Politics –
Rubio Loses Florida, Quits;
Kasich Wins Ohio
“Super-Duper Tuesday” proved to be an interesting night for Republican presidential candidates Marco Rubio and John Kasich, as voters headed to the polls in Florida, Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio.
Politics
Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who desperately needed a win in his home state, was defeated by Donald Trump, 45.7% to 27%. In failing to win his home state while consistently coming in 3rd place in most states, Rubio saw the writing on the wall and decided it was time to end his candidacy.
“After tonight, it’s clear that while we are on the right side this year, we will not be on the winning side,” Rubio said during his farewell remarks. “While it is not God’s plan that I be president in 2016, or maybe ever, and while today I am suspending my campaign, the fact that I have come this far is evidence how special America truly is.” He then added: “While this may not have been the year for a hopeful and optimistic message about our future, I still remain hopeful and optimistic about America.”
The narrative was very different for Gov. John Kasich of Ohio, who handily won his home state and prevented Donald Trump from running the board and obtaining a clean sweep. Ohio is a “winner-take-all” state and rewarded all 66 delegates to the governor.
In a clear jab at Trump, Kasich began his victory remarks by saying it’s time to “bring the country together and not divide this country anymore.”
“That’s why this was such a big victory tonight,” Kasich said. “Because what it does is it says, ‘You want to go and divide ’em?’ O.K., you came to Ohio, you threw everything you had at me, and guess what? It didn’t work.”
By the end of the evening, Donald Trump won Florida, North Carolina, and Illinois. As of this writing, Missouri was too close to call, although Trump was slightly ahead.
Politics
For the Democrats, it was a huge night for Hillary Clinton, who won big in Florida, Ohio, North Carolina and Illinois. As of this writing, Missouri was also too close to call, although Hillary Clinton was slightly ahead.
Mrs. Clinton began her victory remarks by announcing that 2 million more Democrats voted for her. She then dug directly into Donald Trump, arguing that he could not be trusted as the next president, either from a national security standpoint or from the standpoint of America’s standing on the world stage.
“The second big test for our next president is keeping us safe. We live in a complex and, yes, a dangerous world. Protecting America’s national security can never be an afterthought,” she said. “Our commander in chief has to be able to defend our country, not embarrass it. Engage our allies, not alienate them. Defeat our adversaries, not embolden them.”
She added: “When we hear a candidate for president call for rounding up 12 million immigrants, banning all Muslims from entering United States, when he embraces torture, that doesn’t make him strong, it makes him wrong. We should be breaking down barriers, not building walls. We’re not going to succeed by dividing this country between us and them. You know, to be great, we can’t be small.”
Currently, Hillary Clinton has amassed 1,488 of the 2,573 delegates to secure the nomination, while Bernie Sanders has obtained 704. Her huge win on Super-Duper Tuesday has made her lead virtually insurmountable for Sen. Sanders.
As for Republicans, Donald Trump currently has 619 total delegates, while Cruz has 394 and Kasich has 136, with 1,237 delegates needed to secure the nomination. Republicans are hoping to stage a contested convention, where no GOP candidate would have enough delegates to grab the nomination, which would be devastating for Donald Trump.
Another good summary DJ. Thank you!
My response is in two parts.
Re: Hillary's wins last night:
I wanted her to do well so I'm very pleased. The fact that she exceeded my expectations is a bit of icing on the cake.
But since last night, I've also given her loss in Michigan some more thought. And in light of her solid wins in Ohio and Illinois, here is what I suspect may have happend in Michigan. That loss was a fluke brought about by the following:
Many "would be" Hillary voters ASSUMED she had it in the bag. Afterall, just prior to Michigan's primary day the polls indicated she was leading Bernie by at least 20 points. Some people who would have voted for Hillary either opted to stay home and did not vote at all OR they casts their vote for Bernie or perhaps even a Repub (to make mischief).
Whatever the reason……..
Hillary finally seems to be figuring things out and pulling it all together. She MUST stay focused, take nothing and no one for granted and keep reminding herself "it ain't over til it's over." Above all, "don't let the highs get too high or the lows get too low." Presidential candidate Barack Obama, 2008
Re: Rubio's decision to drop out
Poor fella. There never was any *there* there with Rubio. But neoCons and news media hacks (like Chris Matthews) blew smoke up his butt and cheered him on when they have shown themselves to have NOT one clue as to who would make a good presidential (or VP) candidate. (SEE: Fred Thompson, Rudy Giuliani, Marco Rubio, Sarah Palin). Losers all…from the word *Go.*
Re: Cruz and Kasich
Regular readers of OK WASSUP! know that I consider Kasich to be 1) the best of an incredibly bad lot…and 2) the only candidate Hillary should fear, were he to win the Repub nomination. The GOP has gone so far to the extreme-right these days that Kasich is now viewed by many as a moderate Repub with cross-over appeal. Right-wingers can't stand him so they'll never support him.
Meanwhile, Cruz keeps insisting he's the only candidate that can beat Trump outright for the nomination. But thus far, I have seen NOTHING playing out in the primaries that supports his claim. In fact, except for Iowa, the few states Cruz has won have not been blow-out wins. And the constituency that Cruz is supposed to be able to count on _"Conservative evangelicals_have either split in their support (about 50/50) between Cruz and Trump. OR they've voted overwhelmingly for Trump.
Cruz and Kasich staying in the race serves just one main purpose – keep Trump from securing the nomination outright via the required delegates count, as pointed out by DJ. And force a convention fight.
Good luck with that.
DJ:
Republicans are hoping to stage a contested convention, where no GOP candidate would have enough delegates to grab the nomination, which would be devastating for Donald Trump. […]
And devastating for the Republican party because that would spark an even bigger war than the one currently underway between the factions within that party.
Trump supporters may vote Republican but based on everything I've seen of that Hateful bunch most of them don't give a fig about the Republican party. They're mostly "poorly educated," blue-collar White supremacists and HE's their guy. They'd rather burn the Repub party to the ground than settle for another nominee.
Update: "Trump warns of 'riots' if he isn't GOP nominee"
“I think we'll win before getting to the convention, but I can tell you, if we didn't and if we're 20 votes short or if we're 100 short and we're at 1,100 and somebody else is at 500 or 400, because we're way ahead of everybody, I don't think you can say that we don't get it automatically. I think it would be — I think you'd have riots,” Trump told CNN's "New Day."
Trump said he's bringing in all kinds of new people to the party, and those voices must be heard — or else.
"Now, if you disenfranchise those people and you say, well I'm sorry but you're 100 votes short, even though the next one is 500 votes short, I think you would have problems like you've never seen before. I think bad things would happen, I really do. I believe that. I wouldn't lead it but I think bad things would happen," he said. […]
H/T: Politico
Update: "Trump Says He Won't Attend Next GOP Debate Held By Fox News"
Donald Trump on Wednesday morning told "Fox and Friends" that he will not participate in the Fox News Republican presidential debate on March 21 because he had already scheduled a speech before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
"Nobody even told me about it," Trump said when asked if he would attend the next debate. "I thought the last debate on CNN was the last debate. That was going to be it. And I’m doing a major speech in front of a very important group of people, I think it’s eight or 9,000 people, that night. And it was scheduled a while ago."
Trump did not seem disappointed that he will have to skip the debate.
"I think we’ve had enough debates," he said on Fox. "How many times can the same people ask you the same question?" […]
H/T: MSN, WashPost
I'm not surprised about Rubio. No matter how much they tried to push him as the anti Trump he never had a chance. His whole organization was weak and I think he knows he'll never be president. As far as Kasich goes he gave establishment Repubs exactly what they needed. He stopped Trump from winning Ohio and took all the delegates. Now it's like 98 percent possible they have a brokered convention. Trump can threaten all the riots or whatever he wants but this is the process. It's going to be a messy summer for Repubs.
I forgot to say all the delegates Rubio got over these months have to go somewhere now that he quit. If Repubs can convince delegates from all those who dropped out not to go to Trump, that is going to tye up the whole convention process. Things could get real ugly quick.
And as the GOP's world turns (and the wheels continue to fall off their wagon)……… ..
Update: "Kasich Won’t Attend Next GOP Debate If Trump Doesn’t"
“If he changes his mind, we will be there,” John Weaver, a strategist on John Kasich’s presidential campaign, says of March 21 GOP presidential debate. “We had hoped to contrast Governor Kasich’s positive inclusive approach to problem solving” with Donald Trump’s “campaign of division” […]
H/T: Bloomberg
Meanwhile………
"Evangelicals accuse fellow believers of abandoning faith to support Trump"
Donald Trump’s candidacy has sparked a civil war inside American {Conservative} Christianity.
Trump’s popularity among self-identified evangelical Christians has led national figures in American {Conservative} Christianity to question whether large swaths of the church even know what their faith teaches, and how it applies to public and political life.
The split is between a subset of evangelicals best categorized as "creedal" believers — those who take their faith most seriously and who oppose Trump. Less devout Christians, often described as “notional” or “cultural,” are more open to the businessman and GOP frontrunner. The majority of national evangelical leaders are on the side of creedal believers.
If Trump becomes the Republican nominee, many of these creedal evangelicals who have traditionally voted Republican say they would distance themselves from the GOP. But nobody knows whether this would result in evangelicals moving over to vote for the Democratic nominee or whether there would be a broader movement among conservatives to form a third party. [….]
H/T: Yahoo News
And then there's "Plan B" (…or C…or D….darn, I've lost track…lol)…….
"Boehner backs Paul Ryan for president"
BOCA RATON, Fla. — Former Speaker John Boehner said Paul Ryan should be the Republican nominee for president if the party fails to choose a candidate on the first ballot.
"If we don't have a nominee who can win on the first ballot, I'm for none of the above," Boehner said at the Futures Industry Association conference here.
"They all had a chance to win. None of them won. So I'm for none of the above. I'm for Paul Ryan to be our nominee." [….]
H/T: Hotair: et al
BREAKING: GOP Debate Canceled
Fox News canceled the Republican debate in Salt Lake City after Donald Trump said he won't show up because he is tired of the format and he has already committed to delivering a speech that night. Shortly afterward, Ohio Gov. John Kasich said he won't debate if Trump doesn't appear.
H/T: Fox 13