The lead is bigger, but the percentage of republican voters is smaller, and to say it’s larger than Hillary’s was is grasping at straws, since she lost.
Trump is ahead, but he’s still a long way from 50%. When Christie, Bush, Fiorina, Paul and the rest drop out, are their supporters going to jump to Trump? Seriously? Almost all of those supporters will go to Rubio, some to Cruz. I also believe Carson will drop out, but his support will be evenly divided. The only way Trump wins is if it is a 3-way race all the way to the end, and Rubio and Cruz don’t make a deal
Let's assume Trump ends up with something on the order of 35-40% of the delegates heading into the convention. Not enough to win on the 1st ballot. Let's further assume Cruz ends up with 20-30% of the delegates.
Questions: Does Cruz put his support behind Trump, or does Cruz accept the GOPe candidates' support (assuming they give it to him) to put himself at the top of the ticket? What if the cost of the latter requires Cruz to pick a GOPe selected candidate for the VP slot?