I certainly hope they have more principles than to do that.
After Iowa these candidates are toast. They will all fall like rocks. Let them plot all they want. It will make no difference.
Interesting theory about Christie, we’ll see
Well maybe there’s some truth to it, but more evidence points to pitting Cruz against Trump and vice versa to damage both thereby detaching Trump-Cruz voters to Rubio et al.
The jury is still out on whether Cruz is smart enough to see the trap laid for him as he is egged on to attack Trump and to join in the GOPe chorus that “Trump will not be the nominee”. He’s being used and the national media has filled the news space with Cruz this and Cruz that in mostly cautious but positive tones. All that will change on a dime if the GOPe is successful in displacing Trump by using Cruz to attack. Then Cruz will be taken down and caricatured as a modern-day Joe McCarthy (never mind that McCarthy was proven right after KGB records were revealed after the fall of the USSR).
But it looks like it won’t matter because Trump’s appeal continues to grow and convert voters to him. It takes a while for some to see the appeal of Donald, but once they get it, it stays with them. So his support grows even in the face of constant and increasingly outrageous media attacks. Trump’s ‘ceiling’ was 30%, now it’s 40%, next it will be 50%, etc.
GOPe is counting on Trump not reaching a majority of delegates so they can trigger a brokered convention when their superdelegates can tip the scales for their guy.
All Donald has to do is get Cruz (if Cruz plays it smart enough) to steer his delegates to Donald or for Carson to do the same and the game is over for the GOPe. The VP will be either Cruz or Carson.
This will likely happen the day after March 1, 2016, Super Tuesday.
Quite frankly, in my opinion, this article makes no sense whatsoever, as the splitter strategy helps Trump tremendously by splitting the RINO vote. The worse thing that could happen is for all the RINOs to drop out except one. It behooves Trump to keep as many RINOs as possible in the race until the bitter end.
Delegates are pledged on the first ballot to vote for the candidate for which they were elected as a delegate.
If a candidate withdraws before the first ballot, the candidate’s delegates are free to vote as they please.
Sinilarly, if a candidate withdraws after the first ballot, his delegates are free.
After the first ballot, all delegates may vote as they wish. Candidates cannot pledge their delegates to another candidate.