The Republican effort to deal a blow, but hardly a knockout, to the hard-charging Trump train may be showing some signs of success.
quote: A poll released Wednesday by Marquette University Law School showed Mr. Cruz leading the Republican field with 40 percent and Mr. Trump with 30 percent, a reversal from a month earlier when Mr. Trump held a 10-point lead. Gov. John Kasich of Ohio was third, with 21 percent. . . . Ed Goeas, a pollster who works for an anti-Trump super PAC that is hammering him with television ads in Wisconsin for insulting women, said married Republican women were turning against the New York businessman.
The Republican tone has become decidedly nasty(er) in the past few weeks with both Trump and Cruz slinging insults and accusations at each other over their wives and post-nomination support.
quote: Still, Mr. Trump has many advantages in Wisconsin, including its large number of white working-class voters, a group that has flocked to him throughout the campaign, and a passionate base of supporters for whom he can do no wrong. He plans a heavy schedule of appearances through the weekend.
Other polls show Trump and Cruz running very close. If Trump loses Wisconsin the crux will be by how much. If he loses by 10% or more then the stop Trump movement will have gained some legs to go into New York and the northeastern states. If he wins or gets away with more than just a handful the delegates then he can continue to steamroll into Cleveland.
In both cases the appearance is that Trump is a buffoon. And accomplishing that when your opponent is Cruz takes some doing.
He has not just looked but been the buffoon ever since he announced his candidacy. The big problem is every time he says something considered sticking his foot in his mouth the Trumpettes cheer even louder. For all his trying he can't seem to say anything stupid enough or asinine enough to quell this significant rising hoard of the american right.
Cruz is just a thoroughly discredited, despised, bible-thumping asshole. Not nearly the entertainment value of Trump but just as dangerous with his own rising body of inane rightwingnuts.
We knew large segments of the american body politic were disgruntled and sore as hell but I don't think we realized just how sick in the head we had become.
There has got to be an antidote out there in the stormy waters of this political sea. Certainly the great tide of centrism will arise out of the middle to wash the stupid away. Won't it?
From leading in Wisconsin by 10 points last month to a 13 point loss the Stop Trump movement has had a major impact. Unfortunately for Republicans their second major wingnut, Cruz, is the beneficiary. The Republican leadership are in a deep hurt, desperately trying to force a brokered convention where openly partisan rules changes might tilt the results to a mainstream conservative candidate like Kasich or (persistent rumors) Paul Ryan.
Sanders continues to play catch-up quite nicely. Doing well in New York, April 19, and in Maryland and Pennsylvania, April 26, could seriously threaten Clinton's apparent coronation as Queen of the Convention.
The Art of the Steal - Colorado election was cancelled- all the delegates went to Goldman Sachs funded Cruz (the Canadian). Wow there really is no democracy!
What are you talking about?
Colorado Republicans have always gone to their national convention uncommitted to any candidate. They have also (almost) always had a non-binding presidential preference poll.
Last year the Republican National folks made a rule change that if there is a presidential preference poll a state's delegates are bound to the winner(s). So to keep their delegates uncommitted going into the convention the Colorado GOP cancelled the preference poll.
And they did this way back last August well before any front runners were established.
Goldman Sachs did not / could not flood Colorado with money to buy delegates for Cruz since there are no committed delegates for them to buy.
And as far as democracy goes the political parties are not part of the government. They are independent private associations free to make their own rules in their own ways however they see fit. They are not bound by any vote of the self-registered public-at-large unless they so want and they are free to change their rules whenever they want.
Political parties were formed to put forward candidates that fit the parties philosophy. They are not democracies nor organs of our democracy. That expression comes in November when "We The People" select what persons, what parties, what philosophies we want to represent us in government. That is our democracy and it is alive and well, thank you very much.
To be fair, Big Al did not say that Sachs bought the delegates, he said that Cruz himself was Sachs funded.
I know. I was having fun with it.
Yes, Cruz has received Goldman Sachs contributions to the tune of $50,000.
But his major contributors are Toby Neugebauer of Quantum Energy Partners ($10 m), Robert Mercer of Renaissance Technologies ($11 m) and Farris and Dan Wilks, a pair of up and coming Koch brothers wannabes ($15 m). source
So why did Big Al cite the puny contribution of Sachs? Scare tactics. Pure and simple smear with the big bad bogeyman. Hell, his bigger contributors are scarier than Sachs but nobody's heard of them before. Goldman Sachs has contributed to everybody so the pointed edge here is kinda dull.
Lest people think that the Colorado situation is some kind of deep dark conspiracy to defraud the people of their due right to vote (which in a political party you do not have) or that the Colorado GOP is pulling a fast one over everyone's eyes in pushing for uncommitted delegates (which a party has every right to do) let's remember that this is politics as usual and rather tame at that.
None of it in any way calls American democracy into question.
Republican movers and shakers are in a hell of a fit. Arguably one of their best compromise candidates to rally a brokered convention has adamantly refused to be drafted.
Paul Ryan, Speaker of the House:
quote:"Let me be clear, Mr. Ryan said, addressing reporters at the Republican National Committee’s headquarters. I do not want, nor will I accept, the nomination of our party."
"If no candidate has the majority on the first ballot, I believe you should only turn to a person who has participated in the primary. Count me out."
Yes, Al, you an still vote for The Donald even if he does not receive the Republican nomination. You are free to vote for whomever you so desire come November.
In this instance, a third party run by The Donald is a highly likely scenario if he fails to bluster and intimidate his way into the Republican nomination.
By the time November has arrived - they will have thought up a new scam to ensure that the people never get what they want.
They is who? The Illuminati? The Masons? The Girl Scouts? The Reptilians of which your Queen is one?
You’re funny, Big_Al.
You see where groups to which you belong or have an affinity lose out to others but when your group wins one (at the expense of others), well, that’s just expected, the way it should be. When you lose out you can see this monolithic conspiracy at work to deprive you of the advantages you seek.
What you do not recognize is there are thousands of disparate groups all clawing and biting to get whatever advantage they can without care for what others get left behind. One group tries to set its rules to give itself maximum impact in the society and another sets its rules in an attempt to thwart the first. Writ large, the rules of the society, its laws (in this country, our Constitution) seek to keep the excesses these groups would go to in check. No one is completely happy since they never get all that they wanted.
No, the people will seldom get what they want because the people are a seething cauldron of competing and opposing interests. Plus, too many of them are too fucking stupid to know what they want until someone tells them what they want.
There are plenty of things wrong with this society that need fixing. Institutionalized racism, the powers of the mega-corporate interests, the obscene wealth of the moneyed elite, and the list goes on. But at the end of the day I and you and everyone here can associate, act in concert, speak our political minds, run for office, support and vote for those of like philosophy, oppose those with whom we disagree, all without fear of the government throwing us in jail.
I can bitch to my heart’s content because, in the long term, my rights are preserved. Which means this republic and what little democracy you actually care to acknowledge within it works.
It's funny that you claim not to understand who "they" are ... and yet you give some examples later on;
mega-corporate interests, the obscene wealth of the moneyed elite, and the list goes on
Oh, that "they," those "thems". The by-the-thousands of "thems", some wanting this, some wanting that, all working at cross purposes to, how did I put it, to gain as much advantage in society as their brand of "they" can get away with? That's your global-controlling monolithic mega-them? You really think Warren Buffett and George Soros invite the Koch brothers over for tea to decide who will be allowed to win the Super Bowl next year?
I think what you are suggesting is that the elite have won, and the rest of us should just be grateful and ultimately roll over and die.
Not at all. But you said it...
any advantage they gain is likely to be short term - we all die in the end.
Just because your guy gets rules-changed out into the hinterlands somewhere does not mean the aliens have landed.
In my message I also gave a third problem. You chopped that one out. I assume that one doesn't present any kind of concern for you.
In a new CBS News poll, April 8-12, two-thirds of registered voting Republicans would want Donald Trump to support the Republican nominee if Trump does not prevail at the convention. One-third of registered voting Republicans would want Trump to mount a third party bid for the White House. Of the registered voting Republicans who identify as Trump supporters nearly 2/3rds of them would want Trump to mount a third party bid if he is denied the Republican nomination.
The problem I see is that the Trump campaign has relied on TV ads, news publicity and large rallies to fuel his campaign. He does not have a grass roots organization to run petitions and do the door-to-door and the small local living-room parties on the ground (as pointedly emphasized by the Colorado fiasco where he practically ignored the state).
Those who have been involved in national campaigns know it takes a lot of money and a lot of time to build an effective ground organization locally, let alone in enough states to reach an Electoral College majority. Petitions need to circulated at grocery stores and churches across the state, certified by the state electoral commissions, fight the inevitable law suits over what is/is not a qualified signature, all before Trump can be entered on the ballot. Write-in campaigns require even more effort to get a local organization energized to canvass the state.
Just a glance at the John Anderson, 1980 (I worked on that one in Colorado), and Ross Perot, 1992, efforts show the staggering depth of the challenge even when a candidate already has a ground game in place.
Trump does not have, for all his claimed $ billions, the cash resources to mount such an effort. His organization does not have the organizing skills, the ground presence, the legal resources or the time to mount such a campaign. Which, based on these latest numbers, he may do just out of ego and spite.
For all his bluster and inanity Trump really isn’t a total idiot. Without the backing of (even a stripped-down, bleeding) Republican Party and the super-PACs that go with it, I doubt The Donald would risk personal bankruptcy in such a losing effort as a third party hunt. He would have to woo big Republican donors and the far-right evangelicals, the bigots and the racists, that would otherwise swing with the Republicans, to fund his campaign.
I believe such a spectacle would so disgust the middle, the moderate and the left of the American body politic that the Democrats would sweep into the White House and carry the Senate and a strong minority of the House with them.
Well, I can dream, anyway.
Edited by AZPaul3, : The Do Nothing Button no loner does that!
We already know your sources are non-existent, don't we Big_Al. Wouldn't make any difference if you tried to cite these "alternative" sources because verifying those sources is not possible since they do not exist.
As for individuals here being paid stooges -
That's me.
Percy, the site owner, programmer, head honcho and all around king of this place is too busy with his "to do" list to get involved with my stooges group.
And, yes, I am paid quite handsomely to obfuscate reality with smoke and mirrors as directed by the Boys from DoverTM. World domination is a good thing, of course, when it's my group doing the dominating, but, I personally, am in it for the money.
In addition to my regular duties misdirecting and distracting the gullible public I have the secondary function of keeping all the helicopters painted just the right shade of black.
Both Trump and Clinton blow out their opponents by large margins. Also note total vote count: Democrats by 2:1 over Republicans.
Present delegate count:
Next up are Pennsylvania, Maryland, Connecticut, Delaware, Rhode Island on April 26
Up for grabs then will be 172 Republican delegates and 462 Democrat delegates.
Us world domination types have already determined the vote and delegate count for next Tuesday but we won't reveal this in advance since it would destroy the illusion that other peoples' votes actually count. We've had enough of those cracks in our faade already these past couple weeks.
I fully expect a brokered Republican convention at this point.
As do I.
This primary season Trump has been capturing just less than half the delegates being elected. If this rate continues Trump will enter the convention with just under the required delegates for first ballot nomination. This is where the lack of a ground game in the caucus states, like Colorado and Wyoming, hurt the Trump effort. Relying solely on vote totals to earn delegates Trump has done well, but getting your supporters into caucuses and getting them elected to the state conventions where the delegates for the national convention are selected has been missing. Unless there is major success, well over 50%, in the remaining primaries, there will be no first ballot nomination in Cleveland.
Re: Is Donald Trump Buying the Republican Nomination?
Money is necessary to print yard signs, leaflets, media advertising in print, TV/radio, internet and social media. The more one has to spend the more they can buy. In local contests one wealthy individual can overwhelm other candidates by spending far greater than the opponents. Advertising works in capturing the attention of the public and in influencing public opinion. In overwhelming your opponents by saturating the Ad market with your product (you), you are said to be "buying" your election.
In this presidential campaign, on a national scale, the impact of an individual's own wealth, or even the wealth of a number of wealthy contributors, does not have the direct impact it does on smaller regional/local races, because there are so may wealthy contributors on every side. While a few multi-millionaire backers can help quick-start a national campaign in the early processes, at this point in the presidential campaign season these fall to the wayside overtaken by the big PAC and Super-PAC money which are funded by thousands of wealthy individuals and corporations acting in concert.
For every $ million The Donald loans his own campaign there are dozens of PACS willing and able to give 10x that to his opponents.
As of the April 20 FEC-required filings by candidates and the PACs that support them the money breakdown is such:
I don't think we need be concerned about someone buying a presidential bid. There is too much competing money on all sides. Even down ballot, on the state level races, there are plenty of people with plenty of money willing to fund each side, though here, a major disparity in funding can occur in few instances and can be effective.
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