Posted on 05/03/2016 9:16:33 PM PDT by Strac6
There are two huge losers tonight and neither of them is Ted Cruz. The Cruz campaign was dead in the water after the New York primary, and in his heart, Cruz knew it.
One of the realities of politics is that money is the grease that enables the political engine to go forward. Due to the stunning degree of Cruz’s loss in New York, and especially considering how much better than the poll expectations Trump did, Cruz fundraising was on pause after the New York primary two weeks ago.
As the election embarrassments continued for Cruz during the ACELA primaries, the fundraising stopped, DRT.
When you consider that Cruz was as much as eight points ahead of Trump in Indiana less than three weeks ago, and he suffered a blistering defeat tonight, the Cruz defeat /retreat/surrender was total, but certainly expected.
Simply put, Cruz had run out of ideas, supporters, and money simultaneously.
He will now begin to say very nice things about Donald Trump, with the hope that he can salvage something out of this campaign and not end up as nothing more than the punchline for bad standup comedian’s jokes.
The real losers tonight were Hillary and Kasich.
Hillary’s failure to perform anywhere near her polls is a clear and convincing indication that whatever support she has, beyond the 30% labor/gay/hard left that would support any Democrat even if we had an 8 x 10 Glossy of them shooting Santa Claus on Christmas Eve, is more shallow than the Bay of Fundy at low tide. One of the worst things for Hillary is that Gods are expected not to bleed, and tonight, she leaked all over the State of Indiana.
Tonight she lost her title as the presumptive candidate, and even worse than that, even her best supporters no longer assume even if nominated she would win the General Election.
There is an old “rule” that most candidates who are leading the Democratic presidential primary two years before the election never make it to the “finals.” You only have to look back to the recent Democratic front runners who were NOT nominated such as Clinton in 2008, Ed Muskie, Gary Hart, and so many more. “Scoop” Jackson, the Democratic Senator from Boeing, was so sure that he was a shoo-in in 1968, his wife had done everything but pick out the new White House China.
The bottom line on Hillary now; she is the Democratic “All-Star” who is about to go on the 21 year disabled list, and there is no one on the Democratic bench who has a chance. Unfortunately, there is one exception to that prior sentence and that would be a Biden/Warren ticket.
Despite all his prior protestations, if Clinton gets out, Biden/Warren will be in within 72 hours.
The big loser tonight on the Republican side is not Cruz but Gov. Kasich. Prior to Trump’s overwhelming win and Cruz’s surrender, Kasich was a bit of a kingmaker with his hundred plus delegates. If Donald Trump had been within 80 to 100 delegate votes to get the nomination on the first ballot, Kasich would have been in a position to demand virtually anything he wanted, with the possible exception of the vice presidency. Of course, being a reasonably smart man, Kasich would’ve called for a much more visible and important post then vice president.
After tonight, if Kasich campaign officials were to ask Trump campaign officials what they should do with their hundred plus first ballot votes, Trump officials might tell them to dispose of them in an exceptionally anatomically painful way.
If tonight’s Indiana Republican primary was a Las Vegas high-stakes poker game, at this hour Donald Trump would be in the 26th floor penthouse celebrating his victory with the world’s finest champagne, Cruz would be in his 1993 Chevrolet headed back to Encino, and Gov. Kasich still be sitting at the table with a moderately large pile of totally worthless chips in front of them, wondering what just happened.
Strap on your seatbelts boys and girls; it’s going to be a hell of a next six months!
Ah, he must have consulted Captain Obvious.
No! Absolutely not!
Hillary is just a nastier and even more corrupt version of Zero. If she wins, there will be no taking the country back except by force of arms.
“Ted Cruz will be the presumptive nominee”
4 years is a long time in politics and there is not a great track record of senators becoming presidents. I just think his time was this cycle and he lost. I think there is a “Duncan Hunter” type who will learn from this primary and be ready when the time comes.
If Bernie got all of the super delegates, he would be beating Hillary 1953 to 1704 right now. He would then only need 39% of remaining voted 1116 delegates to stay ahead.
The race is close enough that the supers truly are deciding the election.
If they split the supers evenly, it would be Hillary 1974 to 1683 right now. Bernie would then need 63% of the remaining voted delegates to beat Hillary by 1.
I dunno about the others. I’m gonna try to be gracious. Unless spite rears its ugly head, in which case I intend to call it out. But I’ll try to be gracious.
It’s not always easy to shift from brawling to friendship in the span of an evening. I’m still sore from some of the things said to me, and I’m sure a lot of people are still angry at me too.
Might be best to take a break for a bit. Process the frustration and sadness. Grieve if necessary. Come back fighting against the real enemy.
And, PLEASE, don't throw in "constitutional conservatives and patriots" as if Cruz and company has a unique corner on the market. He didn't. And that, if I may, is where so many Cruz supporters went astray, thinking that anyone not supporting Cruz was not conservative or not patriotic. We were, we are. If you think otherwise, name anyone on FR that supported Trump and wasn't. I read enough of the threads, been around long enough, to be very sure that Trump supporters are conservative and patriots.
Why don't you join us all in focusing on making sure the GOPe rout is sustained and Clinton is defeated in November?
Good post.
The bias among GOP primary voters for someone who’s run before or who has a famous brand name (Bush/Trump) is so strong that I don’t think you can discount it so easily.
He also has 7.2 million votes. Santorum had 3.9 million last time. Romney 4.6 in 2008. McCain 6 in 2000. Dole 2.3 in 1988.
McCain’s % was highest at 31%. The rest were around 20%. Cruz currently has 27%. So as of now it looks like a stronger second place finish than most past runners-up.
“...Might be best to take a break for a bit....”
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True dat...I think God almighty might have done that for me in the form of a lightning storm Monday night that knocked out our area’s Verizon FiOS internet service. It wasn’t restored until a little earlier tonight. I know that the enforced break helped refresh my soul!
Hang on, Robby. Stuff’s about to get real.
Cruz is nothing more than a bad footnote in this election. A first term junior senator, a serial liar, and a Canadian natural born citizen. The losers are all of the people that ignored the Constitution and their conservative principles to support him.
well how could anyone like Cruzhitler? His daddy killed JFK. Pecker says so.
It started to get real in 2011 when the leadership brushed off the Tea Party people, the one’s they could not co-opt. But pardon me if I don’t think that Trump matters as yet, A lot depends on how far Bernie manages to make his game carry into extra innings.
If you mean, "Pardon me for living in my own little fantasy world." ... You are pardoned!
Trump is not the guy to watch right now. He needs Bernie to soften up her support. Do you think she is going to pick him, or the Virginian? Does she need his mob,or the swing state more?
Ambassador from Canada? Cruz shot himself in the foot for the last six weeks, and earlier, by giving Glen Beck such a prominent position.
On the Demonicrat side, there could be a late primary after California, a la 1968, if acting President ValJar decides Mike’s twink bf would be safer with the HRC sympathy vote going to another candidate.
What ? ... What ?
“Be interesting to see how Glenn Beck spins this tomorrow.”
Indeed. And Levine. And Rush. And George Will.
The losers tonight were the Rangers and the Stars, because they don’t have a frickin’ closer or a goalie.
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