Stupor Tuesday
Super Tuesday was a bad night for the anti-Trump forces and a bad night for Rubio. It's not the end, but it's a disappointing setback. The worst news for Trump foes: Trump has won ten states. Cruz has won four; Rubio, one. The best news for Trump foes: For all of his state wins, Donald Trump has 34.2 percent of the overall votes cast in the primary so far. Cruz and Rubio combined have 49.7 percent. In the past week, Trump's rivals and a critical press have spotlighted the collapse and victims of Trump University, his past use of illegal immigrants on Trump Tower, his massive use of legal-immigrant temporary workers in his Florida resorts, the collapse of Trump Mortgage, his strange reluctance to passionately denounce David Duke and the KKK, and the fact that only $650,000 of the $6 million Trump raised for veterans can be accounted for. To top it off, they made fun of his orange spray tan and short fingers. And Trump won seven out of eleven states Tuesday. He underperformed his polls in some states, but in far too many places, GOP primary voters either didn't hear the criticism or didn't care. "Give us the con artist! He makes the offer sound really good! We'll sign on the dotted line, no need to read the fine print!" Now the thinking is that the best way to beat Trump might not be for the field to narrow to a two-man race. Maybe if Cruz or Rubio and John Kasich quit, not enough of their supporters will unite behind the remaining non-Trump option. Some might prefer Trump. Some might stay home. Maybe the most likely way to keep Donald Trump from winning the 1,237 delegates needed for the convention is to keep everybody in, and fight it out at the convention, probably resulting in a Cruz-Rubio or Rubio-Cruz unity ticket. I don't know who on the Rubio team made this comment to Bloomberg . . . But in the final hours before polls close on Super Tuesday -- the single biggest day of voting in the Republican primary -- Rubio's team is telling potential supporters that they have significant momentum in at least four states and could even win outright in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Virginia and Minnesota. . . . but it was disastrous expectations-setting. In Arkansas, Rubio finished third with 25 percent. In Oklahoma, Rubio finished third with 26 percent. In Virginia, he was second with just under 32 percent (2.8 percentage points behind Trump). In Minnesota, he won with 36.8 percent. At least with the Minnesota win, the "when is Rubio going to win a state" line will retire. And Kasich's campaign spin is insufferable: Senator Rubio has been more hyped than Crystal Pepsi, but he has flopped even worse. Even a well-conceived, high-financed marketing campaign won't work if people don't want to buy the product. That's the Rubio campaign's problem. Behind the nice packaging, voters are discovering there is little substance. A candidate isn't going to out-talk Donald Trump to the nomination. It's going to take a candidate who has produced results. Only John Kasich can consolidate the Republican Party and win in November. Governor Kasich, let's put aside the fact that you haven't won a state. You've won 6.6 percent of the vote in the primary. You finished in fourth place in a five-man race in Texas and Virginia. You finished in fifth place in a five-man race in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Minnesota, Oklahoma and Tennessee. Ben Carson Will Campaign and Ask for Money Forever Don't worry, America. No matter how badly Ben Carson does, he will continue to ask people for money. Shortly after the polls closed on Super Tuesday, Carson addressed a crowd of several hundred supporters gathered at The Grand in his hometown of Baltimore, Maryland. "I am not moved or discouraged when the political class count me out," said Dr. Carson. "When I began my campaign more than a year ago, there were 17 viable candidates seeking the GOP nomination. Today, because "We the People" continue to show unprecedented support, I remain one of five. Millions of Americans plead with me to continue. They want to have a choice and a representative voice to ensure people of faith are not marginalized and that integrity is restored to leadership, with a focus on common sense solutions to the myriad problems we face as a nation. They know I am a citizen candidate, not a politician, who won't do what is expedient, but what is right." "As long we continue to receive their support, and the Lord keeps opening doors, I will remain in this presidential race. The stakes are too high to willingly hand our country over once again to the pundits and the political class." At this point, it's not "the pundits and the political class" that are rejecting Carson. It's Republican primary voters. He's gotten 6 percent of the overall vote so far. He hit 10 percent in just two of the 15 contests. He's spent $53 million. Last night, there were 632 delegates at stake. Ben Carson won 3 of them. At least his old friend Armstrong Williams is standing . . . oh: "It's not about a pathway to him. There is no pathway." It's not just that Carson is losing; it's that his behavior and arguments are starting to get more odd. This was his big announcement on Super Tuesday: Concerned with the lack of civility currently being displayed in the race for the GOP presidential nomination, Dr. Ben Carson is personally calling for a private meeting of all of the candidates in Detroit, Michigan before the FOX News GOP debate scheduled this Thursday, March 3, 2016. And just think, yesterday's Jolt featured John Kerry imploring Assad's regime in Syria to "show some decency." In November, Donald Trump argued Carson had a "pathology" and compared him to a child molester. But now Carson is concerned about a lack of civility? Governor Shine-box You could see it in Chris Christie's sad eyes last night as he awkwardly, silently stood behind Donald Trump during the entire press conference: The belated recognition that he was, in the best case scenario, setting himself up to hold Donald's coat for four to eight years. Alexandra Petri: Chris Christie spent the entire speech screaming wordlessly. I have never seen someone scream so loudly without using his mouth before. It would have been remarkable if it had not been so terrifying. Sometimes, at night, do you still hear them, Clarice? The screaming of the Christies? His were the eyes of a man who has gazed into the abyss, and the abyss gazed back, and then he endorsed the abyss. 
Ron Fournier: "He looked resigned last night, resigned to a life of carrying Trump's spray tan and hair spray." Some New Jersey voices want a different kind of resignation: The six newspapers including the Asbury Park Press, the Cherry Hill Courier-Post and the Morristown Daily Record -- all Gannett-owned papers that are part of the USA TODAY NETWORK -- were apparently spurred to editorial outrage by a Monday press conference in which Christie refused to answer questions about anything other than his nomination of a state Supreme Court judge. Asked why, Christie replied, "Because I don't want to." "We're fed up with Gov. Chris Christie's arrogance," the papers wrote. "We're fed up with his opportunism. We're fed up with his hypocrisy." The joint editorial notes that Christie spent part of 261 days out of state last year and traveled out of state to endorse Trump and campaign with him after he quit the race Feb. 10. "For the good of the state, it's time for Christie to do his long-neglected constituents a favor and resign as governor. If he refuses, citizens should initiate a recall effort," the editorial said. If Christie doesn't want to be governor anymore, he should step aside. Few moments of this cycle have been as nauseating as last Friday, when Chris Christie, technically the sitting governor of New Jersey, who spent about 100 days in his home state in 2015, went to Texas for the Trump rally and attacked Marco Rubio as a "no-show senator." Apparently Christie is so blinded by ambition, so spectacularly un-self-aware, that he saw no irony or hypocrisy there. The "shine-box" reference is from the movie Goodfellas, when one mobster keeps mocking another by reminding him he used to shine shoes. (Scene here, language warning.) The insinuation is that no matter how big a guy tries to act, he's still the same inferior subservient figure to greater men -- and the dismissive "Go home and get your shinebox" does sound a little like Trump's "get on the plane and go home. It's over there. You go home," order to Christie. If that reference is a little off-color for your tastes, this one came to mind last night . . . 
Above: Nefarious billionaire and his loyal, hefty toadie. ADDENDA: Don't blame me; Fairfax County gave Rubio a 20,000 vote margin.  | 
Comments
Post a Comment