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READER POLL: Should Trump’s Backtracking on GOP Loyalty Pledge Cost Him Delegates in South Carolina?

READER POLL: Should Trump’s Backtracking on GOP Loyalty Pledge Cost Him Delegates in South Carolina?

More delegate woes plague Trump’s campaign

In a CNN town hall Tuesday, Donald Trump disavowed the Republican loyalty pledge he signed in September.

Trump’s change of tune might cost him the 50 delegates he won in South Carolina.

Zeke Miller reported for TIME:

The Palmetto State was one of several that required candidates to pledge their loyalty to the party’s eventual nominee in order to secure a slot on the primary ballot. Though Trump won all of the state’s delegates in the Feb. 20 primary, anti-Trump forces are plotting to contest their binding to Trump because of his threat on the pledge Tuesday.

The loyalty pledge is nothing new in South Carolina, where it has been required for decades, but took on new focus in light of Trump’s public musings about a third party run or withdrawing his support from the eventual nominee if he is stopped at a contested convention.

South Carolina Republican Party Chairman Matt Moore gave credence to the anti-Trump claims.

“Breaking South Carolina’s presidential primary ballot pledge raises some unanswered legal questions that no one person can answer,” he told TIME. “However, a court or national convention Committee on Contests could resolve them. It could put delegates in jeopardy.”

When Trump filed for the ballot in South Carolina he signed a pledge stating to “hereby affirm that I generally believe in and intend to support the nominees and platform of the Republican Party in the November 8, 2016 general election.”

South Carolina has yet to select delegates to the convention and it is a state where Trump may already be on the defensive with delegates. South Carolina delegates to the national convention must have been delegates or alternates to the state’s 2015 GOP convention, a requirement that benefits candidates who appeal to the establishment.

Those delegates would be bound to Trump on the first ballot according to state and RNC rules. The challenge, which could only be filed once delegates are selected, would seek to allow them to be free-agents on the first ballot, thereby keeping Trump further from the key 1,237 figure he needs to secure the nomination. Similar challenges could also be filed in other states that added loyalty pledges.

In the same town hall, Kasich and Cruz both danced around the “support the nominee” question, but neither said with certitude they would not support the nominee. Only Trump said as much.

Kasich answered, “all of us shouldn’t even have answered that question.” While Cruz said, “I’m not in the habit of supporting someone who attacks my wife and my family… I think nominating Donald Trump would be an absolute trainwreck, I think it would hand the general election to Hillary Clinton.”

Trump is already concerned about losing delegates in Missouri and Louisiana and has threatened legal action. Trump supporters contend there’s a concerted effort to “steal” the election from Trump, but as I explained earlier this week, this appears to be the difference between a campaign that understands how delegate selection and state parties work and and a campaign that does not:

Conspiracy? Hardly. Simply a product of Cruz’s solid campaign ground game who’s done their due diligence with state party officials. Trump’s outsider appeal has successfully brought many previously non-politically active citizens into the fold, but his campaign infrastructure never created a mechanism to educate the newbies.

But we want to hear from you. If Trump loses delegates in South Carolina, is he getting the short end of the stick or are these the rules of the game?

Poll closes midnight Pacific Time Friday night, April 1:


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Comments

The system is rigged. We are now able to see how it is rigged. We can’t have a representative republic when the parties control the choices and the candidates have more loyalty to their parties than they have to the voters the are supposed to represent. It’s all a crock and why the country is in such trouble. If it were about the country then we would hear more about returning to the the Constitution.

    StotheOB in reply to showtime8. | March 31, 2016 at 4:47 pm

    If it were about the country then we would hear more about returning to the the Constitution.

    …Uhm, we could be hearing about how we can return things to the Constitution right now if we didnt have a carnival barking reality TV show buffoon talking about the size of his man-parts and conspiracies to take away his apparently entitled position he feels he deserves without question because 37% of Republican Primary voters checked his name (an unbelievably pitiful number for a guy with 100% name-ID and the media endlessly calling him the “frontrunner”/nominee for nearly a year, it should be pointed out)

    If Trump new absolutely anything about the Constitution and wasnt running as an ego-trip, maybe even he would talk about it. Unfortunately he has no idea what even he stands for, let alone how the Country was founded, so here we are needing to make sure each and every rule is followed properly to make sure the Country isnt embarrassed further with Trump as a General Election Candidate for President…

      DaveGinOly in reply to StotheOB. | March 31, 2016 at 8:51 pm

      If the threat of taking delegates from Trump is a “conspiracy theory,” then why is there a poll here asking people if they think the proposition if fair or not?

        StotheOB in reply to DaveGinOly. | March 31, 2016 at 9:12 pm

        There is no conspiracy going on with regards to South Carolina

        The SC rules have been the same for decades

        Trump broke those rules

        Now people are beginning to talk about the consequences of Trump having broken the rules

        BTW, SC isnt the only state that has the Pledge rule, and it isnt like no one knew about these rules either – during the first debate when the pledge was asked about, there were multiple articles stating how Trump would not be eligible for Delegates in some states if he didnt pledge.

        Trump shot himself in the foot on this. To now whine that he is somehow a victim of some vast-right-wing-conspiracy or whatever he and his backers are claiming is, well, silly and pitiful.

        DaveGinOly in reply to DaveGinOly. | March 31, 2016 at 9:16 pm

        “is fair or not.”
        I hate it when I spot a typo after I hit “submit.”

        JackRussellTerrierist in reply to DaveGinOly. | March 31, 2016 at 10:51 pm

        The rules have been there for ages. The hump, like obastard, Hillary, and most of congress, he believes the rules are only for others, not for him. His arrogance, over-confidence and disrespect prevent him from bothering to learn the rules.

        For a dude that doesn’t like guns and supports gun control, he’s awfully damn good at shooting himself in the foot.

        He’s a loser, always has been. He doesn’t know about or care about the issues. He just pops off with whatever he thinks sounds appealing even though he doesn’t know sh!t from shinola about any of it. He likes to get a serious look on his face as though he’s an expert and what he has to say is of earth-shaking, but he’s a fraud, a liar, and afflicted with THE worst case of diarrhea of the mouth that I’ve ever seen. To call him an immature, unprofessional, little manchild crybaby is the understatement of the campaign season.

    Fiftycaltx in reply to showtime8. | March 31, 2016 at 6:58 pm

    Hey, the DONORS and the RINOs that are run by them are going to get Jeb! in one way or the other. IT’S HIS TURN! Just like Bob Dull, McCain, Romney and all the other RINOS that are OWNED by Wall street. You’ll notice that the upper .01% have gotten FANTASTICALLY RICHER under Obama and his fascist buds. And they know if Jeb! and/or the hildabeast get in, THEY will be protected. It’s all about money and power. THEIR MONEY AND POWER!

    Milhouse in reply to showtime8. | April 1, 2016 at 1:41 am

    The candidates are on the ballot as representatives of their parties, not of the voters. It’s at the election that they seek the voters’ approval. There is no reason why voters should have a say in whom each party chooses as its candidate. Primaries are stupid idea and should be abolished. Choosing a candidate should be an entirely internal process within each party.

      Evan3457 in reply to Milhouse. | April 1, 2016 at 5:41 am

      Primaries and caucuses are creations of the parties, not the government, and not the Constitution.

      If they want to pick nominees by throwing darts at a board, there’s nothing illegal about it. Stupid, sure. But not illegal.

Frankly, I’m tired of the Donald Trump clown show.

i’m tired of the GOPe, and their endless efforts to force “electable” clowns like McLame, Mittens and Jeb!, to name 3…

not to mention Rubio, and the rumored brokered convention “compromise” Rayn.

enough with these fing RINOs already.

    redc1c4 in reply to redc1c4. | March 31, 2016 at 4:47 pm

    oh yeah, and lets not forget that the GOPe has no standing on “fair play” when they have been out to get Trump since day one.

    how many of them have said they would vote for Shrillery instead of Trump?

    hypocrites.

If Trump cant bother to learn and follow rules, then Trump should be punished for not learning and following said rules.

I dont even understand why this has to be discussed, honestly. Everyone needs to follow rules and Trump needs to start hiring people who have any idea what the heck they are doing – both are simple solutions for the best of everyone.

Oh, and his idiot spokespeople and bootlickers really need to stop with the conspiracy theories & paranoia. Everyone is having to follow the same exact rules, and the candidates themselves are the ones who have the ability to change said rules if they are smart enough to do so – no one is conspiring against Trump and he could fix all of his problems if he smartened up even a little bit. Cruz is an extreme outsider who is using the rules to his advantage; there is zero reason Trump couldnt do the same if he was intelligent enough. Instead Trump seems to hold strong to this entitlement mindstate and blaming others because its falling apart because of his lack of effort

    dorsaighost in reply to StotheOB. | March 31, 2016 at 5:08 pm

    what rules ? you don’t have a clue what the rules are since they are different from state to state and have actually changed in some states since Trump got in the race …

    If Trump wins a delegate and then if that delegate votes for someone else then it doesn’t matter what the “rules” say … that is rigged and unfair …

    Rubio drops out but wants to keep his delegates … the “rules” say he loses them all … but apparently not if he can use them to stop Trump …

      The rules for my state GOP are clearly listed on their website. I even looked at a couple other states – they are clearly listed.

        Lady Penguin in reply to Liz. | March 31, 2016 at 7:15 pm

        The rules that the Establishment GOP treats like that “living” constitution which seems to be ever-changing. The “rules” that our Virginia GOP-E have that doesn’t keep them from the State and local committee shenanigans regarding which candidates’ supporters get to go to the National Convention. The funny little “rules” which have the GOP-E machine working to make sure that anti-Trump delegates go, so they can be easily stolen on anything after the first ballot.

        Yes, we know all about those so-called “rules.”

          Lady Penguin in reply to Lady Penguin. | March 31, 2016 at 10:18 pm

          I have to congratulate myself. So many down votes for stating facts of what is going on in the GOP Establishment party in my own state. Funny, how no one wants to recognize that there is dishonesty in the political game. We’re seeing in our own party apparatus.

          All of you Trump haters are essentially demanding that we hate Trump like you hate Trump, because even when we state factual incidents and we know Virginia being duplicated everywhere else across the country, you have a visceral reaction. But it is the truth.

          The other question, which I’ve asked before, what is your purpose, your endgame? You’re demanding we hate Trump, well, ultimately the backlash to that is the fact that many will end up hating the Republican Establishment and Party even more. So reap what you sow.

          The Cruz supporters will go along with some other hand-picked GOP-E plant as the nominee. Not so the Trump supporters. The disgust with the party is so great that the idea of letting them pull another McCain and Romney is that distasteful…

          Keep demanding that people hate Trump, maybe that makes you all feel good and superior.

        Ragspierre in reply to Liz. | March 31, 2016 at 7:35 pm

        Yes, we know all about those so-called “rules.”

        ———————————–

        You should be helping The Man From WrestleMania. ‘Cause he doesn’t “know the rules”.

        Obviously.

      “The Palmetto State was one of several that required candidates to pledge their loyalty to the party’s eventual nominee in order to secure a slot on the primary ballot.

      “The loyalty pledge is nothing new in South Carolina, where it has been required for decades

      “What rules?”, dorsaighost whines? Those rules.

      Really, it’s not rocket science.

      wukong in reply to dorsaighost. | March 31, 2016 at 5:41 pm

      Trump’s problem is that he tell folks he hires competent people to work on the fine details but when he has a problem with the color of the toilet seat, his solution is to burn down the house.

      DaveGinOly in reply to dorsaighost. | March 31, 2016 at 9:19 pm

      Candidates keep their delegates if they suspend their campaigns, not if they quit them. Rubio suspended his campaign; he has not quit the race.

    Oh, and his idiot spokespeople and bootlickers really need to stop with the conspiracy theories & paranoia. Everyone is having to follow the same exact rules […] no one is conspiring against Trump and he could fix all of his problems if he smartened up even a little bit.

    This.

    The poll results so far dont agree with you Stothe.

    If Trump loses SC delegates over loyalty pledge – Stealing or Fair Play?

    FAIR PLAY 74.75% (151 votes)

    STEALING 22.77% (46 votes)

    UNDECIDED 2.48% (5 votes)

    Total Votes: 202

I have been watching the GOP establishment since the mid 50s. I watched what the GOPe did to Goldwater. I watched what the GOPe did to Reagan. Today is is very difficult to hide these back room manipulations and anybody who cares can see what is going on. If the GOPe manages to knock Trump and Cruz out of the race then my question to the GOPe is this –How do you like your loses this November? For more years than I care to count I have heard the usual refrain when faced with the choice of 2 absolutely useless candidates from the major parties that if I do not vote for the Republican the world will end and all the puppies will die. Due to the GOPe we have endured 8 years of Obama and the world has not quite ended, yet. I will not play this game again. Either the GOPe keeps their sneaky hands off or I will vote for Gary Johnson and the GOPe can stew in their own juice.

    StotheOB in reply to OldNuc. | March 31, 2016 at 5:18 pm

    I recommend you take off the tinfoil-hat and instead recognize the fact that:
    A) Ted Cruz has worked extremely hard to stack the delegates in our favor with grassroots minded people
    B) Its the delegates who decide if & how the rules are changed.

    Trump could have done the same if he had any idea what he was doing. He doesnt, and is now trying to whine and cry that the Establishment should take back power away from the Grassroots and instead give it to him.

    Truth is there is no grand conspiracy here, nor has there ever really been- its all very simple rules anyone could have been taking advantage of. Unfortunately the Grassroots have never had a true fighter able to understand it all and do what is needed to be done to take back the GOP for we the people. Now we do, and a lot of so-called “Conservatives” are seemingly trying to throw it all away because of their cult-like devotion to an absolute idiot reality TV personality who says wall.

    If you really are against the Establishment than you should be yelling and screaming at the top of your lungs that Trump needs to be stopped instead of placating his push to
    get the Establishment to take over completely on behalf of him.

    Ted Cruz has already slayed the “Establishment” – meanwhile Trump is now desperately trying to get the establishment to take ultimate power to become the kingmakers everyone incorrectly assumes they are now (people should be able to recognize all this stuff, btw. We’ve been watching Obama do similar from the WH for the last 7 years. Yet Trump pulls the same power games to concentrate power and everyone acts like hes a victim somehow? Its pitiful)

      HarrietHT in reply to StotheOB. | March 31, 2016 at 7:26 pm

      Cruz *is* the establishment.
      You are either blind to that fact or appallingly uninformed.
      Spend more time over at dianawest.net than here if you wish to present yourself as well-informed. Start here: “The Post-Constitutional Election, Part 14 . . . ” posted on 3/25/16.
      Or not.
      It’s your choice.
      Also, theconservativetreehouse’s commentary is based on facts. Nothing but the facts, ma’am.

        Also, theconservativetreehouse’s commentary is based on facts.

        No, they are an abject web-wide laughing stock.

        If that’s where our recent Trumpkin blow-ins have blown in from, that explains the recent lowering of tone in the comments section here.

        StotheOB in reply to HarrietHT. | March 31, 2016 at 7:41 pm

        Conservative Treehouse is run by a huge Hillary supporter for the sole purpose of causing chaos within the Republican base. Its extremely well known by anyone who has been around for any amount of time.

        Nothing they say should be taken seriously; especially when they say things so unbelievably stupid as “Cruz is the establishment”

          HarrietHT in reply to StotheOB. | March 31, 2016 at 8:21 pm

          Ha ha ha.
          Too funny.
          You know you’ve just humiliated yourself by writing a blatant lie?

          StotheOB in reply to StotheOB. | March 31, 2016 at 8:39 pm

          Lie?

          Seriously, go to TCTH and look anywhere you want, pretty sure you will not be able to find out the name of Sundance or his partners. That is how it has always been at least, and there is a very specific reason for that

          Sundances name is Mark, btw. But as I said, go ahead and link to their identities on TCTH website somewhere. And when you cant find them, I suggest you ponder why that might be the case… (hint: its not the only blog they all run)

        Matt_SE in reply to HarrietHT. | April 1, 2016 at 12:15 am

        The alt-right websites you mention are the resurrection of the John Birch Society. Nominally right, but kooky as hell.

        Milhouse in reply to HarrietHT. | April 1, 2016 at 1:51 am

        Conservative Nuthouse was the source for that ridiculous claim that Skittles™ and Arizona™ Watermelon Drink are the ingredients of “purple drank”, and that this was what St Trayvon was out getting that night. It was also the source for the equally ridiculous idea that when St Trayvon referred to GZ as a “crazy-ass cracker” he meant “crazy ass-cracker”, by which he meant a homosexual. Pure lunacy.

          Heh, don’t waste your time. Anyone who reads that site, much less actually quotes or links it, is not to be taken seriously. Everyone knows that (well, except the con-nuts, and who cares about them? They can go to the InfoWars tin-foil hat forming party and babble their inanities there).

      Lady Penguin in reply to StotheOB. | March 31, 2016 at 10:23 pm

      As a defender of Trump, I’d like to point out that he is a businessman first, politician after the fact. That’s what is going on. Cruz, et al are all masters of the political game, it’s tough on people who haven’t spent their entire adult work years at the feeding from the taxpayers trough.

        StotheOB in reply to Lady Penguin. | March 31, 2016 at 11:35 pm

        There are a couple problems with this post, most glaringly:

        First – Trump ensured everyone he is the smartest person running who will hire the best people to run Big Government the way he feels it should be run, instead of how the supposedly stupid people are running it because they cant figure anything out. If he is so smart and hired such great people though, why doesnt he know the rules? Isnt that the entire reason we are supposed to vote for him because only he can figure stuff like this out?

        Second – Trump has been feeding off the Big Government trough nearly his entire life, getting Big Government to step in and accomplish for him what he couldnt do on his own and taking advantage of every single Government connection of benefit he could get his hands on.

        I mean, why else do you feel he wanted Charlie F*in Rangel as his HUD Secretary when he ran for President in 2000? Or why do you feel he was receiving the World Trade Center Business Recovery Grant program (which was designed to help keep “small businesses” afloat after 9/11) or New York States School Tax Relief Program (which is designed as property tax break for those making less than 500K a year) …answer is, there isnt a Government Program or connection he doesnt try to milk to get as much as he can; at the tax-payers expense, of course.

    The GOP joined in with leftist snotbots to trash Sarah Palin including FOXNews.

    Screw the GOP Establishment and their jackass friends, the Democrats.

The GOP is and has to be a big tent, including Tea Party, libertarian, Christian, free market etc members. If it has to be without the “establishment”, RINOs etc. it will be useless. I am so tired of fellow (presumably) liberty thinking Republicans sever criticism of Ryan (I like him) and other important elements of our COALITION that I frequently despair for any hope. As I understand it, no rule changes can happen at the Republican convention unless a majority of delegates vote to approve them. I am aware of several potential delegates that are running on a platform of not allowing insider games to be played to change the system so I think this will be one of the most watchable conventions in years. Hopefully they will take an early initial vote to allow the 2nd, 3rd or more votes to take place. If Trump is the nominee, I will vote for him in the general but I will consider that America as a free nation will be dead as I believe the democrat will be elected and will live my life accordingly. I hope I am wrong.

    Liz in reply to pyawakit. | March 31, 2016 at 5:10 pm

    You mention delegate selection – I wonder how many people know that many delegates to the national convention have not been selected. That process takes place after many primaries at state conventions.

      Lady Penguin in reply to Liz. | April 1, 2016 at 6:10 am

      True. but what is happening in the districts of the states, is the choosing of who will go to the State Convention.

      For example, my state, Virginia, the GOP-E party apparatus is working hard to shut out any delegates to the State convention that might be Trump supporters. There’s also been some effort to undermine the presence of Cruz supporters at the State convention. Thus, if those supporters aren’t at the State, they’re sure not going to be at the National convention.

      Some would say that’s just the way politics is. But dirty politics is exactly why it’s so hard to change out the political party. All the grassroots and conservative efforts go for naught when control can’t be wrested from the political machine that got us in to this in the first place.

The system is based on rules developed by each state’s organization, which makes it very representative. The purpose of the state’s primaries and caucuses is to find out the opinions of the people who are registered as a party member, not of everyone who lives in the state.

In my state (OK), when you register to vote, you declare what party you belong to and you can change parties up to 30 days before a primary election. You can not cross over and vote as a member of the other party. However, in this year, the Democrats decided that they would allow Independents to vote in their primary.

If one was interested, you could go to the state GOP website and find out how many delegates were at-large, how many were going to be based on the vote, how the delegates are going to be chosen and other rules of the state party.

I’m sure all of the Republican state organizations have similar websites and their own, different rules for delegate selection. Some allow open primaries, others hold caucus meetings. I don’t agree with some of the rules of other states, but I don’t live there.

When I voted this year, there was a long list of names. Many of the people had dropped out, but they were still on the ballot because their campaigns had followed the rules of getting signatures by a certain date and paying a fee. I read that Rubio has told certain states that he is not releasing his delegates but he has requested being removed from the California ballot. His decision, but that is how the rules are written.

If you don’t like the rules, get involved at the local and state level of the party and work to change the rules. Or start your own party. Or switch to the Democrat party, but I bet they have even a wider variety of state rules.

Talk is cheap. Trump has not done anything. Issue is not ripe.

Since other candidates have denounced their loyalty pledge as well . . . where do the delegates go now?

    StotheOB in reply to Jenny. | March 31, 2016 at 5:29 pm

    Trump is the only one who publicly denounced the pledge that Ive seen. Maybe Kasich has because I have a hard time listening to him and generally change the channel. Cruz has never said he isnt keeping the pledge.

      RodFC in reply to StotheOB. | March 31, 2016 at 5:38 pm

      Yeah. The others said we kind of/sort of/probably/don’t know but think we will not support him but don’t hold us to that.
      Trump, not being a politician came right out and said it.

      That’s why he is the front runner.

        StotheOB in reply to RodFC. | March 31, 2016 at 5:47 pm

        So Trump’s stupid, has no idea what the rules are and cant bother to hire people who know what they are doing …and thats why people like him?

        Brilliant

        (BTW, ~70% absolutely cant stand him so Id be careful about insinuating hes somehow loved. Hes the frontrunner solely because the vote has been split up to 17 ways until recently – he has never once gotten 50% in a state though, and has not seen his average vote total increase as those other candidates all dropped out. All of it makes Trump the single worst and weakest frontrunner in political history – never has a frontrunner been this weak this late in the game. Meanwhile his unbelievably horrific unfavorables and untrustworthy numbers make him the worst possible candidate to ever run in a General Election; amazingly much worse than even Hillary)

        Matt_SE in reply to RodFC. | April 1, 2016 at 12:20 am

        No, that’s why he’s the only one in danger of losing his delegates.

        Evan3457 in reply to RodFC. | April 1, 2016 at 5:50 am

        He became the front runner by repeatedly kicking himself in the cajones?

I’ve said it before.
Time for Trump to go 3rd party.
Suspend the campaign, but like Rubio keep the delegates. So two rounds then the free for all begins. With Trump out Jeb! jumps back in.
Maybe Rubio. Romney. Ryan. All the little piggies fighting over who gets to be candidate. Meanwhile Trump is ramping up for his run.

BTW how many votes a day can they take. Each one takes an hour. Maybe they will have to extend the convention for another week and get even more opportunity to show the big pile of fecal matter the GOP has become.

Hell once the debates come around they may not be polling high enough to make the debate. Then people can watch Trump vs Hillary and dream of what it might become.

    Ragspierre in reply to RodFC. | March 31, 2016 at 5:36 pm

    You have well and truly lost your mind. What there was…

      RodFC in reply to Ragspierre. | March 31, 2016 at 6:05 pm

      Repeat after me.
      President Donald Trump.
      President Hillary Rodham Clinton.’
      Keep repeating. Get used to it, because you will be saying it for the next eight years.

      Meanwhile lover boy Loser Cruz may windup sharing a cell with John Edwards. My bet is that Rafe is going to wind up being the *iotch.

    good enough morgan in reply to RodFC. | March 31, 2016 at 9:48 pm

    Hmm. Trump third party. At this stage of the game. that would mean given the rules that vary in the states and the absence of a serious Trump ground organization getting on maybe 30 state tickets as an off the cuff guess.
    If the Trump supporters and some polling is right, Trump would attract a good number of Democrats.
    Would that be good or bad for the Republican nominee?

    Matt_SE in reply to RodFC. | April 1, 2016 at 12:22 am

    Another Trumpkin retard self-identifies.
    Hey, genius: the deadline to get on the ballot as a 3rd party candidate has passed in probably every state. How did you think you were going to get any votes, retard?

    Evan3457 in reply to RodFC. | April 1, 2016 at 5:51 am

All he has is bullying, threatening, and sue sue sue.
His stooges are laughable. Bought and paid for web sites, bloggers and of course the tree nuts, along with brightbark.
Who’d a think they’d sell out for this guy with the fake tan, fake hair, and plastic surgery enhanced wife.

Again
The Obvious GOPe Strategy

1) Use Cruz to block Trump from first ballot victory
2) Knife Cruz in back and dump him
3) Bring in GOPe “Unity Candidate” and nominate them by manipulating the rules

    StotheOB in reply to DaMav. | March 31, 2016 at 6:07 pm

    No conspiracy in play or needed.

    The Grassroots & Cruz have already pretty much ensured Cruz is the nominee and since we now largely control the delegates, the absolutely only threat to our survival is not the establishment (which has already been beaten) and instead Trump trying to get enough morons to beg the Establishment to take ultimate control and hand him the nomination.

    HarrietHT in reply to DaMav. | March 31, 2016 at 7:31 pm

    That’s the plan.
    No way do the GOPe conspirators want TC as president; none at all. He’s just a useful tool to take out the big threat to their selling off of our nation’s sovereignty.

Connivin Caniff | March 31, 2016 at 5:59 pm

Let’s say David Duke or Al Sharpton is on the ballot in South Carolina. In order to run against him, do all the other candidates have to pledge to support him?

    StotheOB in reply to Connivin Caniff. | March 31, 2016 at 6:04 pm

    Nice attempt at a squirrel

    Rules have been in place for decades and have never been a problem for absolutely anyone else – only the so-called brilliant Trump who insists he will hire the best people, but cant seem to find anyone to tell him what sad rules are or what the heck he needs to be doing.

wow – so because Cruz & Kasich danced around the pledge – we’re supposed to think they aren’t guilty of the same thing as Trump?
At some point Trump will see no down side to going 3rd party and some portion of his supporters will go with him. Then we’ll see the people currently trashing him whine and blame him when Hillary gets elected.

    Lady Penguin in reply to katiejane. | March 31, 2016 at 7:22 pm

    Having seen the true sleaze of the Establishment Republican party, and also having grown disgusted with the candidate who I once supported and voted for, Ted Cruz, join with those political sleaze bags, I’ll be one of those who won’t vote for the GOP-E nominee if they steal it from the person the people voted for in the primaries. Simple as that.

    There are a number of us who are now ready to say good riddance to bad rubbish. Regardless of Trump’s shortcomings, the behavior of the GOP-E takes them – finally – off my radar for support.

    That’s what this primary season is bringing.

      I second that Lady Penguin. Cruz is a major disappointment.
      Better to discover it now than later.

      Just Say No To #LyinTed

      OldNuc in reply to Lady Penguin. | March 31, 2016 at 8:52 pm

      Lady Penguin:
      You have indeed figured out the GOPe game plan. Ted Cruz will be enabled to stop Donald Trump from reaching 1237 on the first vote and then both will be done by a rule change yet to be written. When the new rule is written the week before the convention it will be way too late for the Cruz people to stop it from passing. The first business of the full convention will be a voice vote to accept the rules for that convention and the ayes will have it as ruled by the chair.

      With the seething discord in both the Repub and Dem electorate the wheels just might finally come of this corrupt 2 party buss.

      Popcorn …

        Evan3457 in reply to OldNuc. | April 1, 2016 at 5:55 am

        I believe any rule changes have to be voted on by the convention delegates. Why would Trump and Cruz’s delegates vote that change in? They will shortly control a majority of the delegates.

          Lady Penguin in reply to Evan3457. | April 1, 2016 at 6:23 am

          For myself, the real concern is fairness in the process. Apparently, Cruz has a position which gives him an advantage.

          The bigger issue (again, for me) is denying the voice of the people, and that’s exactly what I see happening by the dirty political machinations. This negatively affects both Trump and Cruz (the GOP-E doesn’t want either one of them), so it’d be nice if people would stop and think about how this plays out. If a candidate is short of the magic number before the convention, and his supporters are not at the Convention as delegates (again, this isn’t just a Trump issue)then the GOP-E can slide someone in who hasn’t even run in the primary.

          In the old days, the smoke-filled rooms are how all this was done anyway. But now we actually have a much more sophisticated and involved populace, and it just isn’t going to fly anymore.

          Lady Penguin in reply to Evan3457. | April 1, 2016 at 6:30 am

          Oh, forgot to actually answer your question about “control” of the delegates. If the State conventions undermine the delegate choices – meaning they send delegates who are not supporters of a candidate, they only have to vote for said candidate on first ballot. Second ballot, they’re part of the GOP-E again.

          It’s happening right here in my local GOP. I’d prefer that the delegates who go should be proportional and actual supporters of said candidate. In Virginia, we were a proportional distribution. But the State Party apparatus is trying to keep supporters of some candidates our as actual delegates. The GOP-E just wants the good ‘ol boys to go and do their bidding.

Rigged poll… will not vote. Shame on you Jacobson 🙁

Henry Hawkins | March 31, 2016 at 7:35 pm

(Disclaimer before I post – I’m not a registered Republican and never had been).

The Republican Party belongs to… the Republican Party. It is not a government agency. It owes ‘fairness’ to exactly no one. It is free to establish the rules any way it deems fit and to change those rules whenever it wants. The same is true of any other American political party.

Of course, whatever actions the Republican Party has taken in the past or plans to take in the near future, it has to accept whatever fallout comes accordingly. Similarly, Apple is free to make the text on all their phones white on a white background, Ford Motor Company is free to make steering wheels a $2,000 optional accessory, and Professor Jacobson is free to convert this blog into an online sales outlet for BeeGees memorabilia. Each would have to accept the consequences for those actions.

The Republican Party ‘owes’ the nomination to no one. The Republican Party is free to nominate that candidate who got the least delegates if it chooses. The Republican Party is free to nominate Megyn Kelly’s dog if it wishes. But it doesn’t ‘owe’ the nomination to any-damn-body, not Trump, not Cruz, not Kasich…. nobody.

The American voting public, including registered Republicans, is also free to react accordingly to whatever the Republican Party decides to do. Politics is a complete free market economy in America.

In 1975, at age 21, I registered to vote as a Democrat for no other reason that my parents were Democrats and I voted for Carter – out of political ignorance. The Carter administration cured me of belonging to the Democrat Party. I re-registered as independent/unaffiliated rather than Republican because I became politically aware while suffering the Carter administration. I still remember the billboards on southbound I-75 at the Ohio border reading “Will The Last Person Leaving Michigan Please Turn Out The Lights?” It was watching what the Republican Party tried to do to Reagan – again – that turned me off from that party.

I discovered I was a natural conservative – not a ‘compassionate conservative, nor a severe conservative, whatever the hell that is – and voted for Reagan twice, Bush I twice, Dole, Bush II twice, McCain, and in 2012 I wrote in Ted Nugent, unable to stomach Romney’s robotic obediences. If Romney had honestly admitted he was no conservative, I would have voted for him, but no, he and the GOP treated me as if I were stupid.

The Republican Party is 100% free to do whatever they wish with their rules and their nomination process. The smart candidate and his or her supporters will accept that and play those rules professionally. The not-so-smart will assume they are somehow’owed’ something and reap the harvest of doing nothing mre than whining and complaining about it.

Everything I’ve said is equally true of the Democrat Party, of course.

Now, if the Repubican Party opts to circumvent the votes of its own membership via overt rules trickery, they are free to do so and they will reap what is thus sowed. To me, that would be penny wise and pound foolish, in that they’d shoehorn in the candidate they want, but lose membership at an even greater rate than they already are. So be it. Freedom.

It is difficult to come up with two private political entities more corrupt and more self-serving that the Republican and Democrat Parties over the length of time I’ve been politically aware. That being the case, it is hopelessly naive and childish to think they ‘owe’ anybody anything.

What in hell has either done over these decades to make one think that they are honorable institutions? Why do you think a plurality and nearing majority of registered voters refuse to belong to either party?

Voting for Trump, Cruz, Clinton, or Sanders will not change this sick and sad political dynamic one iota.

    Henry Hawkins:
    If the country is real lucky they (Repubs & Dems) will overplay their hands and the entire charade will come crashing down.

    Milhouse in reply to Henry Hawkins. | April 1, 2016 at 2:19 am

    The Republican Party belongs to… the Republican Party. It is not a government agency. It owes ‘fairness’ to exactly no one. It is free to establish the rules any way it deems fit and to change those rules whenever it wants. The same is true of any other American political party.

    This. Exactly this. I have never understood why the parties allow primaries.

      Evan3457 in reply to Milhouse. | April 1, 2016 at 5:58 am

      Probably to give at least a simulacrum of a democratic process in the choosing of their candidates for office. And sometimes, the choice really does turn out to be democratic. Dave Bratt vs. Eric Cantor, for one.

Like it or not, this is masterful politics, on Trump’s part. He knows that the RNC will shaft him anyway that it can, to keep him from being nominated. So, he is applying leverage here, just like Marco Rubio is attempting to do and as Cruz has done in Louisiana. The loyalty pledge requires that a candidate support the eventual nominee. But, it is strikingly clear that the party will not support Trump, if he is the nominee. The RNC is talking about changing the nomination rules for the convention. They are talking about fielding a third party candidate if Trump secures the nomination anyway. The Party is placing Cruz supporters in convention positions from states which Trump won.

So, if Trump points out that the party seems to be intent upon denying him the nomination, repeatedly, and then this happens, especially if it involves stripping Trump of candidates or changing the convention rules to deny him the nomination, the Party loses, in the long run. None of the rank and file membership will ever trust the Party again. It will rapidly become insignificant and wither. This is all a ploy to keep the Party honest. If Trump loses the nomination, legitimately, then he will simply pack up and go home. I doubt that you would see him actively working for any other candidate.

Trump is the self-proclaimed World’s Greatest Deal-maker, for whom every problem in the world is reduced to the simplicity of a deal, which he is (of course) the most qualified person in the world to make. Well, he made a deal with the South Carolina Republican Party, then he reneged on it! No tears for Trump.

    Henry Hawkins in reply to ReReFicoli. | March 31, 2016 at 8:54 pm

    Yup, like when he explained on national TV that no, he doesn’t really intend to set a 45% tariff on Chinese imports, that’s just a bluff, a place to start his negotiations. Live, national TV.

    I would LOVE to play poker with this guy.

MaggotAtBroadAndWall | March 31, 2016 at 10:42 pm

I don’t know how this works. Is an utterance on TV that contradicts the written pledge really enough to assert that the written pledge has been breeched? I have a hard time believing that can be so. If a mere utterance can carry more weight than the written pledge, then why can’t Trump make another utterance and say he’s changed his mind and will support the Republican Party nominee after all?

Aside from all that, who rules on the dispute? The SC Republican state party?

What a STUPID poll question.

The RNC is blatantly and loudly proclaiming that it is going to go contested convention regardless of outcome.

And the poll question focuses on Mr. Trump.

Disgusting. Abhorent.

Can anyone spell c o m p l e t e p o l i t i c al d i s p o s s e s s i o n?

And the poll asks a brazeningly obfuscating question as that?

HELL no. I won’t answer it.

    JackRussellTerrierist in reply to HarrietHT. | April 1, 2016 at 12:11 am

    Clue up, Harriet. This poll was not done by the RNC. It’s a common Polldaddy online poll that LI put up, nothing more. The RNC has zero to do with it.

    I see you’re about as sharp as a marble. I’ve read many of your posts. You’re not ready for LI. You should just go back to whatever “Site for Hayseed, Low-Info, Uneducated Followers Who Think They’re Conservatives But Really Just Useful Drones” you came from and stay there. I’m sure the semi-literate hacks there think you’re wonderful.

    Nobody cares if you answer the poll or not.

    Evan3457 in reply to HarrietHT. | April 1, 2016 at 6:00 am

    The Republican Party cannot go “contested convention” if one of the candidates, presumably Trump at this point, gets 1237 delegates. However, if no one gets to 1237, then the rules of party say the convention becomes contested. Been that way for oh, 160 years. That’s how Abe Lincoln got nominated in 1860.

    Evan3457 in reply to HarrietHT. | April 1, 2016 at 6:04 am

    Can you spell m a s t e r p e r s u a d e r s h o u l d s p e n d l e s s t i m e p e s u a d i n g a n d m o r e t i m e l e a r n i n g r u l e s o f t h e p r i m a r i e s o r a t l e a s t u s i n g s o m e o f h i s Y U G E f o r t u n e t o h i r e l a w y e r s c o m p e t e n t i n t h i s a r e a?

    JackRussellTerrierist in reply to Ragspierre. | April 1, 2016 at 9:50 am

    Do you know if this was the last one of these pending for the time being, or are there other such suits pending in other states? I’m not aware of any others.

      No. A Democrat congressman in Florida is sueing too keep him opff the general election.
      Surprise!

        Florida used car salesman (and registered Republican) Michael Voeltz’s suit was already tossed out for lack of standing. I’m surprised Grayson is giving it a go as well. I know he threatened to last year, but do you have a cite for where he’s actually filed? Thanks!

          Again: Do you have a cite for where he’s actually filed?

          I guess the answer is “no.” In fact, your claim that “A Democrat congressman in Florida is sueing [sic] too [sic] keep him opff [sic] the general election” doesn’t appear to be true.

Lady Penguin | April 1, 2016 at 9:51 am

I realize that few reading here now are fair-minded about the primary delegate process. Still, the headline and NYT article on Drudge proves my point. Not only on what is going on here in my homestate of Virginia but elsewhere.

“How votes for Trump could become delegates for someone else”

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/04/01/us/politics/how-votes-for-trump-could-become-delegates-for-someone-else.html?_r=0

Conservatives once stood for being honest and decent, being attacked here LI is disheartening if one even states a fact in defense of someone who isn’t the favorite flavor in the GOP these days. The anti-Trump vitriol doesn’t make anyone a better person, and it sure doesn’t do much for the level of discourse here. Which had always been a nice intellectual respite from some of the other sites on the net. I’m sorry to see this deterioration.

Read the article, anti-Trump folks, read it with glee, but ultimately it will be a pyrrhic victory.

    JackRussellTerrierist in reply to Lady Penguin. | April 1, 2016 at 10:03 am

    Pot, meet kettle. The hump has been calling people names and insulting people in very personal ways from the outset, so quit crying about the discourse. You are supporting a loud-mouthed, bullying, blowhard carnival barker, for pete’s sake.

    The rules have been in place for eons. That The hump can’t win with those rules is because he’s a ‘harrible’, awful person and too stupid to have bothered to learn the rules. Tough. The sooner he gets blown out, the better. He is such a detestable, fraudulent, lying, empty-headed rat and I can’t stand the sight or sound of him.

      Lady Penguin in reply to JackRussellTerrierist. | April 1, 2016 at 10:28 am

      Nothing to do with “the hump” it has do with the sleazy politics, and you can take your sanctimonious vitriol and bless yourself daily with it.

      The comment I left simply gave facts and a link. You, and the rest of the nasty folks here are trying to have your cake and eat it too. If it was YOUR candidate delegates were just party hacks and not the true supporters of said candidate, in this case Cruz and Trump, then you’d be screaming. You all are spending your time on incredible hatred for a man who hasn’t done one thing to you.

      I’m looking forward to the Republicans’ pyrrhic victory. Absolutely looking forward to how the hatred has turned loyal, lifetime GOP voters into people who will now truly believe that the GOP is just as much an enemy of the people as the Democrats.

      Hope you’re happy. BTW, the insulting way these discussions have been going on, doesn’t do much for LI, but you all don’t care.

I have a question that I have been pondering the last couple of days.

If Trump and Cruz come into the convention virtually tied and Cruz wins the nomination will the people that supported Trump support Cruz? I understand the feelings if Trump has a significant lead but what about a tie.

    Lady Penguin in reply to gmac124. | April 1, 2016 at 10:33 am

    Good question, and while I’m still trying to be fair-minded, and because I usually am a calm and polite person, will give my own personal perspective. 1) Please see my above response just written to “JackRussell” at 10:28. 2) I voted for Cruz in the VA primary. I supported him for Senate in TX. 3) I’m so angry at the vitriol and nasty treatment Trump has received that if Cruz is the nominee – I honestly cannot say that I’ll vote for him in the general, because the dirty politics will have pulled it off. 4) I think Cruz people underestimate the way the GOP-E does business and he isn’t like either…someone is going to take it from them both.

    As I said, Pyrrhic victory for the Republicans.

      gmac124 in reply to Lady Penguin. | April 1, 2016 at 11:12 am

      “I’m so angry at the vitriol and nasty treatment Trump has received”

      I understand the vitriol that has come out during this primary. However Trump is the catalyst. From the outset he has attacked everybody with some of the vilest comments and slurs and now you want to blame Cruz for this? Don’t get me wrong I am not saying anyone is innocent, just saying make sure you find the source first. I have tried to stay out of this cycle but must admit I was dragged in a few times. That is why I won’t read posters like Gary Britt.

    RodFC in reply to gmac124. | April 1, 2016 at 10:36 am

    It depends on how Cruz got close.
    For example if he steals delegates in LA and Virginia.
    If he gets Trumps delegates from SC disqualified.
    Then definitely not.

    If he runs the table then maybe, Though I suspect that NY ( and NJ ) values are not going to help him much.

    Mac45 in reply to gmac124. | April 1, 2016 at 11:45 am

    What makes you think that if Trump and Cruz are close, going into the convention, that Cruz has a significantly better chance of gaining the nomination than Trump does? At least at this point.

    The RNC doesn’t want either Trump or Cruz. And, if the convention becomes a contested one, this opens the doors to ANYONE being the nominee. It all depends upon the deals that are made with the delegates. This is why Rubio wants to keep control of his delegates throughout the convention. It is the reason why Cruz is attempting to stack the party representatives deck with his supporters.

    The biggest problem for the RNC is that Trump has not been mathematically eliminated from potentially winning more than 50% of the delegates. This is the reason why the RNC is floating the notion that the rules may be changed going into the convention. Also look for vote fraud in the upcoming primaries.

    If Trump has anywhere near 50% of the delegates and is not nominated, the party will simply lose a tremendous amount of support in November. It is entirely likely that the Democrat candidate will step into the WH, no matter who it is. The Conservative base [rank and file members] have not voted since 2000, in any significant numbers. And, if you eliminate them and new Trump supporters, who were brought into the primaries by the Trump candidacy, the Party loses the general election. Of course, the jobs of the party elite would be safe and the donor class would lose nothing, if Clinton was elected. So, they don’t really care about the country or the other members of their party.

      Ragspierre in reply to Mac45. | April 1, 2016 at 12:00 pm

      This is rank, unsupported, and unsupportable, fantasy.

      Rationally, you make the cardinal mistake, both here and in your other post, of homogenizing very heterogeneous groups.

      There is no “RNC” as you use the term. There is no “establishment” without careful definition of how any writer uses that term. Those are stupid, undefined, and generally useless terms that you and others here use as a given.

      You hint at dark fantasy, like “voter fraud” without the slightest support. You’re as deeply a nutter here as any of the “Conservative” Tree Sloughs.

      I am the must radical conservative I know, and I will fight T-rump every day. IF he’s elected, I’ll militate for his impeachment, because I can predict with absolute confidence based on the man, his history, and his pronouncements that he’ll begin laying the grounds for impeachment from BEFORE he takes office.

      I am hardly alone.

        If you discover your characterizations and predictions are incorrect and President Trump is good on his word and the nation turned around, then what?

          Ragspierre in reply to VotingFemale. | April 1, 2016 at 1:33 pm

          Two different questions.

          First, my appraisal of Mr. Establishment has been totally vindicated ALREADY in Iowa.

          Not only did Mr. Establishment sell out to BIG CORN for a few pitiful caucus votes, he DOUBLED-DOWN by calling for Federal programs supporting ethanol to EXPAND.

          THEN he LIED about it, saying that “ethanol was necessary to ‘Make America Great Again”. Which is patent bullshit.

          On the second issue, an authoritarian, anti-Constitutional regime CAN do some APPARENTLY good things, short-term. That does not make them good long-term, or moral.

          You don’t care. I do. There is one important difference.

        Mac45 in reply to Ragspierre. | April 1, 2016 at 12:37 pm

        Actually, there IS a Republican national Committee. And, its main focus is the continuation of the Republican Party as it exists today. Now, the members, of that committee, are all part of the GOP establishment. There might be the occasional maverick, but he, or she, is quickly eliminated from that group. Now, there is also an established group of donors who routinely fund candidates who will advance the agenda of the Republican Party as well as their own agendas. This is the GOP establishment. And, it is these people who are doing all in their power to eliminate Trump as the nominee. One thing that you have to remember is that Cruz has been positioning himself as the “anti-GOP establishment” candidate since he entered the Senate, in order to facilitate a bid for the Presidency. So, to argue that a GOP establishment does not exist is simply intellectually dishonest.

        As to vote fraud, we have already had some complaints about excess ballots being presented in the Utah caucuses. While this may or may not be true, it still possible way to prevent a candidate from securing a majority of the delegates for the convention and, given the statements and position of members of the GOP hierarchy, must be guarded against.

        Now, I presented a simple, rational point of view concerning the original question. I did not use derogatory epithets when referring to anyone else here. Nor have I expressed favor for or against any single candidate. I have merely commented upon the potential outcome of the GOP primaries AND the potential ramifications should one candidate secure nearly 50% of the delegates and still be denied the nomination.

        Now, if you simply can not see the scenario playing out as I have described, then please explain your view as to the potential outcome and back it up with reasonable logic.

        Finally, I have found that when people are reduced to calling those who disagree with them names and engaging in ad hominem attacks designed to reduce their opponent’s standing, it is usually because they lack a strong intellectual of factual basis for their position or argument.

          Ragspierre in reply to Mac45. | April 1, 2016 at 1:48 pm

          Nobody called you a name, or made an adhominem argument.

          You did. I guess by your standard, you are weak. Certainly by my standards, your arguments are.

          My points still stand.

Twitter Feed:

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump

For the 1st time in American history, America’s 16,500 border patrol agents have issue a presidential primary endorsement—me! Thank you.

7:25am · 1 Apr 2016 · Twitter Web Client

3,819 Retweets 10,273 Likes

    Ragspierre in reply to VotingFemale. | April 1, 2016 at 12:07 pm

    “Yay, ME!” Poor, ungrammatical, self-parodist narcissist.

    BIG GOVERNMENT, BIG UNION. Just as predicted, THOSE will endorse Mr. Establishment, who we know has done well in New York City’s cess pool of corruption, including the most corrupt trade unions in that US.

When a distant second place is being well-situated…

Twitter Feed:

Phil Mattingly
@Phil_Mattingly

.@GovernorPerry tells @KateBolduan GOP race his headed to a contested convention and @tedcruz “is very, very well situated” for that.

8:05am · 1 Apr 2016 · Twitter for iPhone

8 Retweets 2 Likes

The Establishment hates Cruz as much as they hate Trump and likely if Trump were in second place and Cruz the front runner low these many many months they would be carving up Cruz.

Thing is, Trump doesn’t need the GOP Establishment.

    Ragspierre in reply to VotingFemale. | April 1, 2016 at 12:32 pm

    You poor, T-rump sucking cultists need to reconcile/rationalize/make UN-crazy/unify your Cruz message.

    According to you and the other T=rump suckers here, Cruz is variously…

    1. a tool of the eGOP

    2. the eGOP personified

    3. an unwitting dupe of the eGOP

    4. the anti-Christ

    None of which are in the least credible…

      Attempting to characterize others as you do Trump?

      Seems to me you do a lot of projecting to suit your POV.

      I, for one, am glad to see the divisions within the party.

      The more divided it becomes, the weaker the GOP Establishment becomes.

      Keep it up Rags. You are 10 for 10 on that score.

Twitter Feed:

Sarah Palin
@SarahPalinUSA

Just touched down in the great state of Wisconsin to #Stump4Trump! Wisconsin’s middle class has been hurt by DC…

https://www.facebook.com/sarahpalin/photos/a.10150723283643588.424640.24718773587/10154104784118588/?type=1&theater

7:47am · 1 Apr 2016 · Facebook

450 Retweets 907 Likes

——-

Sarah’s FB Post cited above:


Sarah Palin
Like This Page · 1 hr ·

Just touched down in the great state of Wisconsin to #Stump4Trump! Wisconsin’s middle class has been hurt by DC politicians’ out-of-touch policies worse than any other state – 100,000 jobs lost to Mexico and China thanks to trade deficits with countries that cheat on our “agreements.”

Donald J. Trump has fought for American workers and against trade deficits for decades in the private sector, unlike his competitors who actually support Obama’s reckless TPP and TPA deals that are entirely unfair to the U.S. worker! As President he’ll bring manufacturing jobs back home; his interests are OUR interests, and his trade policies will finally put America first. Watch this clip of Donald Trump 20 years ago standing up for American workers! ????????
????
???? #jobs #jobs #jobs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEPs17_AkTI

    Ragspierre in reply to VotingFemale. | April 1, 2016 at 12:34 pm

    “…100,000 jobs lost to Mexico and China thanks to trade deficits with countries that cheat on our “agreements.”

    Poor, economically stupid, sell-out Sarah.

    I bet you run a monthly “trade deficit” with your grocery store.

    Americans are so easily punked.

      So now you resort to name calling Sarah Palin?

      Cool… keep it up, Rags.

      Might just have to change the name of the GOP to the Titanic Party.

        Ragspierre in reply to VotingFemale. | April 1, 2016 at 12:54 pm

        “Resort to…”?

        No, you poor stupid old cat lady.

        Palin DID sell-out to Der Donald. She took a DIAMETRICALLY opposite position on ethanol and Western land use from her former positions when she sold out to Mr. Establishment.

        You may wish to TRY to lie about that. Please DO! I’ll have fun demonstrating your mendacity again.

        Lady Penguin in reply to VotingFemale. | April 1, 2016 at 4:05 pm

        VotingFemale: I’m sorry that we’re the recipients of such visceral hatred by some of the commenters on this site. The GOP-E is sinking in “quicksand” and if one even posts a question, a fact, or a thoughtout response, we’re trolled to death, or absence.

        Maybe that’s what they want – folks to go away who disagree or try to reason on the bigger picture – so they can preach to their own choir. Don’t know, but I seriously believe that those who are so anti-Trump do not see the danger to their desired candidates. Downticket races included. Some of us just wanted to see a fair process, not old-school dirty politics that gave us a Dole, McCain, or Romney. What’s wrong with that desire?

        I’ve said it before, going with the GOP-E, will keep the gravy train running. Conservatives/grassroots/teapartiers sent a message to DC to stop the gravy train. All we got in return was the discovery that the not only does the GOP-E not want to derail the train, they’re riding on it First Class, all the way.

          gmac124 in reply to Lady Penguin. | April 1, 2016 at 5:39 pm

          Lady Penguin, voting female deserves everything she gets. I politely asked her to defend her position that Trump would not get destroyed by the same Democrat smear machine that she says Cruz would bet destroyed by. Her response was basically either that I am stupid or that I am illogical. It was in flowery language but that was still her point. Anybody that can’t defend their position without going ad hominem doesn’t deserve support. I will however tweak her nose every chance I get now, just as rags is doing.

Twitter Feed:

Sarah Palin
@SarahPalinUSA

Donald Trump’s touch of humanity shines without the media filters that would portray him as disconnected from the…

http://nation.foxnews.com/2016/03/29/you-saved-me-trumps-emotional-moment-fmr-miss-wisconsin-who-has-terminal-illness-video

2:28pm · 30 Mar 2016 · Facebook

547 Retweets 1,068 Likes

With no candidates left who support the pledge, maybe South Carolina should not send anyone to the convention. That’ll show them!

I see Trump winning huge over the GOP and the DEMs.

People are fed up with the DC BS and those attacking him only hasten the collapse of the GOP as it is today.

Twitter Feed:

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump

The Club For Growth said in their ad that 465 delegates (Cruz) plus 143 delegates (Kasich) is more than my 739 delegates. Try again!

9:29pm · 31 Mar 2016 · Twitter for Android

3,943 Retweets 11,612 Likes

True enough, the Establishment screwed up…

Projecting vs Reality

    Ragspierre in reply to VotingFemale. | April 1, 2016 at 1:23 pm

    https://youtu.be/T95DqjUwEKo

    There’s the ad.

    It doesn’t say what Der Donald alleges, though the graphics are bad and suggest that.

    So, is Der Donald or the Club For Growth being deceptive?

    And is Der Donald lying about the CFG attempt to “extort” him, or is this ANOTHER of his narcissistic patterned stories about how someone came to him for money or an endorsement, and he turned them down only to have them be negative about him? Ever notice how many of those there are, and that they contain the same exact elements?

    Thinking people have.

I stopped giving money to GOP 10 years ago when McCain, Graham, McConnell and Bush first started pushing legalization for illegals and failed to build a real wall and secure the border. At that time I started telling GOP any time they contacted me that they needed to stop worrying about getting my money and start worrying about whether they would get my vote. Naturally, it had absolutely zero effect.

I held my nose and voted for the losers McCain and Romney even though I hated them as candidates and hated their positions on many things including illegal immigration.

TRUMP is the GOP’s last shot with me. I hate that these morons like Graham and Romney and others and all their corrupt super pacs have been out to get Trump for many many months. I also have been sickened by all the GOPe “conservatives” at national review, redstate, and right here at LI with their never Trump stuff. All this combined has made me ONLY TRUMP. I will NEVER vote for Cruz or any other nominee that comes out of the convention.

If Trump is NOT nominee or if Trump is nominee but doesn’t win because of how the GOP has spent 300 million dollars attacking him and driving up his negatives and if either of those things comes to pass, then not only will the GOP never get money from me again the GOP will never get another vote from me again.

Instead I will do what Romney and the never Trump people have been running around saying people should do to Trump. Only I will do it to the GOP. I will vote strategically like Romney et al advocate. Only my strategy will be to cast my votes to try and make sure that no republican in any race for any office ever wins again. Until either I die or the GOP dies.

If that means voting straight democrat for the first time since 1971 that is what I will do. And I hate the democrats and think they are scum. But I hate McConnell, Graham, McCain, Ryan, Boehner, Cornyn, McCarthy, Cruz and Kasich and all of the GOP establishment sellouts to the globalists and mega donors even more.

    Ragspierre in reply to Gary Britt. | April 1, 2016 at 2:09 pm

    SUPPORT FOR BORDER WALL PLUNGES TO 38%: “Oh, Trump’s moved the Overton Window, all right. Just in the wrong direction,” Ace of Spades writes, adding. “You may not be interested in Political Correctness, but believe me amigos, Political Correctness remains very, very interested in you.”

    Read the whole thing.
    216
    Posted at 8:50 am by Ed Driscoll at InstaPundit

    Reality BITES. And T-rump doesn’t deal in reality.

      So Ragspierre is the purpose of your post to admit that your boy Cruz will NEVER build a wall, a real wall, a Trump wall.

      I’ve said that all along because it is true, but are you now admitting that Cruz has no intention of building a real wall, a Trump wall.

        Ragspierre in reply to Gary Britt. | April 1, 2016 at 4:08 pm

        Is it that you CAN’T read, or is it that you DON’T read?

        No, Cruz will not build a “T-rump wall”. Neither will T-rump.

      Ragspierre in reply to Ragspierre. | April 1, 2016 at 4:15 pm

      The point, you moron, was that that T-rump has dragged down the popularity of the idea of a border barrier, not enhanced it.

        No you ignorant ass *if* there has been lessening in (support) which I don’t believe for a minute. It would be because of the unprecedented attacks by morons like you here on LI, in the media, working for national review and the GOP establishment.

        Glad to see you finally admit that Cruz will NEVER build a real wall, a Trump wall.

        Trump WILL build it, and Mexico WILL pay for it !!!!

        Ragspierre in reply to Ragspierre. | April 1, 2016 at 4:37 pm

        All that is a statement of the blind articles of faith for the truly duped T-rump cultist.

        It was always boob bait for the boobs, and you’ve never been bashful about self-identifying.

        Cruz will build a barrier, control the southern border, and deport illegals. He’ll do it in reality, and according to the law.

          Cruz wont do anything but go back to his Senate office and worry if he can even get reelected, in my view.

          The party has fractured… cleaved… perhaps permanently.

          People will not be bullied by Karl Rove, Inc. And, Rovians would rather burn the “MFer” down than give way.

          This has been over due for sooo long.

          How can we get this nation back on track with these jackasses in control? We can’t.

          That is why, in my view, we have to force them to burn it down.

      LIAR. You constantly post lies deceptions and half truths.

      Support for a wall in that Pew Poll is 67%.

        Wrong, Gary. Republican support is 67%, but over all support is 38%.

        Here’s a link that includes a graphic for you: http://hotair.com/archives/2016/03/31/pew-poll-support-for-border-wall-with-mexico-drops-to-3858/

        A viable reading of the dip in the popularity of building the wall in accordance with the 2006 law to do so is that because it is Trump’s pet issue and people are so turned off by Trump (and his rabid fans) support for the wall has decreased. This anti-Trump explanation for the cratering support for the wall also accounts for the historically anomalous push back against the wall in light of the increased terror and national security threats. Normally, Americans want things like the wall when we feel threatened, but that’s clearly not the case now. Trump, in short, is the reason that support for the wall has dipped significantly. That’s not the only reading of the numbers and of this historical moment, but it’s the one that makes the most sense since the split on this issue has generally been half and half.

    This may be recorded in history as The Great Voter Revolution Of 2016.

    GOP Establishment is arm in arm with their DC Limousine Liberal Partners against Trump.

    They would serve up Cruz as a general election sacrifice to Hillary/Bernie so why would anyone in revolt vote for the GOPe’s Sacrificial loser?

“The Club For Growth said in their ad that 465 delegates (Cruz) plus 143 delegates (Kasich) is more than my 739 delegates.”

Actually if you add Cruz, Kasich, and Rubio together they have 779 which is greater than 739. Ooops

The GOP is run by themselves, and they are not indebted to ” We, The People ” It is in fact, their party.
Both Trump and Cruz are ” Party Crashers ” and neither is a bit welcome.
The GOP is trying to engineer a way to disqualify both of them, this isn’t about either Tump, or Cruz.
It’s about Party Power.
So, I think if they have the guts, they will pull it.
I wonder at which point in time one can switch parties and make the ballot.
That should be an interesting day.

    Cruz is not a party crasher as you put it. He is definitely part of the GOP establishment. He just is liked by everyone else in the GOP establishment.

    Trump is in a sense a party crasher, and he exposes the lie that the GOPe wants to grow the party. They clearly have no interest in having any of “those” people join the party.

    The GOP is the party of the globalist mega donors, by the representatives of the globalist mega donors, and for the globalist mega donors. That is the reason the GOP needs to DIE.

“The reality is that Cruz is an ideologue on trade. He has said, over and over again, that he opposes anything which raises the price of foreign imports. Well, if that is your position, then you have completely surrendered U.S. sovereignty,” Miller declared. “There is no way to enforce trade fairness if you’re not willing to increase the price of a foreign import. If someone manipulates their currency, the only way to remedy it is to increase the price of the import. If someone puts an unfair subsidy, in violation of the World Trade Organization, the only enforcement mechanism to deal with it is to apply a duty in response. If you’re not willing to affect the price of a foreign import, then you’re a complete trade surrenderist… and that’s Ted Cruz’s philosophy.”

“Ted Cruz is losing this race, he has no path to the nomination, and he’s engaged in a desperate display of disrespect for voters,” Miller concluded. “If Ted Cruz has changed his position on trade — which he hasn’t, and he’ll never, because it’s his religion — he would say, you know what, we’re gonna crack down on China currency, and NAFTA was a bad idea, and yes, tariffs are on the table. He doesn’t believe any of those things.”

http://www.breitbart.com/radio/2016/04/01/stephen-miller-working-people-rally-behind-trump-establishments-infrastructure-betrayal/

    Ragspierre in reply to Gary Britt. | April 1, 2016 at 4:47 pm

    Besides being ANOTHER economics moron, a T-rump “senior advisor” and a big fat liar, WTF is Steven Miller…???

    The liars at TrumpBart don’t provide us anything.

    Wonder why…???

    Gary, all Pres Trump has to do is divert wasted money DC panders with for votes to create seed money for start-ups that actually makes things here. That’s it. A Tax break, remove the road blocks and force China to back off.

    For starters, any US company with manufacturing plants moved to foreign soil to export goods back to the US is on notice… Get back to the country or face revenue loss and make an example out of several of them.

    When money talks, people listen.

      Ragspierre in reply to VotingFemale. | April 2, 2016 at 3:52 pm

      …or “all aboard for crony capitalism!”

      You won’t find any authority for any of that bullshit in the Constitution, you Collectivist ninny.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who’s endorsed Donald Trump, is in Wisconsin campaigning for the GOP frontrunner.

Palin posted on Facebook, “Just touched down in the great state of Wisconsin to ?#?Stump4Trump?! Wisconsin’s middle class has been hurt by DC politicians’ out-of-touch policies worse than any other state – 100,000 jobs lost to Mexico and China thanks to trade deficits with countries that cheat on our ‘agreements.’”

Donald J. Trump has fought for American workers and against trade deficits for decades in the private sector, unlike his competitors who actually support Obama’s reckless TPP and TPA deals that are entirely unfair to the U.S. worker! As President he’ll bring manufacturing jobs back home; his interests are OUR interests, and his trade policies will finally put America first. Watch this clip of Donald Trump 20 years ago standing up for American workers! ?#?jobs? #jobs #jobs

As Palin is campaigning for Trump, the real estate mogul added two new campaign events to his schedule.

He originally planned an afternoon town hall in Wausau, Wisconsin on Saturday, but is now also holding a town hall earlier in the day in Racine, Wisconsin and also a town hall Saturday night in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/04/01/sarah-palin-in-wisconsin-to-stump-with-trump-as-the-donald-makes-final-push/

Whoa…!!!

IF it’s true that “the trend is your fried”, this trend’s only friend is Ted Cruz…

http://hotair.com/archives/2016/04/01/gallup-trumps-favorable-rating-among-women-now-at-2370/

Seems the ladies are about fed up with the pre-pubescent school girl that is Der Donald.

‘Ted’ is a made up name. His name is Rafael Edward Cruz.

If Cruz were using a ‘nickname’ it would be Ed, Eddy, Rafe, Or Rafie.

“Ted” is a nickname for males with the given name Theodore, like Teddy Roosevelt.

Cruz even lies by telling people his name is Ted.

    VF, you are, as so often these days, incorrect. “Ted” is also used for Edward. Does the name Ted Kennedy ring a bell?

    It is also very common for people to go by their middle name rather than their first name. Do you want me to provide you a list or can you manage to grasp that on your own?

    Ragspierre in reply to VotingFemale. | April 2, 2016 at 3:55 pm

    I always figured adults get to be called anything for their first name they want.

    On the other hand, a 70 year old a man who can’t show the world his own head without a blond ferret glued to it…

    that’s another matter altogether.

Cruz has a first name. It’s Rafael. Cruz has a second name. It’s Edwardo. “Ted” is not on his Canadian birth certificate.

    Wrong again, VF. The middle name on his birth certificate is “Edward.”

    Why do you persist in telling outright lies when it’s so easy to find the truth with a quick Google search. You do Trump no favors with this childish behavior.

I have to admit though, #LyinTed has a ring to it…. #LyinRafael or #LyinEdwardo, not so much.

If Cruz wants to use Ted, it should be T’Ed.

    What on earth are you talking about? You know that you are at best repeating lies you’ve read elsewhere without knowing they are ridiculous lies, so why persist?

    Cruz’s birth certificate shows his name as Rafael Edward Cruz. Period.

    Ted is a name commonly used by those named Edward (again, think Ted Kennedy), and many people, both men and women, prefer to go by their middle name rather than their first. What is difficult to comprehend about any of this?

Actually, #LyinEddy has a great ring to it!

Seems #CruzNameGate has micro-trigger capabilities. cool.

To the pearl-clutchers… I was off line yesterday; April Fools Day. Today is as good as yesterday to that end 😉

#DaftCruz For Village Idiot. lol