Posted on 04/08/2016 10:17:48 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
While anything COULD happen at the convention, its likely to come down to Trump or Cruz.
I still cant stand even the sound of John Kasichs voice.
Now that we have that out of the way, its pretty clear that the Republican primaries and convention come down to a choice between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.
Speculation otherwise including conspiracy theories does not seem to live in the real world, according to Charlie Cook:
"Whenever I hear Republicans wax on about the possibility of nominating someone other than Donald Trump or Ted Cruz talking up John Kasich, Paul Ryan, Scott Walker, Mitt Romney, or some other less polarizing figure it makes me wonder: Exactly how would that happen?
We all have memorized two numbers. The first is 1,237, the number of delegates needed to win a majority at the GOP convention. The second is 40, as in Rule 40, requiring that a candidate win primaries or caucuses in eight states to have his name placed in nomination. (It was added to the party rules in 2012, pushed by allies of Mitt Romney to stifle Ron Paul.)
Yes, the convention rules committee could theoretically amend Rule 40, but then the change would have to be approved by a majority vote of the delegates. Ask yourself, exactly which delegates would vote to rescind the rule? Trump and Cruz are likely to have more than 80 percent of the delegates locked up, so which one will encourage his delegates to support this change? Short answer: neither. It would be against their interests, and it aint gonna happen. Like it or not, this thing is coming down to either Trump or Cruz, and people ought to stop fantasizing about other options."
Im not quite as certain as Cook, but as I pointed out, both Trump and Cruz are working to make sure they are the only choices.
The real issue is whether Trump gets to 1237 prior to the convention. If that doesnt happen, Cruz has the clear advantage as he has been waging trench warfare to ensure as many bound Trump delegates on the first ballot defect.
Theres also the issue of 170 Rubio delegates, who likely would vote for Cruz:
(VIDEO-AT-LINK)
Nate Silver writes that even if there were an attempt to unseat both Trump and Cruz, it likely wouldnt work, Ted Cruz, Not Paul Ryan, Would Probably Win A Contested Convention:
with Donald Trumps path to 1,237 delegates looking tenuous, especially after his loss in Wisconsin on Tuesday night, [a contested convention is] a real possibility
We know that Cruz is likely to do well among delegates chosen through state and local conventions because weve seen that demonstrated quite a few times already . Cruz has also gotten good results at state and local conventions in states that do hold a presidential preference vote. In fact, considering that relatively few states have completed their convention process, its remarkable how many examples you can find of Cruz cleaning Trumps clock: for example, in Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina and South Dakota .
We have fewer examples of how Cruz will fare among delegates chosen by party committees, but Tennessee represents an initial success for him. Another good proxy for how state party insiders are leaning is endorsements from state legislators. Cruz has about six times more of those than Trump and more than twice as many as Kasich, according to data collected by Boris Shor and Will Cubbison. Furthermore, Cruz has been fairly popular among state legislators for some time, according to Shor and Cubbison; theyre not merely coming to him out of desperation .
were also learning more and more about who those delegates are now that theyre being chosen. Theyre not members of the Washington establishment. Instead, theyre mostly grass-roots activists, and many of them want Cruz to be their next president.
Sure, anything could happen. But its not likely to. It almost certainly will come down to Trump or Cruz.
Putting aside numerous gratuitous digs at Trump, George Will provides some good information about Cruzs focus on delegate strategy:
People here at Ted Cruzs campaign headquarters are meticulously preparing to win a contested convention, if there is one .
The nomination process is a multilevel Rubiks Cube, says Jeff Roe, Cruzs campaign manager. Trump thought it was a golf ball you just had to whack it. Roe says the Cruz campaigns engagement with the granular details of delegate maintenance is producing a situation where the guy who is trying to hijack the party runs into a guy with a machine gun.
Trump, says Roe, is now bound by his brand rather than propelled by his brand. If Trump comes to Cleveland, say, 38 delegates short of 1,237, he will lose. Cruz probably will be proportionally closer to Trump than Lincoln (102 delegates) was to William Seward (173.5) who was 60 delegates short of victory on the first of three ballots at the 1860 convention.
Trump, by contrast, is scrambling to assemble a convention delegate team and transition from a campaign waged by force of personality and media domination:
The stepped-up role for the [newly hired] convention manager, Paul Manafort, a veteran of floor fights whose presence on Mr. Trumps campaign has created anxiety among other top aides, was intended in part to quash reports of infighting and concerns about an organization whose performance has been lackluster at best in a recent string of nominating contests .
But Mr. Manafort faces some daunting obstacles. In the two weeks since he joined a campaign driven by a candidate with a larger-than-life personality, Mr. Trump has lost the Wisconsin primary by double digits to Senator Ted Cruz. The better-organized Cruz campaign has been able to wrangle delegates from Mr. Trump in Louisiana. And with the Colorado Republican convention days away, the Trump campaign last weekend fired the aide overseeing efforts in the state.
(VIDEO-AT-LIK)
Its at this point Id normally have a reader poll. But pro-Trump websites and Twitter trolls have become too adept at driving people to online polls, rendering them meaningless.
Thats why we cant have nice things.
So..... he has numerous properties he could sell if the GOPe Cruz decides to strip him of his delegates... You all play very short sighted..
Look for my next thread to see who is short-sided.
You are very short sighted. You flip flop from one theme to another depending on how much money you can bundle.
You just don’t have any idea how this process works, do you?
If so, then he has to know that if he wins the nomination without the majority of voters on his side (100% certain if he fails to get to 1237 on 1st ballot, which will be impossible after NY where he will be mathematically eliminated) ... then he will loose the election (Trump 3rd party or his supporters stay home).
So if he knows this ... you have to ask yourself ... why is he still in the race?
Will make the loss all the sweeter to the "Cruz or Lose"ers....
If there is a contested convention, I will be interested to hear the nominating and seconding speeches, and who is chosen to deliver them. Usually, they have been proforna, but will actually have meaning this time around.
Actually, it can.
In a primary with several candidates and no 50% reached, the legitimate thing is a runoff election. That is what the convention is supposed to do.
Suppose your state had 6 candidates for governor and the votes come in:
1 gets 30%
1 gets 20%
4 get 12.5% each - 3 had already dropped out, but low-info voters checked them anyway.
Does it make sense to just give it to the 30% guy and let 70% of the public pound sand?
Or give it to the one 12.5 percent guy just because he is so clueless you feel sorry for him?
Maybe the thing to do is the right thing - hold a runoff between the two top candidates and all 100% of the electorate get to have a say - 70% aren’t disenfranchised.
And everyone gets to have an EQUAL say in the final decision.
trump wins outright and hit the trails meeting plenty of women and talking up the women in his companies.
Cruz wins and trump runs third party and we lose.
crus wins and maybe 30 percent of republicans who support trump dont vote for him and we lose.
************
So if we don’t just fold and let Trump and his acolytes have their way you’re just going to take your toys and go home? Just do it now and enjoy President Clinton. Trumpanzees mirror their candidate. “If we don’t get our way we’re gonna throw a trumpertantrum!”
Here’s the thing that I wish the trump cultists would just open their eyes and be completely honest with themselves about:
The convention will come down to trump or Cruz. If it doesn’t, the GOPe will be rigging the game and both trump supporters and Cruz supporters (ie 90% of those of us who have voted) will burn it to the ground.
That can only happen if neither trump nor Cruz has reached 1237. To reach 1237, a candidate must obtain commitments for bound delegates by rules and procedures that vary state by state. But even those bound candidates are only bound for the first or second vote at the convention (which is why the 1237 number is critical, it ensures success in the first ballot).
All that is happening is that the Cruz campaign has taken the time to learn the state by state rules for obtaining delegates. Trump didn’t think he needed to know those rules. That is not Cruz’ fault and he is doing nothing underhanded. He is doing nothing more than campaigning by the rules. If trump is incapable of caring enough to learn the process, perhaps we should view that as a warning sign?
Given the disorganization of the trump campaign he must get to 1237 by the first vote in Cleveland. Otherwise he will likely not be the nominee. As Cruz’ chances were hampered by the inordinately large field up front, Cruz is now campaigning for the second or subsequent ballots as his path to the nomination.
There is nothing illegal, underhanded or disenfranchising about what he is doing. He is pursuing his path to the nomination by the rules that were set forth long before he became a nominee. And no amount of whining, gnashing of teeth or calling somebody a liar is going to change that fact or change the fact that he is out working trump.
If Donald Trump receives over 50% of the delegates, he will be our nominee.
It doesn’t look like he’ll be earning over 50% of the delegates.
The “will of the people” will be determined during the 2nd or 3rd votes.
No “stealing.” This is just the way it works. Majority wins. Trump does not have “the majority” at this point.
I think the original connect read another popular vote. Winning delegates in a convention doesn’t matter in that count.
For instance while burnout is close to Hillary in delegates she has 2 million more votes, of you as all the contests up.
Another aspect to think about. The demand that the convention "follow the will of the people" basically calls for pure democracy. There was a time when folks here understood why Free Republic was the name of this board; not Free Democracy.
In a Republic, citizens delegate to others the power to act on their behalf. The party convention rules, as I am understanding them, are a mix of (small r and d) republican and democratic principles.
And this was not done in the dark.
One might question the need for this seemingly arcane and Byzantine process for delegate selection. The answer is that it is an attempt to come to a consensus result. In the past, 30 some years, Conservatives have basically been ineffective in even getting close to where we are today in the process.
So, let's demand a Trump / Cruz consensus come out of Cleveland. NOTHING ELSE!
It's time to take a breath and close the deal to do what we used to vow to do - that is, to take over the Republican Party.
This nonsensical smearing of Cruz as "establishment" does nothing but play right into the hands of the actual targets of our rage.
The takeover that we used to say we wanted can yet happen, IF a way can be found for Cruz and Trump to find a way to make it happen. An ongoing scorched earth strategy will produce nothing but ashes and defeat.
Very true what you say.
But Cruz can win the primary battles and lose the war.
Fact is Trump brings in around 10 percent non-traditional voters, plus his core of 30~32 percent of traditional voters.. Gives the republicans a pool of about 66 million, assuming one leaves because they did dislike Trump (not true but go with this for a moment)
Cruz has managed , rightly or wrongly to become associated with a free trade, big bank economic centered approach. He has said nothing about bring back manufacturing to the US. Now I am sure he is not a complete dude economically, but his economic stance as a distinct lack of appeal the older industrial states compared to Trumps.
So Cruz may legitimately garner the votes on the second or third round of voting at he primary. His win will be legitimate. But if he thinks he can ignore the 40 to 42 percent of the 66 million pool of voters and win. Well he cannot. Not a chance. I do not say this with joy but a deep sense of sadness, but that is reality.
To say to a PENCO tech guy, who has seen his high paid job shipped overseas, who then went and got is MS certification just to see imported IT workers make his certification useless to vote for Cruz is...just off. Trump offered these naturally conservative guys a bit of hope. Cruz offers them more of the same Uni-party economic stagnation for the working class, riches for the rich. No sale.
Without those votes Cruz will surely fail and fail big. All the dreams of his supporters will be in the toilet.
Cruz needs Trump and Trump needs Cruz, that is basic reality. for advocates of both candidates the best hope is a trump Cruz team in 2016, Cruz in 2020.
Very well put
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