So it's #EverTrump, then? Trumpy with the Weird Hair won Indiana, long held by anybody-but-Trump folks to be an impregnable barrier — a wall, if you will — for the billionaire candidate's campaign. But as it turned out, Donald Trump won big — and Ted Cruz suspended his campaign altogether. As for the left side of the bracket, Bernie Sanders picked up a win, but by far less than he needed to get back in the race. We're not officially locked in to a Trump-Clinton general election just yet, but if you suggest otherwise, you'll get sympathetic smiles and a soft pat on the shoulder.
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Trump wins, compliments Cruz, pivots
In the end, the undying optimism of the #NeverTrump movement was a lot like like our undying optimism that the next Rob Schneider film is going to be pretty good: 1) There's nothing in past history that would even suggest that's true, and 2) just wanting it really hard doesn't actually make it happen.
Donald Trump won so hard yesterday, he got Ted Cruz, who has been campaigning since last March, to throw in the towel. His double-digit win seemingly cleared the path to the Republican nomination, bringing GOP Chair Reince Priebus to tweet a call for Republicans to unite behind Donald for the general election.
Even Trump worked to build bridges in his victory speech last night. "Ted Cruz — I don't know if he likes me or if he doesn't like me (BREAKING: He doesn't), but he is one hell of a competitor." Trump went on to lay out what he hopes will be a winning issue in the general election: jobs. Specifically, the blue-collar jobs (for example, in manufacturing apparel like suits, ties, scarves, etc.) that have gone overseas in the past few decades. "The Hispanics have been so incredible to me. They want jobs. Everybody wants jobs. The African-Americans want jobs ... the miners in West Virginia and Pennsylvania, which was so great to me last week and Ohio and all over, they're going to start to work again, believe me. You're going to be proud again to be miners.”
So that's the road map for The Donald for the next six months ... although he's bound to take several fun and exciting detours between now and then.
Bernie's back! (By not nearly enough, but still)
Another open primary, another victory for Bernie Sanders on the Democratic side. Sanders edged Hillary Clinton in Indiana yesterday, 53% to 47%, continuing his recent success in contests not limited to registered Democrats. "I know many of you are fearful of a President Trump," Sanders said at a Louisville rally. "I’m here to tell you, that won’t happen. It won’t because in every national poll that I have seen for a long time, we beat Trump by double-digit numbers."
Wait, how do we get to a Trump-Sanders general election? It's all about the votes from outside the party — and let's face it, those are the voters that candidates will need to win in the general election. As a matter of fact, if you only count delegates from states with open contests ... OK, it turns out Hillary still leads by more than 150 delegates. But if you added in the states with semi-open contests ... wait, that's still a 150-plus delegate lead. You know what, if you count everyone that's voted this week, Bernie has a 44-39 lead. Yep, that's it. From here on out, all Sanders needs to do is win 37 of the remaining 13 contests to clinch the nomination.
Welp, we've got an early day tomorrow. John, you can let yourself out
Even though America turned off all the lights downstairs and locked up the dogs in the laundry room, John Kasich is still sitting on the couch, channel-surfing for Cleveland Indians highlights and offering to open up that bottle of wine he brought over. In terms of electoral votes, Ohio's governor (154 electoral votes) now trails the zombie campaigns of two candidates — Cruz with 546, and Marco Rubio with 173 — and yet somehow he's still in the damn race. (UPDATE: America started the dishwasher, and that seemed to do the trick.) Kasich strategist John Weaver admonished GOP Chair Reince Priebus on Twitter for declaring the race over before Trump secures the necessary delegates:
Meanwhile, Kasich posted an essay to Facebook last night laying out his case for moving forward (one that seemed pre-written, making no reference to Cruz's departure from the race), declaring that he's the best-positioned candidate to win not only a contested convention, but the general election as well. "Gov. Kasich will not simply give up," the statement said. Well, yeah. (UPDATE: Um, never mind.)
More from the campaign trail
- 10 reasons why Trump could win the White House (Indianapolis Star)
- Ted Cruz probably didn't need to spend so much time playing three-dimensional chess (USA TODAY)
- California Republicans: Better luck next time, guys! (Los Angeles Times)
Plan C: Heading out to sea
Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton? Good luck, chumps! We're gonna win Powerball and buy an island somewhere.
