Wednesday, March 02, 2016

That's Really Super, Super Tuesday

I didn't go to the caucuses on Tuesday, but I didn't need to. Plenty of other people did and in Minnesota, it appears that Marco Rubio and Bernie Sanders won. Here's a screen shot from the Secretary of State's office:

A disappointing night for Rocque "Rocky" De La Fuente
The most interesting number is the one you need to compile, which is the total number of voters for each party. In this caucus, more Republicans cast ballots than Democrats. In Minnesota, that's significant. And it also appears that this turnout wasn't a Jesse Ventura-like moment, since Trump finished a distant third.

Marco Rubio won the vote, but it doesn't mean he won outright. According to the latest numbers, here is the delegate count for Minnesota:

A win, but not a win
Ted Cruz, by finishing second, nets the same number of delegates, at least for the moment. It appears that six additional delegates are not yet accounted for; perhaps they will go to Rubio.

The upshot is this -- nice result for Rubio here, but otherwise, in nearly every other place, he got his ass kicked last night. And while Ted Cruz ended up winning three states, it's difficult to say he had a good night, either. The winner last night was the Donald and there's no point trying to spin it any other way.

On the other side of the aisle, Bernie Sanders dominated here, but it doesn't matter much, because Hillary Clinton won big most everywhere else. So where are we at?

  • Trump doesn't have things wrapped up yet, but he's definitely closer to that goal now. Cruz needed to win more states last night than he did and it's difficult to see where Marco Rubio is going to win next. Barring a deus ex machina moment, Trump is likely to be the GOP nominee.
  • Hillary is winning, but she's laboring to get it done. Every time I see her on television, she just looks like hell. I also don't see much enthusiasm for what she's selling, either.
  • We're now in the game theory portion of the contest. Carson and Kasich probably should go home now, although they'll probably stay in for a little while longer. The question at this point is who will be the last Republican standing? The GOPe hates Cruz, but would they really be willing to let The Donald take over the party by shunning Cruz? Grab that microphone, Lindsey Graham:
Former presidential candidate and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said Tuesday Republicans might have to support Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in order to stop Donald Trump from winning the nomination—just days after he joked about killing Cruz on the floor of the Senate.

“Ted Cruz is not my favorite by any means, and I don’t wish him ill—I was making a joke about Ted—but we may be in a position where we have to rally around Ted Cruz as the only way to stop Donald Trump, and I’m not so sure that would work,” Graham told CBS, as Trump solidified his position as frontrunner with a string of Super Tuesday victories.

Asked to confirm if he would rather support Cruz than see a Trump nomination, Graham laughed. “I can’t believe I would say yes, but yes,” he said.
  • Ever the comedian, that Lindsey Graham.
  • One last aside -- the "Donald Drumpf" joke is lame, lame, lame. He's never had that name, since it was his parents who changed the family surname. I understand that people hated hearing Trump making fun of the sainted Jon Stewart for changing his name, because one must never speak ill of Stewart, but come on, man. We can do better than that. And I'm sure we will.

5 comments:

3john2 said...

One must not speak ill of J Stewart.

jerrye92002 said...

What's Grahamnesty trying to do, kill Ted Cruz's chances by endorsing him? He SHOULD get behind Trump, if killing a candidacy is what he wants to do. He's toxic.

Bike Bubba said...

I wonder if Drumpf has a chance if he doesn't win an outright majority--I'm guessing that delegates for Cruz or Rubio are going to need to be "persuaded" to cast a ballot for the Combover after the stunts he's pulled. And my experience at the caucus last night was that while neon hair did well, his supporters were very quiet in comparison to those who supported Cruz or Rubio.

Bike Bubba said...

Mark, referring to the combover by his father's original name isn't about anything to protect Mr. Leibowitz per se. It's about the basic respect that anyone ought to have, to know that some people have changed their family names for very good reasons, especially those in show business. And since his own family had changed their name, it was doubly tacky. He deserves the mockery fully.

(example of changed names from my own family; my great uncle, having dodged the draft in Austria-Hungary, Germany, and England, adopted his mother's maiden name to make a break when he came to the U.S.)

Mr. D said...

Mark, referring to the combover by his father's original name isn't about anything to protect Mr. Leibowitz per se. It's about the basic respect that anyone ought to have, to know that some people have changed their family names for very good reasons, especially those in show business. And since his own family had changed their name, it was doubly tacky. He deserves the mockery fully.

I disagree. Had Trump been born Donald Drumpf, it would be one thing to ding him on the Stewart thing, but he wasn't. It's not analogous. My maternal grandparents had a complicated German surname and their descendants have adopted shortened versions or alternate spellings. It's lame because (a) it's a vanishingly small point and (b) there are millions of other things you can ding the guy for that are significantly more relevant.