Ted Cruz Could Pick Up Delegates in Louisiana, So Trump Threatens Lawsuit
Primaries. How do they work?
Donald Trump beat Ted Cruz by 3.6% points in Louisiana’s March 5 primary election. Both candidates were awarded 18 delegates.
But that could change.
According to Reid Epstein of the Wall Street Journal, Cruz could pick up as many as ten more delegates in the swamp state.
the Texan may wind up with as many as 10 more delegates from the state than the businessman.
Mr. Cruz’s supporters also seized five of Louisiana’s six slots on the three powerful committees that will write the rules and platform at the Republican National Convention and mediate disputes over delegates’ eligibility this summer in Cleveland.
The little-noticed inside maneuvering that led to this outcome in Louisiana is another dramatic illustration of the inside game that could have an outsize influence on the bitter race for the GOP nomination. A similar process played out three weeks ago in Coweta County, Ga.
While Mr. Trump leads in winning primary and caucus elections, and has won more delegates, the Cruz campaign is proving superior at the arcane game of picking the people who will be the actual delegates to the convention, where they will help write the rules and ultimately choose the nominee.
That means that if Mr. Trump fails to reach the delegate threshold to claim the GOP nomination on the convention’s first ballot, committees dominated by Cruz supporters could work to block him from winning enough delegates to claim the nomination on any subsequent ballots.
So where do these ten delegates come from? Rubio’s handful of delegates are expected to throw their support behind Senator Cruz along with Louisiana’s five unbound delegates.
Further complicating the matter for Trump, none of his delegates were selected for convention committees.
The second step in the process is for those delegates to decide who will represent Louisiana on the three important convention committees— rules, credentials and the party platform. To make those choices, most of Louisiana’s delegates gathered at a March 12 state convention to elect two members to each panel.
No Trump backers won any of those slots. Five of the six committee members chosen back Mr. Cruz, and the sixth is uncommitted to a presidential candidate. Louisiana is the first state to name delegates to serve on the three committees.
Those panels would become critical in a contested convention, which would take place if no candidate wins a majority of delegates on the first ballot. The rules panel will determine which candidates are eligible to be nominated for president, the platform panel will write the party’s agenda, and the credentials panel will mediate disputes about which delegates can be seated. Such fights are already taking place in the U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam, and may happen as well elsewhere.
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.
Upon hearing Cruz might end up more delegates, Trump threatened to sue. Naturally.
Just to show you how unfair Republican primary politics can be, I won the State of Louisiana and get less delegates than Cruz-Lawsuit coming
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 27, 2016
Update:
BREAKING: Trump adviser says they WILL challenge Louisiana delegate results, in official appeal to the RNC.
Per my intv with @BBennett152
— Ari Melber (@AriMelber) March 28, 2016
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Comments
Cruz’s attempts to lawyer his way into the vote by controlling the rules committees and delegate selection will never be seen as legitimate.
How can somebody “play by the rules,” if the rules are “made up as we go along” by party insiders?
As it stands now Trump stands to see 30-50% of his own delegates defect after the first vote because the Trump delegates, selected by establishment hacks in some instances, don’t support Trump!
It’s a mockery of the democratic process. 17 candidates on the ballot and if one candidate can’t get 54% of the vote on his own (more than 50%!), then unelected and hated figures in the party decide. Russia has freer elections than this.
Worse, the focus on Trump and stopping Trump has let everybody else skate by without being vetted.
The Republican Party needs to stop raising money from Democrats who don’t like Trump, kick Kasich off the ballot, and let Cruz and Trump fight out the remaining primaries, handing the nomination to the winner.
Bravo!
You won’t find a sympathetic ear on this Cruzy site, but they don’t seem to care about “process” (“Legal”?!? HAH!!!) as much as seeing “their guy” win.
And who knows: were Cruz to be successful in blocking Trump, the GOPe may well throw Cruz to the side and hand it to one of their chumps…or they may let Teddy Boy go on to LOSE, just to stick his nose in it.
Bwahahaha… But…but…but… I thought humpie was always going to hire the best of everyone for everything which is how we will become tired of winning so much! He can’t even hire campaign people good enough to out-maneuver Cruz in little ol’ Luzianna, lol!
Oh, but he’s going to out-maneuver the Chinese, the ayatollahs, Putin, Mexico, etc., into doing his bidding.
The hump is so stupid he said, to the effect, that the military would hop-to and do whatever his bidding/orders directed them to do. At a debate, when asked what he’d do if military generals would not follow his orders as CiC, he said something very like, “Oh. they’ll do what I tell them to, believe me!” with this menacing look on his ugly mug.
Anytime he’s ever been out-maneuvered (usually as a result of his big ego and blowhard mouth), the first thing he does is threaten a lawsuit. That’s always his default position when he ends up with the short end of the stick through his own gross stupidity and self-superiority and invincibility complex. Does he think he’s going to sue Iran? North Korea maybe? China? Putin? Assad? They’ll all kick his ass to hell and back. meanwhile, he will make a fortune off the backs of the U.S. taxpayers, trivialized our founding principles. and made us a worse laughingstock in the world than we have become under obastard.
The bombastic blustering bullying blowhard hump runs his mouth all the time writing checks that his ass can’t cash, loses, threatens a lawsuit, and bullies (sometimes successfully) people into silence. Cruz isn’t having it. The hump forgets he’s dealing with someone who has won yuge cases before the SCOTUS, yet he thinks threatening a pipsqueak lawsuit over his own oversight in learning LA campaign rules scares Cruz? GMAFB! And why sue Cruz? Blowhard obviously hasn’t talked to a lawyer about it – or maybe he did and doesn’t care that it’s the LA ‘pub party making the rules…..and rules are what they are, NOT laws! They can do whatever they want because it’s a private political association.
Idiots abound.
Funny how spelling your first name backwards and adding in the last name makes me think of a rabid democrat with 2001 to 2008 Bush Derangement Syndrome.
Must just be one of those weird tricks that happen on line.
Idiotic comment by the ignorant.
LIKE YOU, dumbo, I have a “moniker”, as YOUR real name is NOT 4fun.
Learn German: missing the pronoun, it means
BUY THIS BOOK, as I used to live over there and sell books.
Maybe you should go back to Germany. We won’t miss you.
Pretty much silly, as this only happens if no candidate gets a majority of delegates, which has always led to a contested convention. Once the 1st ballot is over, the candidate will then be selected by maneuver, and it will be seen as “not legitimate” no matter who the delegates chose — at least by whichever candidates lose, and their supporters.
If Trump can’t get to 1237, there’s no reason to merely had him the nomination.
Bwahahaha! Cruz is gonna win because Cruz is a winner!
Just using Trumpbot higher-level reasoning.
“Cruz’s attempts to lawyer his way into the vote by controlling the rules committees and delegate selection will never be seen as legitimate.”
Really? I would guess you’ve not been involved in GOP politics prior to today, then. As a Ron Paul supporter and delegate to Colorado’s GOP conventions in ’08 and ’12, I learned quickly that this is the way politics works–own the committees and delegates and you own the convention.
We learned in ’08 and fought a much better battle in ’12, but still had Romney delegates elected to the same committees that Cruz has in LA. It’s bluster and BS from the Trump campaign and nothing more or less. Maybe he should have joined the GOP sooner and become familiar with how politics works (hint: it’s nothing like the business world).
“Mockery of the democratic process…” Hardly, it’s exactly what the democratic process entails…owning the positions to make the decisions. Your lack of comprehension is showing.
I do agree with you that the Democrats should stop funding the anti-Trump process, especially now that he’s shown that he attracts Democrat voters. But the fact that he’s a Democrat Party Trojan horse, I do find this somewhat humorous…for surely you realize there’s not a policy position that he’s put forth that Democrats won’t endorse with full-throated enthusiasm. The only real statement he’s made that a Republican can endorse is closing the doors to ILLEGAL immigrants and halting any importing of Muslims–you know, those folks from the Religion of Peace that keep killing Christians, Jews, and Hindus on a daily basis throughout the world, right?
YOU don’t seem to have any understanding of how politics works IN REALITY.
(I’ll let the Ron Paululan comments slide…)
Do you REALLY think it’s a “winning hand” in the eyes of the American electorate to have the sleaziest trickster come out on top and say, “But, I did it using their rules…even if they had to massage them a bit!!”???
That’s all Ted Cruz would have done.
I think you’ve been involved in some low-level campaigning and imagine yourself some key insider. Keep dreaming.
“Hardly, it’s exactly what the democratic process entails…owning the positions to make the decisions.”
That’s sad. I always thought the democratic process entailed following the will of the voters. But now I read on this site that indeed it’s the establishment that decides on the candidates, and that the voting is just for show.
Strange: when a GOP delegate/establishment member said that, the statement was reviled and presented as precisely what was wrong with the establishment. Now, it is being presented as “democracy.”
Ah well, the DDR had Democratic as its middle name.
So now Cruz joins the ranks of the great icons of democracy in America, like Daley, Landrieu, and Tweed, who did nothing wrong – they just controlled and control the machinery.
I always thought the democratic process entailed following the will of the voters.
You are correct, but here’s a newsflash: We don’t live in a democracy; we live in a constitutional republic.
That means that laws are created and issues are decided by people elected by the voters to represent them — not by the voters themselves — according to carefully-written rules that all are bound to follow.
The nomination process — with elected delegates and party/committee rules — is merely an extension of that model.
If you want to understand how our nation’s government is supposed to work, read the U.S. Constitution. If you want to know how the RNC nomination works, read the RNC’s nomination rules (the DNC has its own rules; read them if you want to see how the other party does things). But please don’t start with arguments like, “But, democracy,” that won’t fly for one very simple reason.
This is not, nor has it every been, a democracy.
You could have a rule that says whoever has a plurality of EVs wins — but we don’t. You could have a rule that does away with EVs entirely and makes the winner of the popular vote president — but we don’t.
As pointed out here, “there’s nothing new or unusual about the GOP using a system of delegates to choose the nominee if no one clinches a majority on the first ballot. It mirrors the Constitution’s deputization of the House of Representatives to choose the president if no candidate clinches a majority of electoral votes.”
I don’t understand what the problem is, except that Trump apparently dropped the ball here and all of his acolytes are angrily looking for someone other than him to blame for it.
Is this how you treat people?
The poster was a delegate to two conventions and you call him a “low-level” campaigner.
Do you have any idea how you become a delegate? Obviously not, but that does not stop you from being a critic. Let’s just say, you can not just walk into a room and become a delegate. You have to be a known commodity; a smart and hard worker. There is nothing low-level about the qualifications.
He gives an inside view of what goes on behind closed doors and you dismiss him with ridicule and contempt. You should be ashamed of yourself but I have become used to the phony outrage from phony know-it-alls and phony lawyers.
Your outrage has been misplaced. You should be outraged at Team Trump who never bothered to read the rules. They have been snookered by their own hubris. I will also let you in on a not-so-little secret; what is happening in LA is also happening in GA, SC, and other states. I am aware of delegates in one state who are reaching out to the Cruz campaign because they are getting skittish with all of the drama surrounding Trump. And these are folks who went into the process as Trump supporters.
Trump now wants to file suit against Cruz. Trump will be laughed out of court. How many lawsuits has Trump now threatened?
I am sympathetic to the poster you deride. Partially, because he posted in good faith. Partially, he was probably in the 2008 Ron Paul delegation with a dear friend of mine who later died of cancer. That friend taught me things about the process and gave me ideas how to fix the process.
I have worked for State Reps, State Senators, Lt Govs, and Governors. Yet, John gave me an eye-opening revelation at the sausage-making process of the conventions.
You can work to fix the system or you can complain about it. My guess is you would rather complain.
(Ragspierre, I know what I said about feeding the trolls but I really felt compelled to address this. Please accept my mea culpa 🙂
Let’s just say, you can not just walk into a room and become a delegate. You have to be a known commodity; a
smartand hard worker.Like I said: in order to become a delegate you have to be a GOP toady and you want to either continue to be a toady or benefit from your toadyism. The GOPe come along and say do something or else, most will do something.
It’s nothing like the business world.
Well I never thought I would find a ‘world’ that was dirtier more insider focused and less transparent but here you go. And the fact that you are celebrating that and lauding Cruz for knowing how to be the one thing Americans despise more than criminals (a politician) doesn’t exactly elicit praise.
Trump should have had people in his campaign who understand how the party plays the game. You need to be able to understand how the system works before you can change it.
I suspect that all the ‘rules’ guys are GOPe. They want power but could never gain a vote for themselves. Not a single one will help Trump unless he wins the nom outright. In that case they’ll be licking his boots to get his attention. They might give bad advice or be useless in the new world Trump brings but they’ll know those rules by gum.
I really *have* been open to supporting Cruz, in the event he wins the 1,237 delegates fair and square.
At this point, Cruz needs over 80% of remaining delegates to do that, whereas Trump needs a bit over 50%.
If Cruz wins by ANY “games”, count me as one who will write-in Trump.
As “rotten” says above: IT WOULD BE A MOCKERY OF OUR VOTES
(…and don’t hand me the “the Party gets to make its own rules” schtick).
Furthermore, millions upon millions of crossover voters (less so the base) will simply walk away from such Cruz, allowing the GOP Establishment to
1) declare unofficial victory with their elitist Democrat “relative,” Hillary,
AND
2) claim, “See?! A Conservative can NEVER win!”
Fighting is what you do when you are not going to lay down and take it. If you really want to win you fight.
You don’t just lay down and expect your party elite to select you in a brokered convention. If Trump lays down for the GOPe to steal this from him it will embolden other party insiders to start handing out cigars, drawing the blinds and horsetrading for Trump’s delegates.
Or would you let someone take something you earned?
I do not think Trump is the sort of person – especially considering all the effort he has gone to, to date – to “lay down and take it” by letting the GOPe “steal” it from him, should he be #1 in delegates.
I would support him in an Independent run.
A vote against whoever the Republican nominee ends up being is a vote for Hillary. Sure you can brag I never voted for so-and-so but when our country is literally destroyed by 8 years of Obama and 8 years of Hillary, who really cares what you did out of spite. Seriously, would you cut off your nose to spite your face?
Under other circumstances, I would agree with you.
And, as I wrote in another post above, IF Cruz wins fair and square, I would vote for him. I DON’T see that happening.
And the only thing the GOP (the political Party) does by playing dirtier-than-usual to block Trump is to sign its own death warrant.
After all, who wants to suppport a Party which doesn’t give a whit about the will of the voters?
THAT’S RHETORICAL, SPARKY.
You don’t know what “following the rules” means. I’m sure you think it’s fine that the hump says he followed the bankruptcy rules when he screwed all those employees, small vendors and contractors out of their money FOUR times at about $.01 on the dollar. He has stated many times that he was just utilizing the established rules of bankruptcy to his benefit. Now, when somebody else undertakes the study of arcane rules to their advantage, the first thing this vile slug does is start crying for his mommy and a lawyer.
He is disgusting and so are the cowardly slime who support him.
That logic is precisely what the GOPigs have been saying for decades: vote for us because the alternative is worse. This is hostage taking. I refuse to be a hostage.
If the country is going to hell, let it be quickly and cleanly. It should not be a dragged-out process to allow the establishment to cash in first.
No. In a three person race, a vote for the Republican is a vote for Hillary, because Paul Ryan or whoever is gonna come in third. Just like Bush was third, Remember Bush was in third when Perot got out, then got back in again.
Well, if Trump doesn’t get the majority of delegates, then he hasn’t earned the nomination. Those have been the rules for a long time now. It’s not new.
The fact is that if Cruz can pick up the delegates of the candidates who have dropped out, that means he’s a better politician and knows how to build coalitions. Let’s not forget that Trump has spent a lot of effort burning bridges that would be politically necessary in a brokered convention.
Cruz’s smart political maneuvering means he has taken the time and effort to know how the nomination process works and has taken the preparations necessary to succeed in a brokered convention.
If this is the lack of preparation and knowledge Trump brings to the table for a nomination fight, there’s no reason to believe he will be any better prepared for events as president.
“…if Cruz can pick up the delegates of the candidates who have dropped out, that means he’s a better politician and knows how to build coalitions.”
Utterly delusional.
It only means those others (Rubio and Kasich, GOP Establishment non plus ultra) want to keep the GOP Establishment door shut to “outsiders”…even if the voters say otherwise.
And: “building coalitions”?!? Like CARSON IS QUITTING?!?
Get off those drugs, son; they’re making you wacky.
Well, if you can stop being whiny adolescent long enough, you might come to understand that Cruz isn’t the one the establishment is necessarily backing between Trump and Cruz at this point.
Cruz and Rubio rightly recognized that Trump offers the opposite of the conservative, constitutionalist beliefs that has animated the Tea Party and brought them and a number of other Republicans to electoral victory.
The fact is that Trump exposes his ignorance of the process and inability to hire people who he would need to secure the nomination. That’s a poor trait for a president – we already have a clueless president today, we don’t need to follow Obama with another clueless, self-centered blowhard who surrounds himself with admirers instead of knowledgeable advisors.
Cruz has demonstrated that he’s prepared. Trump hasn’t. Trump needs to win a majority of delegates outright, or he will not be the nominee. Period.
So Cruz gaming the rules is okay. Because. But Trump fighting back is bad. Because.
At least your positions are clear and unequivocal.
Fools and hypocrites seem to have no trouble excusing the hump from cheating little vendors and contractors through bankruptcy, stating that he’s used the laws of this country to his advantage AND other people’s money in the last 3 bankruptcies he’s filed such that he, himself, never lost a dime.
Fools and hypocrites think it’s fine that he cheated thousands of little people out of thousands upon thousands of dollars, in some cases their life savings, for his bogus real estate school that he’s now the defendant in a class-action suit over, and that he just flat out lied repeatedly about the school, up to and including his phony claim that the BBB gave it an A rating.
Wasn’t obastard enough of a lying corruptocrat for you people? You want still more of this BS? Obastard wasn’t enough of a sick joke on the U.S. to suffice for one lifetime? Now you want this pig, too?
You people are either too stupid to be walking upright or you’re provocateurs hustling for the ‘rats. You cannot be a rational, reasonably intelligent, serious conservative and actually entertain the idea of the hump as President of the United States.
who is excusing whom?
Geez, can you not connect the dots? People know about the things the hump has done in cheating people. Some still support him. Therefore, they’ve excused/rationalized his cheating and fraudulent schemes. The hump himself basically stated this was the case when he claimed that he could shoot somebody on Fifth Avenue and his supporters would still support him. His supporters will excuse anything their little emperor does.
Duh.
Jack Russell since you are replying on my thread I’ll treat your answer as if it was directed to me.
Again, who is accusing whom? Looks to me like Cruz is trying to pick up delegates that he did not gain through the popular vote. It looks to me like Trump is trying to stop him.
I doubt Trump will succeed as the courts allow parties to run themselves for the most part.
That doesn’t change what they are both doing.
That ship sailed before the hump even got to the dock. He and all these geniuses he supposedly hires missed the boat completely when it came to studying and understanding the rules that have long been in place and were there in black and white, plain for all to see. Maybe if he STFU for awhile, paid attention to something, anything, but polls, he and his people may have experienced an epiphany and figured out that they needed to do more than run his lying, BSing, blowhard mouth insulting everyone alive every minute 24/7.
Now he cries foul! because he was too busy making a total jackass of himself to see it coming.
This is an example of his crack-shot hiring decisions and deal-making that he plans to bring to the oval office? The mayor of our little town of 5k people has his ducks in a row better than this corrupt, lying, egomaniacal psycho.
Every time he stubs his toe through his own treachery or stupidity, we get treated to his obligatory, knee-jerk “I’m going to sue if I don’t get my way no matter the rules I failed to follow because I’m too important, too loved, too big, too terrific with my yuge penis and big hands to have to follow the rules for everyone else”.
The hump is a needle-dick loser.
How stupid to expect winning the popular vote by big margins would actually translate to delegates?
I mean who want want to become the party’s nominee by smoke filled back room deals? Who would vote for someone who couldn’t get the votes on his own and had to horsetrade his way to the nom?
What party would be stupid enough to alienate the biggest part of their own party, kick out the fire, and but out drag anchors on any momentum they had built up?
Nobody rational or who hoped to win but whatever. No brokered convention. I’d laugh but that ceased to be funny a while ago.
Well, yes, since that’s not how it works, and the rules are quite clear. It’s not like they’re a secret, you know.
As I wrote earlier, you could have a rule that says whoever has a plurality of EVs wins — but we don’t. You could have a rule that does away with EVs entirely and makes the winner of the popular vote president — but we don’t.
As pointed out here, “there’s nothing new or unusual about the GOP using a system of delegates to choose the nominee if no one clinches a majority on the first ballot. It mirrors the Constitution’s deputization of the House of Representatives to choose the president if no candidate clinches a majority of electoral votes.”
But if you’re happy to call Donald Trump “stupid,” far be it for me to try to disabuse you of that opinion.
Bingo.
You make the same mistake the Left does. Maybe you’re one of them.
When somebody loses/dies/is injured/lives in poverty/fill in whatever misery here______, you people automatically assume it’s someone else’s fault, i.e. property or business owner/employer/any organization’s management/teacher/fill in whatever scapegoat here _____, instead of the laziness or stupidity or over-confidence of the ‘victim’ who carries 100% of the fault for their predicament.
The hump’s claim about Cruz and that he’s going to sue blah blah blah over a situation he caused through stupidity and negligence just draws attention to his latest epic fail.
All the conservative blogs are talking about what a despicable idiot the hump is except the ones with posters who can’t spell, punctuate or craft an original thought. They’re too busy bitching about Megan (sic) Kelley (sic) and gnashing their teeth over obastard declaring marshal (sic) law, and warning that “your” going “too” be sorry that “there” vote was wasted on Cruz.
This is an election in which conservative values of free market trade, controlled borders, equal opportunity–not equal outcomes, and reduced Federal government influence in picking winners and losers will lose.
Earlier GOP leaders chose to side with the Democrat Party and ignore the millions of Americans who were assaulted by liberal policies. And now, as Jonah Goldberg has noted, they (the GOPe) have chosen their destructor–the middle class led by a billionaire self-centered liberal…
America as designed and fully functional up to the early 1890s, will fall. Either a full tyrant in the form of Obama/Clinton/Trump will fill that role easily, if not a full-on socialist/fascist ‘democracy’ as we see in the EU will arise.
A civil war is brewing and this election will have many similarities to 1856, in which the classes will destroy all in the quest of some. And just as the First American Civil War was influenced by the European states, the Second one will get the addition of Islamic aggression and the ignorance of the politically correct.
Thank you for clearly voicing the desires and opinions of the GOP Establishment.
It’s not “conservative values of free market trade” when it merely bankrupts American companies and workers.
But you keep right on spreading those cliched LIES.
The rise of Trump has shown you “loyalists” for the traitors to America you truly are.
How does the re-distribution and mis-allocation comments from Trump make you think that the American middle class will benefit from the statist policies that will come form those comments?
Ignorance of economics is what causes people to miss the signs that say whether or not someone wants to fleece them. As P.T. Barnamn states ” … is born every minute.” Don’t be that person. Taking from one group and giving to another group is NOT wealth creation. It doesn’t matter if the group given to is rich, poor or middle class. We all lose when this happens.
Wake up and understand that the “middle class” is a function of a free market not government fiat.
WOW! You know EXACTLY what Trump will do.
How about giving me next week’s winning lottery numbers, champ?
Trump wants REDISTRIBUTION and Cruz doesn’t?!?
WHAT DRUGS HAVE YOU BEEN TAKING???
Yeah, yeah…”free market” all sounds well and good on paper. It even works at certain scales, but not internationally without controls.
Do you support TPP like Cruz * ? Then you support America losing its sovereignty to international governing and economic bodies.
IS THAT “FREE”?!?
NOT. TO. ME.
You can KEEP your Ted “travelling revival tent preacher” Cruz.
#####
*
* May 2015 – Cruz creates a “Fast Track” Trans Pacific trade rider to attach to TPA, which changes the vote threshold for approval/disapproval to a simple majority – thereby ensuring its passage. Cruz also votes down an Amendment requiring congressional notification prior to China/Russia joining deal.
* June/July 2015 – Cruz votes against his own TPA bill, though the rider created ensures its passage.
Hows the middle class doing in your state over the last 30 years?? How about the lower middle class over the last 30 years??
They understand economics quite well, and they have noticed that egghead theories about free trade deals that don’t put America first are STUPID trade deals. They understand from their own economic education in the school of hard knocks that its stupid economics to do stupid trade deals that suck jobs and capital out of this country decade after decade.
HERE’S your/Cruz’s “free trade” for ya:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=62&v=SAq9z-8daAw
FOUR MINUTES. Please listen.
Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it…TPP is not the first ‘free trade’ agreement that dooms American businesses…those choices go back to the 1960s and 70s. But keep telling yourself that Mr. Trump will make everything okay, if it helps you sleep at night…still won’t make it come true. But many of your current rants certainly indicate an unwillingness to see how the country has gotten to this state. It also shows an uncommon level of misunderstanding of politics, policy making and conservative values.
A liberal Republican or merely a socialist? Please, share your insight.
Keep telling yourself that the people who aren’t named Trump and want to keep doing what we have been doing for the last 30 years will finally cause something different to happen.
That is the definition of idiocy. Keep doing what we’ve been doing and expect that *this time* the result will be different and our middle class, jobs, and wage growth will all return magically. Not by changing policies but because this new guy is a *real conservative*.
LMAO… And you think WE are the dumb ones… LOL
Sorry Gary but that is not the definition of idiocy.
It is Benjamin Franklin’s ( among others ) definition of insanity.
From Poor Richards Almanac IIRC.
My insight is that
you are a GOP Establishment lackey who thinks it’s still 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008 or 2012.
As Gary wrote, at least WE learn from experience.
BETRAYAL HAS CONSEQUENCES.
Your schtick don’t sell no more.
Very fair post. It should be noted that the Trumpettes seem to conveniently overlook that well-known GOP Establishment folks (read lobbyists) like Bob Livingston (who I do like) and Newt Gingrich are backing Trump. One can only imagine why they back Trump.
I don’t see another Civil War. What I do see is folks getting out of the system. Too much centralization and concentration has never been a good thing. History is replete with examples.
And Bob Dole, the ultimate GOPe Republican.
The three top comments at Insty pretty much nail it:
http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/230106/
Yeah…they “nail it,” if all you care about
is “BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY.”
What Cruz is doing here isn’t anything like “by any means necessary”. Not even close.
a small “p.s.”
Winning the nomination is one thing…
…NOT losing the General due to such tricks (and disgusted voters walking away from Cruz) is wholly another.
America already has a Filthy Party.
The Filthy Party has long since taken steps to see that there’s little chance that the Will of the Voters will have any impact on the Party or on the way it conducts business. And it did that because it’s, well, filthy.
But does America really need two Filthy Parties?
The whole point of the Republican Party—the reason for its existence—is that it is supposed to be the non-Democratic Party. The Anti-Democratic Party. The anti-slavery, anti-communist, anti-crime, anti-corruption, anti-sleaze party. And from that viewpoint (particularly anti-sleaze), I can’t see anyone sympathetic to fundamental Republican philosophy voting for Cruz.
Now if James Mattis would accept the nomination………..
“Trump threatened to sue. Naturally.”
No doubt about it: Trump is All-American.
No one is cheating. No one is stealing. No one is playing games. The rules are the same as they have been every year, and Trump knew that — or should have known that — going into this. If Trump didn’t do what it takes to cement his delegates, if he failed to “close the deal,” that’s on him.
But really, there’s really no reasoning with devout Trumpians. Look at their comments here. It’s futile – they are beyond reason at this point.
And if Trump finds some way other than the votes of the people to garner delegates you’ll be fine with that? If Jeb Bush were picking up Cruz’s delegates you’d be fine with that?
‘Who, whom?’ is not the American way.
Well another stupid post from the millenial.
If Cruz is not the first round winner, he will not be the nominee. As those of us who have done the math have shown, the next state he loses will effectively knock him out and the next two states he loses will mathematically knock him out.
The reasoning that if Trump cannot get a majority of the delegates then he does not deserve the nomination, applies equally to Cruz. More so, because Cruz will have 30% less delegates.
Cruz may have very loyal delegates, and many will stick with him. But when the GOPe comes by and says to them, “Do you like being a delegate? Would you like to be one in four years?” or “Do you want to stay a Precint Captain?” or “Do you like your job in GOp headquarters in Whateverville?” enough delegates will do what it takes. And then the GOPe will get what it wants.
As for the LA delegates, it only proves what we all know Cruz is GOPe. He may not be liked much but he is still GOPe.
If I were advising Trump, here is what I would tell him he should do.
Wait. After a maximum of three primaries, Cruz will be mathematically eliminated. Then withdraw. Join the reform party if they will have you. If not start your won third party. Take the people on the blacklist with you. I’m sure most will be happy to go, being personna non grata in the GOP. I’m sure many others will follow having a safe place to land.
Then, while you prepare for the general election, you can enjoy yourself watching the piggy RINO’s unsuspend their campaigns. All the piggy RINOs: the Jeb!s, the Marco’s, the Paul Ryan’s and the Carly’s all fighting for your delegates and the mess the convention will be. Oooh it would be so much fun watching the GOPe just tear itself to shreds.
Tell me, how does Trump get on the ballot in the states he has already appeared? Those states have Sore Loser Laws that effectively will keep Trump off the ballot.
That’s the best news I’ve read all day. Of course, it would be just like the vicious scumbag to do 3rd party or whatever anyway wherever he could just to be a spoiler against the ‘pubs. Maybe Hillary will choose him for a running mate if she’s not in prison.
Well, if you had read up on sore loser laws instead of just spouting something that you read on some pathetic blog you would realize:
1. Of the states that have “sore loser” laws, the overwhelming majority explicitly state they do not apply to presidential contests.
2. In those where they do there would still be a problem. Candidates aren’t on the ballot for the presidential election. Slates of electors are. Unless an elector was a delegate, I doubt they could keep him off. If they try to keep a delegate off, then they had better hope that every elector was not a delegate for a losing candidate ( eg Rubio ) in the primary.
3. Aside from that if a particular state prevents a person who lost from running in another party, well if Trump won the state that wouldn’t apply would it? If Cruz is eliminated and Trump leaves when he is the only candidate with a chance to win, ir if Trump leaves after he gets 1237 he hasn’t lost and the law does not apply.
4. If a law was written before 1986, and they allowed John Anderson to run as an independent, despite the fact that he ran in the primaries. In that case there is an equal protection case, you might have heard of it Bush v. Gore or was it Gore v. Bush ?
5. In order for Trump to get on the ballot, the SoS of a state would have to certify him. For Dem SoS I don’t think that will be much of a problem. For GOP SoS, if Trump got 20% of the vote, then that is 20% of the vote that the SoS risks alienating. He can always put him on say “the law forces me to put him on”. You guys are used to bending over and spreading them for that excuse.
6. There is a very interesting asymmetry going on here. If Trump is kept off he can sue. He has standing. If Trump is kept off who can sue? The same guy that is suing to keep off Cruz?
Any attempt to try to stop Trump would result in court cases that would make 2000 look like a cake walk. This on top of the internicine battles at the convention.All the while the Hillary is ramping up her campaign machine. Not to mention all the money wasted on court costs, which could be going to Congressional elections.
Great fun huh?
Not to mention that if the GOP had spent as much effort fighting Obama as they have in keeping Trump off the ballot as a third party candidate, then Trump would not be a problem.
Nice try …
Just a quick google search shows that Trump would be definitely off the ballot in at least TX, OH, SD, and MI. It should be noted that Gary Johnson, the 2012 Libertarian candidate was definitely kept off the MI ballot. Johnson sued and lost. A write-in initiative miserably failed.
That leaves 43 other states that have sore loser laws on the books. Some may let Trump on the ballot, some like TN and VA will probably force a lawsuit to be filed.
If he loses any challenge, appeals will be filed and he will going up against the November clock. The SCOTUS will not get involved and Trump will be spending his own cash.
http://www.roanoke.com/news/politics/sore-loser-law-likely-wouldn-t-keep-trump-from-running/article_1bf8fb7d-437d-5264-aab4-22e2258af6ae.html
What kind of idiot are you?
Did you bother to read the link you posted?
Cause if you did you would have noticed that it basically says the Trump would have no problem.in Virginia. In fact it even uses one of the arguments that I gave. It is a “sore loseer” law not a “sore winner” law. Trump won Virginia.
As for the Michigan law ( the only time a sore loser law actually was applied to a presidential race ), read it it’s one line. Trump can easily run as an independent. I was going to post a link directly to the law, but since this contains the law and some discussioon:
http://ballot-access.org/2015/08/10/vox-misinforms-its-readers-about-michigans-sore-loser-law/
Oh you didn’t get that crap about Michigan from Vox of all places?
Also I came across an interesting tidbit. Most of what they say about the laws is not new. But it does contain the fact that Trump considered third party runs before. So he is familiar with some of the intricadies: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2015/12/15/trump_has_months_to_consider_independent_bid_129032.html
There are also two basic procedures to get around these laws that you ignore. In states where Trump cannot get on the ballot, Don Jr or Ivanka run. When they win, their electors cast a vote for Trump.
The second option is even easier. Run Ivanka or Don Jr. as a third party candidate with Trump as VP. Then pull a Jeanne Carnahan.
No sore loser law says you can’t run for a different office.
GOP party rules say that if no one comes to the convention with the required number of delegates then the GOP can rally behind and effectively (though not precisely) select a nominee. I hate this and think it does a huge disservice to voters, but that’s how it works, how it has worked (it’s not “new” just because you didn’t know about or understand it).
It looks, now, like Trump may be able to win the required number of delegates, but if he doesn’t, what happens next will be incredibly revealing. If the GOP is stupid enough to try to pawn off Kasich or Paul Ryan or Mitt Romney (all being whispered about), there will absolutely be nationwide Republican push back and very real anger. Including from #NeverTrump people like me who will determine that the GOPe has not and is incapable of learning its place.
The RNC is not worried about being sued by Trump. He’s out of his league now; his threats and bullying just won’t yield the results to which he’s become accustomed. Trump whining that the GOP abided by its rules just because he didn’t win enough delegates to secure the nomination . . . pfft! And it will come to naught . . . just as the scores of lawsuits against Obama from Birthers do. If Trump doesn’t have the delegates, the GOP can, at their convention, nominate a stuffed bear. Or a shoe. Or a cockroach. (Each of which, by the way, would be a better president than Trump.)
Trump’s first instinct when things don’t go his way is to resort to name-calling and and ad hominem attacks (Jeb is low energy, Carson is a child molester (or whatever), Cruz is a liar, blahblahblah), and should these tactics fail, he sues. Always. Predictably. Shamefully. He can sue the RNC or whomever until the cows come home if he goes to convention without the required delegates. No one but Trump fans will care, and in case you haven’t looked around lately, Trump fans make up a relatively small percentage of Republican and reality television voters (but, hey, he doesn’t need us. Right Jeb?).
Trump’s bluster is old, tired, impotent, and devoid of anything concrete or meaningful. Don’t like me saying so? Sue me. You’ll get about as far as Trump will in the lawsuits he’s threatened just in the past few weeks against Cruz, FOX, random venue managers (where his rallies take place), the GOPe, the RNC, CNN, and that guy down the street who said to a neighbor that he thinks Trump sucks.
It’s funny. I see all these Trump fans commenting here on LI, but they don’t wax political about his strengths or about his policies except in very strangely juvenile terms. Trump will build a great big gold-plated wall with flashing neon Trump Wall signs that will be a gazillion miles long and twenty million feet tall. He’ll build this wall on the authority of the executive branch (because no Congress will ever approve it), and so what if that’s an impeachable offense?! He’s The Donald, he need consult only with himself! Screw the Constitution, the Donald knows best!
If Trump doesn’t get the delegates and goes to convention, who will defend him at this point? Who, and we’re talking on the right here, hasn’t he or his repellent fans insulted, ridiculed, or otherwise alienated? Where’s the case for Trump (that he, himself hasn’t already shot down, including his wall, trade, ethanol, and pretty much everything else.). If your guy’s mantra is “everything is negotiable,” your team has a problem because there are great many things that are not negotiable to us.
The trouble for Trump and for his vile fans is that we on the right aren’t programmed to walk in lock step; we think for ourselves and value that right immensely. Trump deciding one morning that he’ll be a Republican for a bit so he can run for president is unconvincing given his long history of progressive ideas and ideals, his proclivity for bald-faced lies that damage others only to further his own aims, his vulgar and uncouth language (sorry, but if I am uncomfortable letting my niece watch a presidential candidate in a televised debate because he is so coarse and base . . . that’s a bad thing. My niece is no precious snowflake, but she’s only ten. Far too young to hear a vulgar presidential candidate banter about the size of his penis.).
The reports that Ben Carson is coaching Trump on how to behave like a respectable human being are horrifying. A potential American president in need of etiquette camp? Or a finishing school of days gone by? Ugh! Trump is. . . what? 60? He’s not now and has never and will never be presidential. He’s a vulgar, loud, stompy-footed man-child who seems never to have matured past the emotional and psychological age of ten. That might be entertaining on a reality television show and on Beavis and Butt-head, but the thought of that uncouth, blundering oaf representing America makes me a little bit nauseous.
Trump will be 70 in June. He is not a very bright or articulate person. He rarely completes a paragraph and has a terrible tendency to constantly repeat himself. It is why people who attend his rallies tend to have the same observation; he says the same exact things as he says on TV, he does not go off script. His language runs the gamut from a 10 year-old to cheap bully.
He does not read too many books other than his own. Observers to his homes (NY and FL) are struck by the lack of books or even a modest library.
I would say he is clinically an insecure man. There is no other way to describe why he reacts in the manner he does. Everything he does is great, big, and beautiful; even when it isn’t. Trump is the personification of Wrestlemania. The problem with Trump, and his minions on this board, is it’s all fake. It is why you can not reason with Trump and his minions. If you read their posts, they all have the same talking points.
They accuse Cruz of copying Trump. That is hilarious, as well as disingenuous. Have you heard Trump’s speech to AIPAC? It was vintage Cruz, right down to moving our embassy to Old Jerusalem. Where was that when he claimed he wanted to be neutral? His positions are as inconsistent as his Democratic talking points.
If Carson is teaching Trump how to behave, then the Trump campaign will not end well. Carson is another person who has issues with reality. He is a brain surgeon, not a politician. Whatever following he once had has dissipated.
There is a reason why Cruz will win WI and is polling well nationally. It is also a reason why the attacks on Cruz have become more desperate. I, for one, am looking forward to tonight’s debate.
Each state party has different rules. Some hold a closed primary, others an open primary and still others have meetings and caucuses. I queried my state GOP website and found out what the rules are. It wasn’t that hard.
The issue of at large delegates (or super delegates)has been around for a long time. It was an issue in the 2008 election, so why would a politician not plan for the additional follow-through work?
If I remember correctly, Obama also concentrated on a lot of the caucus states while Clinton ignored them because of the work and the fewer delegates. She got burned by his organization and the interest of people supporting him.
Since a candidate has to register to be on the ballot, they should have realized that there are other rules that may impact them. And, because they have filed the paperwork and paid the fees, they are listed on the ballot Their name does not get dropped if they opt to drop out of the race. I wouldn’t want my state to drop names just because they wanted to have a “cleaner ballot”.
And, I also found out that my state does not allow write in candidates. It’s the rule and it is on the record as the rule.
Read the “contract” and the “fine print” on the contract – that’s what a good business person would do. Assuming anything is illogical.
Boom.
I thought Der Donald had “a very good brain”, and that he would “have the best people. Amazing people! People who would make your head spin. They’d be fabulous. They’ll ‘Make America GREAT AGAIN, and only use solid gold toilets!”
Seems no so much. Now or ever…
I don’t think I would trust a solid gold toilet. Porcelain is fine for me. Besides how much would that weigh?
Almost anything is a better use of time than tweeting anything. However you are right being angry is an especially bad waste of time.
An earlier commenter said it looked like civil war. I keep saying we don’t want this. Nobody is listening.
At best we lose an election. At worse we are the Whigs. Either way America loses. Eight years of Hillary or Bernie or whomever guarantees more Benghazis more Afghanistans, etc.
Liberals never met a war they didn’t like once they are in office. How long has Obama dragged out our several wars in the ME and added more?
Do we want either Hillary or Bernie in charge when there are hundreds of thousands of rapefugees in the pipeline?
The vitriol is staggering. Let’s say Trump makes his number needed minus one. Do the Republicans really want to keep insulting his very enthusiastic followers? Do they want to lose all the momentum? Or do they want to reach out to the people they are going to take the delegates from?
Let’s say Trump wins the nomination outright. Sure there are some Trump voters who want to see it burned down they believe the GOPe is irredeemably corrupt but most just want to see a better America. Are you going to throw away a chance at that just because you don’t like him?
And for all of you who are having problems not insulting others, what do you think the president does? What is your honor worth. I enforced the law for decades and can count the few times I used profanity. Why? Because courtesy counts. Everyone deserves respect. We can speak to each other like we are in the same room. We have something special at LE. A really intelligent group of writers and commenters. Why throw that away?
Historically, forksdad, your analysis is correct. America hasn’t ever been the sort of “war-monger” nation its detractors (leftist Americans included) have claimed.
We took forever to get into both World Wars, and every significant conflict or war we’ve been involved in, excluding the invasion of Iraq, has been led by a Democrat president and/or Congress.
This is really just more of the same. Obama, like Wilson, is just sticking his head in the sand and singing “lalala” while a situation that would have been easily solved simmers away in the pot.
No one is as good at ensuring global war as a Democrat. They whinge and whine and beg and plead and make concessions and bow and scrape. Then they are stunned, stunned I say, that they are perceived by our enemies as weak, spineless losers.
That said, Trump is not the answer. I don’t care what the question is, that thin-skinned man-child is not the answer. He’s advocated, just in the past few days, for a global nuclear arms race and the legal retribution against and punishment of women who seek an abortion should that become illegal. He’s only recently decided to be pro-life, so maybe he doesn’t understand what that means or how we feel, but that his first impulse is to punish the women is . . . crazy. Stupid. To use his favorite two-syllable word, nasty.
He’s bombed waving a Bible (literally, btw) and trying to quote from or even haphazardly paraphrase from it. If you’re not a fan of the Bible, you should be appalled that Trump would go out to address a Christian university (he was at Liberty Univ) with zero preparation. An inbred drooling idiot would recognize the need to know what he’s saying and to understand it. Trump did not.
But why would he? This is a man who has stated that the three main priorities of the federal government are national defense, health care, and education. For those Trump chumps playing along at home, he’s wrong on two counts, two very important counts. One out of three isn’t just bad, but in this case, his top three are the same as Hillary. And Bernie.
I’ll grant that I am to the right of Ted Cruz and Jim DeMint, but anyone who stands up and says that two of the three priorities for the American federal government are health care and education is immediately disqualified to be president. Or dog catcher. I can wax on about the role of the federal government, but it wouldn’t matter. Trump chumps love that he’s ignorant and crazy and suffers Napoleonic delusions, and Constitutional conservatives already know everything that is wrong with Trump’s assertion that the three main responsibilities of government are national security (correct), health care (wrong), and education (wrong).
This ia a man who, when asked about whom he seeks guidance from about foreign policy, said he consults with himself. Seriously. That’s what he said. The same guy who thinks Saudi Arabia and Japan should have nukes.
The man is a raving lunatic. I’m serious. The more he talks, the more insane he sounds. Not uninformed, not naive, not “new to politics” . . . IN-freaking-SANE.
I hate this crazy Trump chump talking point that he’s just new to politics. Seriously? He’s still a human being who lives in America and has access to the television and the internet. I’m not a politician, but even I know better than Trump on every single issue (“his” military will not follow unlawful orders, the executive doesn’t make law, judges don’t make law–did you see the latest when Trump actually stated that judges sign laws?). You know better on all counts. So does almost everyone with an ounce of brain and a computer. When on earth did “I have no idea what’s going on in the world, what the Constitution means, or . . . well, anything else, really, except suing people, donating to Democrats, and doing business with George Soros” become something to support . . . and worship?
I have zero regard for Trump chumps, zero.
Maybe Trump doesn’t actually want to win the nomination. He’s not a stupid man, nor is he an innocent to politics and the nature of rules that structure politics. Why no attention to detail?Surely the campaign can afford to hire the expertise.
Second is almost better. He’s pushed the debate in this election — and he wouldn’t actually have to be president.
But less than 24 hours after Trump’s tweeted threat, his campaign backed down. Barry Bennett, a Trump senior adviser focused on his delegate operation, said Monday that Trump’s “lawsuit” was not in fact meant for a court of law, but for the Republican National Committee’s committee on contests—which under GOP rules hears complaints over the allocation and selection of delegates.
It’s clear why. Election lawyers and party operatives said challenges to the arcane state-by-state delegate selection rules being used to outfox Trump would face an unwelcome reception in court.
Political parties are non-democratic entities, and while individual states may set laws governing some of the conduct of primaries and caucuses, national party rules generally have supremacy in federal court.
http://time.com/4273965/donald-trump-lawsuit-ted-cruz-delegates/
So MUCH in character. Der Donald bullies, blusters, and bullshits.
That’s all he’s really got. Especially the last.