stands there, defiantly fighting a battle that is over.
Sorry, but I firmly believe that YOU ARE WRONG. Seems to me there are, at the very least, 6.8 million people that LIKE Cruz.
“Ted Cruz is a good American.”
Both assertions are debatable.
That's why Ted Cruz should throw his support behind Trump, sooner rather than later, instead of running around telling lies about the man, which is all he can do nowadays. Ted Cruz has no principles that I can see. That's what he now projects to the vast majority of the GOP electorate.
Vote Trump
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