And Trump hasn't made bad decisions? Jesus, of course Clinton is an awful candidate and would be a poor President. But Trump would be absolutely disastrous.

If you want a Trump presidency in order to create a tactical political advantage for the progressive left in 2020 then you're being as politically calculating as you criticise Clinton of being. You'd let the country go to hell for the sake of your own political fantasies. That's just insane.

Trump's never been a politician but I take your point.

You just about summed up the cluster f'ck that is US politics at the moment my friend.

And the polar opposite of him on just about everything else.

If you think Bernie's vision for America is closer to Trump's than Clinton's then you simply don't understand the policy platforms of any of those candidates.

Or alternatively:

Trump is an idiot; Bernie's naive; Clinton is a politician; Cruz is the Zodiac Killer and Kasich is just a cardboard cut out of the standard Republican nominee.

Or alternatively:

Trump is an idiot; Bernie's naive; Clinton is a politician; Cruz is a religious nutjob and Kasich is just a cardboard cut out of the standard Republican nominee.

And is this somehow meant to sway me into supporting Clinton?

Fixed.

Not sure why you think I'd bother trying but sure.

Cruz crushes Trump in weekend delegate fight


ed Cruz notched another delegate landslide Saturday, stretching his advantage in a competition that might never occur: the second ballot of a contested Republican National Convention in July.
Cruz won at least 65 of the 94 delegates up for grabs Saturday (he may have won more than 65, but Kentucky’s 25 delegates haven’t revealed their leanings). The Texas senator has so thoroughly dominated the fight to send loyalists to the national convention that if front-runner Donald Trump fails to clinch the nomination on the first ballot, Cruz is well-positioned to surpass him — and perhaps even snag the nomination for himself — when delegates are free in subsequent convention rounds to vote for whomever they want.
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On Saturday, he nearly won 19 of 20 seats available in Maine, losing just one to a Trump backer: Gov. Paul LePage. He also won all nine delegates on the ballot in three Minnesota congressional districts, picking up support in the lone state won by Marco Rubio. Cruz also grabbed one of three delegates in South Carolina’s 6th Congressional District, while the other two went to an uncommitted delegate and a supporter of Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
Cruz’s biggest windfall, though, came from Utah, where at least 36 of 37 national delegates will be aligned with Cruz, who crushed Trump in the state’s caucuses on March 22. Included in the Utah delegation: Sen. Mike Lee, Gov. Gary Herbert and Reps. Mike Bishop and Mia Love. Only Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes, the 37th delegate, is a wild card — he hasn’t revealed who he supports.
But Cruz’s dominance may be for nothing. Trump’s dominant victory in New York last week, along with expected victories across the Northeast on Tuesday, put him on the cusp of earning the nomination without any convention drama in Cleveland. On the first ballot, most delegates are required to vote according to the results of state primaries and caucuses, and that’s where Trump has a wide edge — 845 to Cruz’s 559.
If Trump can dominate the remaining 15 primaries and acquire mandatory support from 1,237 delegates, he’ll secure the nomination automatically. And polls show he has an edge in Indiana’s crucial May 3 primary, where 57 delegates will be apportioned, and that he’s pulling away in California — the biggest prize of the entire primary season — where 172 delegates will be assigned in a June 7 primary.
In the meantime, Cruz has owned the secondary battle to elect loyalists to the convention and can only work to limit Trump’s gains over the next six weeks of primaries. Republican activists who tend to run to become delegates and vote in those obscure contests are typically more aligned with Cruz.
Kentucky, where Trump narrowly edged Cruz in a March 5 caucus, was the only delegate wild card on the day. Party insiders who control the delegate process there unveiled a slate of 25 delegates headlined by newly elected Gov. Matt Bevin, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Rand Paul. At the Kentucky state GOP convention Saturday, the slate was approved overwhelmingly by the nearly 500 attendees.
McConnell and Paul have been critical of Trump, but the remainder of the delegation, according to sources familiar with the list, wasn’t vetted based on candidate support. Instead, it featured a long list of party veterans picked based on their work for the Kentucky GOP over the years. It’s unclear which way the delegation will lean if the convention becomes a floor fight.
“Our process for delegates is not candidate-focused. It never has been,” said Steve Robertson, former chairman of the Kentucky GOP and one of the 25 delegates


Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/04/ted-cruz-donald-trump-delegate-222354#ixzz46mFhNv4I
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Ted Cruz and John Kasich have announced that their campaigns will cede certain states in an attempt to keep Donald Trump from reaching the 1,237 delegates he needs to clinch the Republican nomination.

In a pair of coordinated statements released on Sunday night, the Cruz and Kasich campaigns said that the Texan senator would concentrate his resources in Indiana while the Ohio governor would put all his effort into Oregon and New Mexico.


The splinter is coming: the Republican race is a real life Game of Thrones plot
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Both have already stated that they expect there to be a contested convention in Cleveland in July and are already preparing for a second ballot.

However, for that scenario to come to pass, they first need to stop Trump. This apparent agreement seems to be an admission that only way to do so is for his opponents to finally cooperate against him. Under current rules, delegates are only bound by the results of their state’s primary or caucus for the first ballot. On any subsequent ballot, delegates are free to vote their conscience and, since delegate selection is often an entirely separate process from a primary, there is likely to be a significant shift in votes on a second ballot.

Jeff Roe, Cruz’s campaign manager, went first. He said “our campaign will focus its time and resources in Indiana and in turn clear the path for Kasich to compete in Oregon and New Mexico, and we would hope that allies of both campaigns would follow our lead”.

Cruz has already shifted resources to focus entirely on Indiana, whose 30 winner-take-all statewide delegates represent the biggest individual haul remaining. The state, which holds its primary on 3 May, also allocates three delegates to the winner of each of its nine congressional districts. Polls in the Hoosier State had Trump with a narrow lead ahead of Cruz with Kasich lagging behind. One campaign source indicated that internal polls showed Kasich was dividing the anti-Trump vote in Indiana and serving as a major hindrance to Cruz’s prospects.

The Cruz statement was followed minutes later by a statement from Kasich strategist John Weaver. The veteran operative said “due to the fact that the Indiana primary is winner-take-all statewide and by congressional district, keeping Trump from winning a plurality in Indiana is critical to keeping him under 1,237 bound delegates before Cleveland. We are very comfortable with our delegate position in Indiana already, and given the current dynamics of the primary there, we will shift our campaign’s resources west and give the Cruz campaign a clear path in Indiana”.

Weaver added that “in turn, we will focus our time and resources in New Mexico and Oregon, both areas that are structurally similar to the north-east politically, where Governor Kasich is performing well. We would expect independent third-party groups to do the same and honor the commitments made by the Cruz and Kasich campaigns”.

Although the Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment, the candidate responded in a late night tweet: “Wow, just announced that Lyin’ Ted and Kasich are going to collude in order to keep me from getting the Republican nomination. DESPERATION!”


The statement comes just days after Cruz suggested in Florida that Kasich was only staying in the presidential race because “it may be John is auditioning to be Donald’s vice president”. The Texas senator also said earlier on Sunday that the Ohio governor did not have “a plausible path” to the nomination.

Tim Miller, a spokesman for Our Principles PAC, an anti-Trump superPAC said he found the apparent alliance “encouraging.”, when asked for comment via e-mail. He added “See you in Cleveland.”

Oregon, which holds its primary on 17 May, and New Mexico, which votes on 7 June, each have relatively proportional primaries. Oregon allocates its 28 delegates in purely proportional manner while New Mexico has a threshold that requires a candidate to get 15% of the vote.

Both campaigns made it clear that they would compete against each other in all of the remaining primary contests.

Cruz’s campaign chief said: “In other states holding their elections for the remainder of the primary season, our campaign will continue to compete vigorously to win.”


Mr Smith goes to Washington: election lessons on the path of the 'Acela primary'
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The deal comes more than a month after Kasich squelched an overture from Marco Rubio to engage in strategic voting in their home-state primaries on 15 March. While a Rubio spokesman urged supporters of the Florida senator to vote for Kasich in the Ohio, the Kasich campaign declined to return the favor in Florida.

The deal between the two campaigns came 36 hours before the opening of polls in the so-called Acela Primary, comprising five states in the northeast and mid-Atlantic. Trump is expected to dominate in these states and both Cruz and Kasich are likely to be shut out in the bound-delegate chase in at least three of the states holding contests on Tuesday. However, because 54 of the 71 delegates elected in Pennsylvania will be unbound and free to vote for any candidate, Trump’s rivals could still gain there.

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/apr/25/ted-cruz-and-john-kasich-team-up-in-deal-to-stop-trump

Shows what turmoil the Republican Party is in - they've waiting until now to coordinate their efforts against Trump, when it is just about too late.

They should have started doing this months back to be effective. All this will do is tear the party apart further, whilst Trump still gets the nomination.

This is a bit of an issue isn't it? They're effectively trying to go against what the public wants to an extent.

It is a game of delegates, rather than the popular vote. But for the past 40 years the primaries have produced a frontrunner that everyone rallies behind prior to the convention.

The problem is that Trump is so far ahead of Cruz and Kasich that he could get through on the first round. If they wanted to work together to maximise "non-Trump" votes, they should have done this long ago when they could have limited the total delegates Trump will end up with.

So my thought is that Trump will get close enough to go through on the first round, or only JUST fall short.

If somehow Cruz or Kasich ended up as the nominee in those circumstances, it would create huge credibility issues.

And I am sure Trump is doing background work to run as an independent if he doesn't get the nom. If that happens, I think that will make Clinton much more likely to win, as the right leaning voters votes will be split between Trump (independent) and Cruz/Kasich (Repub).

I mean, I think the republicans will lose anyway, but if there is a 3rd party run by Trump this will be a certainty.

Is it not too late for Trump to run as an independent? The convention is in late July and most coverage I've read has suggested that any independent run for the presidency would need to start collecting signatures in early May in order to qualify for ballot access.

Is it not too late for Trump to run as an independent? The convention is in late July and most coverage I've read has suggested that any independent run for the presidency would need to start collecting signatures in early May in order to qualify for ballot access.

That's for some states.

He doesn't need to run in every state - afterall, he's not going to win.

If Trump can manage to get his name on the ballot on even just 2 states - Florida/Ohio and win something like 8-10% of the popular vote, this will hand Clinton the presidency.

Edited by 433: 26/4/2016 08:02:08 PM

Trump with five comprehensive victories today, neither Cruz or Kasich could get close to him. Indiana is now a must win for Cruz and even that might not be enough.

Clinton is sunk. She cannot beat Trump.

You mean the same polling groups that denied Trump would get close to 1237? That claimed he was unpopular amongst women and minorities, despite recieving more votes from the black population than any Republican candidate in recent history, and having almost 70% of the women vote in New York?

Polls are meaningless, especially this far out with no real campaign between Trump and Clinton yet. The polls have also been found to be so inaccurate when Trump is concerned, that there is the real possibility they are trying the Adolf Hitler approach.

"Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it."

Trump will win in a landslide.