Silly me. I thought that the general practice would be to let the rank-and-file members of the party vote on their Presidential preference, and then allocate the delegates according to some kind of algorithm that at least approximates fairness.
Indeed, that's the way it happens in most states. But there are other states where the setup is a little different. In those states, the skids have been greased to benefit the designated insider candidate, and to help keep uppity outsiders like Rand Paul or Donald Trump at bay.
In these states (let's call them "party machine" states) the whole system was intended to benefit Jeb Bush, the GOPe's designated darling, and to disadvantage "outsiders" like Ted Cruz and Donald Trump.
Of course with Ted Cruz jumping into bed with the GOPe, once their preferred candidate got squashed like an insect, then suddenly Ted Cruz became the Establishment darling, because #NeverTrump, of course (the party elite sabotaging their party's own frontrunner, as selected by the voters).
Thus, Ted Cruz is benefiting from a system that was actually put in place to thwart his ilk, but, in desperation, the GOPe had to latch on to somebody to serve their "NeverTrump" mission.
Cruz's success in these crooked processes has nothing whatsoever to do with a superior "ground game" or anything of the sort. He's simply the only alternative to Donald Trump for the party apparatchiks.
Cruz supporters can bleat all they want about the legality and propriety of the process, but the entire GOP electorate knows what's up.
Fair or not, Ted Cruz=GOPe now, so given the nonstop demonization and character assassination that Donald Trump has been subjected to by the unholy alliance between the Left/Media/GOPe/"me too" Cruz campaign, I'm really crying myself a river about all the "unfair" optics which Cruz is experiencing.
It has literally doomed his campaign, and the polls, both national and state, are now reflecting that.
Ted Cruz is not a viable general election candidate.
Heck, Ted Cruz is now trailing a distant third to even John Kasich throughout most of the Northeast. That is not a campaign with momentum: it's a campaign with the GOPe albatross around its neck.
And before anyone derides Ted Cruz's crappy polling in the Northeast because they're so "liberal", I need only remind them that Cruz did equally poorly in the South as well, including in closed primary states like my native Florida.
It could have been different: Ted Cruz could have honored his outsider status by staying an outsider. But he decided to sell his soul for expediency in the hope that somehow his illegitimate gains would be enough to tip the scales in his favor.
Well, the scales have been tipped, but in the opposite direction to what Ted Cruz had hoped. He's a truly Machiavellian character in a season when that's not such a good idea. How you win does matter sometimes.
Ted Cruz has lost. He will have been mathematically eliminated after the next Tuesday or two. His only hope was to get the nomination at a contested GOP convention, which would irreparably splinter the party, and guarantee a GOP defeat in November.
Simply put, that's not going to happen. Not even the crooked GOPe is that stupid.
Vote Trump
you nailed it. all of it.
>>>>Cruz’s success in these crooked processes has nothing whatsoever to do with a superior “ground game” or anything of the sort. He’s simply the only alternative to Donald Trump for the party apparatchiks.<<<<
exactly.