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That’s not how the game works.

We never would have had Eisenhower or Lincoln had it been.

A candidate should drop out if they have ZERO chance of winning the nomination.

Kasich is a fine example of this. Zero chance of rallying enough delegates at the convention. Period.

Cruz on the other hand has a SOLID shot at it. Obviously if Trump secures the nomination, its a moot point. But if not...

We don’t need a coronation at this point. We need to get the battle over. Determine who is going to be the nominee, Trump or Cruz.

Rubio made a fantastic suggestion yesterday, one final debate between the 2-3 folks still in the race, at the convention, on the floor, before the delegates themselves.

This would be AMAZING and the ratings would be thru the roof.

This needs to happen, unless of course Cruz or Trump wrap up the nomination beforehand, which at this point is very unlikely.

Eisenhower and Lincoln are not apt examples.

When those conventions were held, many states did not select their delegates by primaries. In Lincoln's day, most had a state convention. In Eisenhower's day, many states still selected delegates by state convention or some other method that selected a prominent party figure to go to the national convention to represent the state and its interests. Those were the days of the smoke-filled rooms, when the person who was in charge of a state delegation made a deal with someone who wanted the nomination and the party bosses chose the nominee.

In 1976, there were still enough states that did it this way that the convention was open. Reagan and Ford both had lots of delegates from the primaries, but neither had the majority, and there were many delegations that were completely available to either candidate on the first ballot.

That situation does not exist any more. The closest we have to that is Colorado, where they didn't have a primary at all, but a delegate selection process, but even there, we know going in who won those delegates. So, in this day and age, and every primary since 1980, there has not been a convention fight because when it became unrealistic for a candidate to win a majority of the delegates in the primaries, they would drop out. There was no bundle of open states that they could hope to woo at the convention, and so there was no point to them staying in, except to try to be a spoiler.

And so, ever since 1980, no candidate has stayed in the race just to deny a majority to the front runner, although it could easily have been successful many times over the years. To do so would generally be pointless, and even if a majority could be denied to the front runner, the convention fight would tear the party apart and guarantee its defeat.

That is why Ted Cruz should have dropped out after March 15. He had, and has, no realistic chance of gaining a majority of the delegates. His mathematical odds will be gone after New York. So he is staying in on the hopes of keeping Trump from getting a majority. In doing so, he is hoping that the delegates will nominate him on a second or later ballot. In that eventuality, he guarantees a President Clinton.

Jim can say that we must all agree to vote for Trump or Cruz no matter which gets the nominee, and I can agree with that as a general proposition. No matter how much I have grown to dislike Ted Cruz (and I started as one of his biggest supporters), I can agree with the statement that he will be better for our country than Hillary. Even if he has been compromised to some extent by the establishment. Even if he would agree to some form of amnesty. Even if he would not fight for American trade and jobs. He would slow our decline but not reverse it; Hillary would accelerate it.

But I think what many of us who support Trump recognize and many of the Cruz supporters here do not, is that the end result of a Cruz win in a nomination battle is a President Hillary. Whatever we say and do here, there are millions of people out there who support Trump who will not vote for Cruz. He is not palatable to the broad electorate. He cannot grow the Romney map. He cannot even defeat Trump; the only thing he can do is try to maneuver the establishment into giving Trump's win to him. That will end in a devastating defeat and a democrat President.

It is ok in principle to say that we will vote for Trump or Cruz if either get the nomination. But I believe it should also be the position of this forum that Cruz should get out of the race and work with Trump, not against him. His scorched earth tactics against Trump divide a party that should be, at this point in the game, coming together, and make Hillary more likely.

Jim is right. But I still think Cruz is wrong, and should drop out and work with Trump against the establishment that works against us and our interests, and indeed, wants us gone so they don't have to pretend to care about our values and interests. If he doesn't drop out, and a miracle happens, I will support him in spite of everything. And I will be very angry when I see President Clinton taking the oath of office because of him.