BREAKING – Cruz Plans To Steal California by Having Trump Fail to Prep Groundgame (#Sarcasm)
BOOM EXCLUSIVE WOW BOMBSHELL OUTRAGEOUS CHEATING STEALING!!!
Donald Trump inexplicably waited until YESTERDAY to name a State Political Director in California.
The California primary on June 7 could determine whether Trump reaches the magic 1237 majority delegate number prior to the July convention. By all reports, Cruz is far ahead in the ground game in California, which awards delegates not only on the statewide vote but also by congressional district.
Even if Trump wins the state, he may underperform in enough congressional districts due to Cruz’s superior campaign preparation that Trump is stopped short. Or he may fail to file delegate slates in all districts.
Erick Erickson reports:
Ted Cruz has been laying ground word [stet] in California for a year. Donald Trump? His campaign is just starting and they have a deadline on May 7th. Literally Donald Trump just hired his California political director yesterday.
That deadline? The candidates in California get to submit delegates from each congressional district. If a candidate wins a congressional district, his delegates get to vote. It took Cruz more than 5 months to find delegates in all of California’s congressional districts. Cruz found 169 delegates and 169 alternates, which is a complete slate of delegates and alternates. Trump is just starting and the deadline to turn in his list is May 7th.
If Trump can’t field a complete slate, even if he wins a congressional district he won’t have delegates to vote for him.
Clearly Cruz is stealing California by having Trump wait this long to hire state Pol Director #WaitForIt https://t.co/Z4I5sIvRnJ
— Legal Insurrection (@LegInsurrection) April 13, 2016
The Yahoo News article linked by Erickson explains how organization is critical in California:
…. in California — the last and largest primary on the calendar — Cruz’s strategic superiority won’t just help the Texan pick up a few extra delegates. It could actually prove to be the difference between Trump clinching the nomination outright or falling short at the 11th hour, which would trigger a contested convention….
This isn’t just idle chatter. To secure the nomination on June 7, Trump will have to win roughly 70 percent of California’s delegates. But the state’s primary is a little quirky — and all those quirks favor the senator from Texas.
To find out more, Unconventional sat down after the Irvine rally with Mike Schroeder, the former state GOP chairman who’s now serving as Cruz’s political director in California.
“This is the last stand,” Schroeder said. “This is the battleground. And I think we’re going to win California — but even if we don’t, Trump is not going to get to 70 percent of the vote.”
Why is Schroeder so confident? First of all, only Republicans can cast ballots on June 7. No independents or Democrats. That’s good for Cruz (who does best with conservatives) and bad for Trump (who does best with moderates).
Secondly, California is winner-take-all by congressional district (plus three unpledged delegates and an additional 10 that will be awarded to the statewide champ). Not only is this a boon for the most organized candidate; it also blunts the impact of expensive ad buys (contrary to the conventional wisdom about California campaigns).
“It requires a great deal more organization to conduct 53 elections than it does to conduct one statewide and just buy a lot of TV,” Schroeder said. “This is very blue state. So we’ll have some districts with only 5,000 Republican voters. I call them ‘empty districts’: maybe 2,000 voters will decide the result. That’s not even a good-size city council race. And yet you still get the same number of delegates — three — that you would in a district with 240,000 Republicans.”
The Cruz campaign has been organizing in California for a year. They have thousands of volunteers statewide. And an estimated 65 percent of primary participants are expected to vote early by mail — a process that begins in three weeks. “We’re going to talk to all of these people personally,” Schroeder said. “We can pour calls into those empty districts.”
Also helping Cruz is the fact that the campaigns have to pick their own delegates — 169 of them, plus 169 alternates. The process of identifying six committed Cruz supporters in every single congressional district — including districts where Republicans haven’t really campaigned in decades — wasn’t easy. It took Schroeder five months. But now he’s finished — and the Trump campaign, which just hired a state political director today, is only getting started.
You know what Trumpmedia will call Trump’s failure to compete well in all congressional districts in California or to field a full delegate slate, if it happens?
FRAUD
And you know how the headlines will start?
BREAKING – BOOM EXCLUSIVE WOW BOMBSHELL OUTRAGEOUS CHEATING STEALING
Sorry, I forgot the
!!!
If you are part of Trumpmedia and you think this post is about you, you probably are right.
Who is Trumpmedia?
That’s a secret. If I told you, I’d have to send Roger Stone to your hotel room, hint hint.
I regret having to put “(#Sarcasm)” in the title, but internet.
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Comments
Oooooooooo…
NOW you’ve REALLY done it, Prof…!!!
You have mocked the unmockable.
Well, too…
ROTFL. And I NEVER roll on the floor laughing.
was he mocking Cruz ?
Love the blog post, Professor!
Levity and snark works a lot better than bitterness an anger 😉
right … levity and snark … NO bitterness and anger that the idiot Trump is thumping Cruz … none at all …
Why does Nate Silver give Cruz a 60% chance of winning the state?
#TheCanadian2016
Had me a belly laugh over that one, Redneck! lolol
Hey Trump Supporters! #Buyersremorse2017
There are factors in play in California before today.
X-Post:
“Cruz trails Trump in every recent California poll aggregated by RCP, at this time. (citation: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/ca/california_republican_presidential_primary-5322.html )
California is a conditionally open GOP primary. (citation: https://cavotes.org/vote/primary )
That is to say, registered voters presenting as Democrats are *not* allowed to vote in the CA GOP primary.
Republicans, independents, and those choosing not to disclose a party affiliation *are* allowed to vote in the June 6, 2016 GOP primary.”
I don’t think that’s correct.
My understanding is that if someone is registered “No Party Preference”, THEN they can vote in a party’s primary if that party allows. If you’re registered for one party, you can’t vote in another’s, and the Republican Party doesn’t appear to be allowing it, anyway.
http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/political-parties/no-party-preference/
Perhaps you are correct, malclave. I am paraphrasing the website: https://cavotes.org/vote/primary
Just checked the LA County Vote by Mail application online to be sure…
6. Under California Law, qualified political parties may allow registered voters with “No Party Preference” to crossover and vote in their parties. For June 7, 2016 Presidential Primary Election, the American Independent, Democratic and Libertarian parties have allowed “crossover voting”. If you are registered as “No Party Preference” and do not wish to request a “crossover” ballot, no action is required. To request a “crossover” ballot, check the box and select your choice below.
Heck, if the GOP allowed NPPs to vote in the primary, there would be NO reason to register as Republican in California.
The key phrase is ‘registered as’ regarding NPP. Thanks, Malclave.
To vote in the presidential primary in California, one has to be a registered Republican, no non-affiliated voters allowed. I live in California and the GOP here aren’t allowing non-Republicans.
“In politics, every day is filled with numerous opportunities for serious error. Enjoy it.” -Donald Rumsfeld
Love love love the post pic
This would be hysterical if it werent so dang close to what is actually going on…
I just cant wait till this national embarrassment is over and and this Orange, entitled crybaby who thinks hes the center of the world is regulated to the dustbin of losers who couldnt grasp thats what they were.
I kind of expect a new reality show with the very similar Charlie Sheen will be his next employment gig (and you know, it might just draw YUGE ratings)
I thought of a new Donald Trump reality show, viz a viz the Apprentice, called “the Cabinet”.
Love it! Surely SNL will do that skit!
I have a new show title for Trump also, “Whine Country”.
Yawn.
Look at the deluded Cruz nuts.
Can’t read polls, or distinguish real polls from those paid for by public relations firms.
Imagine California Republicans are going to vote for a guy who is (nominally, cuz he’s quite a bit of a liar) a conservative Christian so far to the right, that Jerry Falwell looks moderate in comparison.
They also imagine that if by some miracle they even get to a first ballot at the Convention that their guy is going to get some sort of Establishment support.
I don’t even want to think what this Right Wing Whackaloon would do in the general (Hey, I’m pretending Cruz really believes what the fools who vote for him believe). I’m sure he’d lose Hillary even if the Republican party somehow didn’t split up. But I don’t lose any sleep even worrying about your candidate as far as getting the nomination.There’s a slight chance that IF “Mr. Christian” plays dirty and IF Mr. Big Hair is as dumb as idiots Rags believe that your boy could carry the water for the Republican Establishment and act as the spoiler. But only a small chance.
Congratulations.
” … Right Wing Whackaloon”
Yup, as I suspected our very own liberal statist(d) right here in the republican party, who’s only reason for being here is to keep brownie out.
Shoo fly the smell you looking for is in the other party.
Imagine California Republicans are going to vote for a guy who is (nominally, cuz he’s quite a bit of a liar) a conservative Christian so far to the right
Not sure who you’re talking about.
Personally, I’m planning to vote for Cruz.
Hey Woody Woodpecker:
You wrote- “Imagine California Republicans are going to vote for a guy who is (nominally, cuz he’s quite a bit of a liar) a conservative Christian so far to the right, that Jerry Falwell looks moderate in comparison.”
Do you realize that
1. California, statewide, used to vote Republican until overwhelmed by immigration, both lawful and unlawful. And,
2. This is a primary for California Republicans, not the majority Leftist Loons who run the state today. (Bullet train, anyone?)
So, I’m going out on a limb here and saying that you don’t know what you are talking about. It’s not a general election, cellulose brain. And I would wager that The Donald is more of a prevaricator than Sen. Cruz.
I guess we’ll see who has to eat the crow, heh?
Wow! This is the worst post on LI I have seen in the years I have been reading here. You might want to remember the old saying, “It is better to remain silent and thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt”.
“can’t distinguished real polls from paid public opinion polls”? I have all the time in the world to listen – please, explain what makes a “real” poll?
Little boy Shane:
The Republicans backstab you.
The Democrats are the Identitarian party and hate your guts.
Both parties are corrupt to the core.
The Republican party WILL reform or it will die.
This is the time.
Get that through your head.
You don’t like it? Tough cookies.
Forget California …
Trump may have just lost Allegheny County PA.
Donald Trump Asks About Joe Paterno, Confusing Crowd in Pittsburgh
http://wnep.com/2016/04/13/donald-trump-asks-about-joe-paterno-confusing-crowd-in-pittsburgh/
Another unforced error. Cruz must have tinkered with the teleprompter:)
If you are, The Donald, you gotta watch out for that “Cruz Control”.
A vast majority of America decries money in politics, and yet the delegate system ratchets up expensive compliance costs everyplace.
The result is that even billionaires have trouble keeping up with the costs when the work isn’t done years ahead of time.
Good or lawyers and for oligopoly, bad for everybody else.
Is there any lie you Trumptards won’t tell yourselves to excuse the multitudinous failures of your cult’s to, I dunno, 1. read and 2. plan ahead.
Oh, by the way, this billionaire only put up about a quarter mil of his own cash. That’s how much he believed in his candidacy. If he’s going to lose, he’s not going to pay for it.
I can already tell one thing. When those FRAUD headlines go up on Drudge after Trump dicks away the election in Kali you’ll believe Cruz cheated the incompetent real estate fraudster out of victory.
Why? Because those headlines are in ALL CAPS with EXCLAMATION POINTS. Every Trumptard knows that makes it true. It’s why the Trumtards know Trumpy the insult clown is worth ten billion dollars. Because Trump and his spox don’t simply say he’s worth ten billion dollars. They say he’s worth TEN BILLION DOLLARS!
That makes it true.
It should be noted that all the money he has put into the campaign has been “loaned”. From who and what entity is he expecting to be paid back?
Perhaps, if there were only a global initiative sitting on a couple of hundred million dollars that were looking for a worthy cause ……
He is also not self-financed. His website takes donations, belying what he says.
for a failure he sure has a lot of delegates …
Ford, Romney and McCain had a lot of delegates, they also employed the dirty tricks man Trump just hired.
Care to tell me how many terms they served as President.
Choosing your own delegates means they’re loyal to you, will keep voting for you when the convention rules unbind them, and will *probably* abide by your request if you decide you can’t win and ask them to vote for _specific_other_candiate_.
Don’t expect them to vote for the man you endorse after that man compared you to a child molester and called them idiot, establishment, RINOs.
good to know you are perfectly happy with the state GOP selecting the winner of a states caucus … yes, its the rules in place in Colorado so I guess that makes it fine …
don’t forget those rules are in place for the Establishment … care to bet on the outcome of California ? you think its all about ground game ….
I guess thats the case in all the primary campaigns you’ve been involved in in the state of California … oh wait … you haven’t ? well I’m sure you’ve been involved in your own state ? right ? oh wait … not there either …
The WTF are you talking about ?
Don’t think much do you. The 65,000 Colorado Republicans that voted in the caucuses selected the delegates that elected the state delegates. since those 65,000 people are members of the GOP then I guess the GOP did select the delegates for the GOP race.
You expect them to let the Dems or idiots like YOU to select the delegates?
Trumptard, any registered Republican could have voted for delegates in their precinct caucuses. That is, as long as they had lived in the precinct for 30 days, been registered to vote at that address for 29 days, and been a registered Republican in the state of Colorado for two months.
But the fish rots from the head. Trump didn’t bother to show up to campaign for delegates. His own children can’t vote for him in any primary because they missed the deadlines. And Trump’s Trumtard supporters for the most part didn’t bother to participate.
Of course, like Trump’s own children, many of Trump’s primary voters are not registered Republicans.
What is it with you leftists and your zombie lies? Everyone who wanted to vote, and who was qualified to vote, voted. What was Cruz supposed to do? Drag all the Trumptards from the marijauna shops and force them to vote against their will?
I like the way you slice and dice. You need to stick around.
Where were you Trumpets when places like FL had to give all of their delegates to Trump even though he only won 47% of the votes? Boohoo, it isn’t fair that he got all of the 99 delegates and only got 47% of the votes. Did you hear Cruz whining about it? Of course not. Did you hear Cruz claim that Trump cheated? Of course not. It is only Trump and his little boy campaign that cries and throws a tantrum when he is challenged.
Wow. This is one of those unique moments where time invested into the Internet culminates to a singular point of absolute vindication and hilarity. Well played, dear professor. That’s some next level $&@!.
I have followed the drudgereport since before he broke the Lewinski scandal. This week I erased it from my favorites. It was like losing an old friend. Very sad to see he is in the tank for Trump.
Man! You should see my favorites bar! It is almost empty. I simply cannot believe that my old friends have tanked for such a shallow con artist! If these websites would just publish a list of the things that he plans to do and then show us how he will do them that would be ok with me. But they don’t. They just print insult and rumor about Cruz over and over again. When people start referring to what a good father you are to your kids then you there is nothing there.
The answer is a resounding NO to may question of 13 April at 10:00 p.m.
“Is there any lie you Trumptards won’t tell yourselves to excuse the multitudinous failures of your cult’s god to, I dunno, 1. read and 2. plan ahead?”
Has it ever occurred to you Trumptards that this country has just gone through nearly eight years of listening to a bunch of sycophants, throne sniffers, and court toadies pile lie upon lie to make one excuse after another for the incalculable failures of one party’s messiah, Chicago Jesus.
Why do you think it’s a good idea to saddle us with Obama 2.0 and inflict four more years of more-of-the-same?
Make America Grate Again!
Ah remember when roger stone endorsed Gary Johnson and predicted a libertarian moment in 2016…. Now he’s working for Trump.
Fuck between HRC and Trump we might have an actual Libertarian moment. Pardon the langauge
If you felt the need to add “pardon the language” then you shouldn’t have used it. Where oh where have the old commenters gone, the ones who put forth ideas and treated each other with respect?
Dishonest John Trump arriving in CA: “The GOP is killing me! Look at my poll numbers GOP little people! People love my brand. I couldn’t create a tower big enough to contain my entire splendor. So here I am in the flesh! Be wowed! Be awed! Be positively awed. I don’t need the little people. The power of positive thinking will get my delegates for me.”
Boing!! I see a bad moon rising.
Scarborough: Cruz as GOP Nominee Means ‘Senate Majority Leader’ Chuck Schumer — ‘Worst-Case Scenario’ for GOP.
Ahhh, that paradigm of intellectual insight and RINO establishment thinking, Joe Scarborough. Just the person I turn to for political insight, too.
yes, sarcasm…
Now sarcasm is defined as being “harsh or bitter derision or irony”. And derision is defined as “ridicule or mockery” Therefor, sarcasm is not some harmless jibe or jest, but simply another way to ridicule another person. So, who is being ridiculed in this “sarcastic” piece? Is it the Republican Party? Is it the media? Or is it Donald Trump? This is not made clear. Usually sarcasm is the presentation of “facts” or a point of view which is opposite to the truth and is therefor ironic. In this piece, there appears to be so little irony that the author has to inform the reader that it is sarcasm. Wait, that, in itself, is pretty ironic. Maybe that was what the author meant in the title.
Like it or not, what Trump is doing is simply pointing out that the Republican primary process is rigged in favor of the party leadership, not the actual contestants in the race. This, of course, is perfectly acceptable, as long as the membership of the party are made aware of this fact. Where the rub come is when the leadership continually tell the membership that that they [the leadership] are responsive to the desires of the majority of the membership of the party. The Republican Party has long made such a claim, even though, historically, such a condition has been shown not to exist. People have their knickers in a twist, not because a candidate is making these claims, but because these claims can not be effectively denied by the party leadership. It is becoming more and more obvious that the rank and file membership of the Republican Party is, essentially, disenfranchised by the leadership either through simple disregard or through byzantine delegate selection rules. The procedures governing the actual selection of the delegates is entirely controlled by the party leadership not by the membership or the candidate, to whom the delegate is “pledged” by the rank and file voter. The rank and file membership is now learning this, through the offices of the Trump candidacy. Ironic, no?
“Like it or not, what Trump is doing is simply pointing out that the Republican primary process is rigged in favor of the party leadership, not the actual contestants in the race.”
Wrong. Exactly 180 degrees opposite of reality. I don’t know how far into the tank you are for Trumpy the insult clown, Mac, but you can either believe the yuuuuge, obvious, transparent lies Trump tells, or you can believe the evidence.
Trumptards will believe the lies, as they clearly have had lobotomies and burned their eyes out with Drano.
Just like incumbents set up the general election laws to favor the incumbent (Obama can campaign across the country on the taxpayer dime using Air Force One and a fleet of official vehicles, as long as he stops at a military base or meets state or local officials here and there; his opponent has to pay for transportation) the primaries are set up to favor the FRONT RUNNER. That wasn’t supposed to be Trump. But he’s the front runner, so it favors him (emphasis mine, in caps),
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/trumps-right-that-the-gop-primary-is-unfair-it-favors-him/
“Trump’s Right That The GOP Primary Is Unfair — It Favors Him
Donald Trump has a point. (Yes, you read that correctly.) After getting shut out at the Colorado conventions, Trump has been complaining that the Republican primary process is undemocratic and rigged. I don’t agree with the “rigged” part, as the rules have been known for some time, but it’s true that some Republican votes are worth a lot more than others. “One person, one vote” — or the idea that every voter should have equal say in an election — is not the rule in the GOP primary system.1 The irony, however, is that Trump has benefited from this imbalance.
…Trump usually earns a higher percentage of delegates than votes
…If Republicans were to allocate delegates the way Democrats do, Republicans would be much closer to a 1-to-1 votes-to-delegates ratio. THAT SYSTEM WOULD ALSO RESULT IN TRUMP’S HAVING PRETTY MUCH NO SHOT AT WINNING A MAJORITY OF DELEGATES heading into the Republican National Convention.
Now, if Trump doesn’t win on the first ballot in Cleveland, that’s when the undemocratic nature of the Republican primary could truly work against him…”
Trump is the guy actually stealing the election; he’s the one screwing voters out of their choice because he gets their delegates even if they didn’t vote for him but for somebody else. And Trump knows it and loves it.
“But in what sounded like a wink-wink aside, he said, ‘Don’t forget, I only complain about the ones where we have difficulty.’”
When he whines about the system being unfair and stealing “his” nomination he’s just playing people for the suckers he knows them to be.
You can’t argue with the numbers. The average bonus Trump has been gifted with for being the front runner in the primaries held so far is 10.6%, so we’ll be generous and round that down to 10% (instead of up to 11% as is proper).
If Trump is truly horrified and shocked by the undemocratic nature of the Republican primary system, he needs to give up 74 delegates he didn’t earn. After all “one man one vote” is their mantra; if each vote counts the same then the people who didn’t vote for him should have their vote counted, too. Instead of stolen by Trump.
So to make things fair in the way Trump and the Trumptards demand, Trump’s delegate count shrinks from 743 to 669.
Of course, Trump isn’t the only one who benefited from the fact the primaries favor the front runner. Cruz has as well. But as the Trumptards are so, so fond of shrieking at the top of their lungs, no where near as many times as their cult fetish idol Trumpy the insult clown.
Let’s take the Trumptards at their word. Since he’s won far fewer primaries than Trump, Cruz needs to give up 5% of his delegates.
So Cruz’s delegate count shrinks from 545 to 518.
Now instead of having a 200 delegate lead, Trump only has a 150 delegate lead. Now we have much more of a horse race, don’t we?
Alrighty then. I’m all for giving Trump and the Trumptards exactly what they say they want.
decisions, decisions…
change to “no preference” and vote for Bernie in June, or stay Republican, and have the GOPe throw out the winner to nominate an “electable” RINO squish to comfortably lose in November?
guess i’ll be voting for Bernie, as i’d rather he be in the White House than Shrillery.
thanks a whole lot, Party of 5T00PID.
“Like it or not, what Trump is doing is simply pointing out that the Republican primary process is rigged in favor of the party leadership, not the actual contestants in the race. This, of course, is perfectly acceptable, as long as the membership of the party are made aware of this fact. Where the rub come is when the leadership continually tell the membership that that they [the leadership] are responsive to the desires of the majority of the membership of the party. “
My suspicion is that the rules were changed by the Party leadership precisely to stop somebody like Cruz. In the previous gubernatorial election the party elites, both in-state and out-of-state, worked hard to defeat Tom Tancredo. Instead they got a “nice” man to run for Governor. The current governor, when he was Mayor of Denver, ran a restaurant. One of his employees was a Mexican invader, who was avoiding following the laws of our country on immigration and murder. He, the employee, murdered an off-duty cop and then fled to Mexico. His defense was that the death was the victims fault. If only he had been wearing his bullet-proof vest, the victim would still be alive. The shooter was returned to Colorado only after Colorado promised not to seek the death penalty, but life in prison instead. Considering the stories of Mexican prisons, that will be a retirement home.
The Republican candidate never seriously went after the incumbent, who won re-election. At the start of that primary season the elites got together and played a little musical chairs to get Cory Gardner to run for Senate. He did win, pretending to be conservative, small-government until he got to D.C., when he could demonstrate his willingness to follow Mitch McConnell. The grass-roots in Colorado out worked the elites in nominating Cruz.
A closed caucus is much better than an open primary. The GOPe in Wisconsin maneuvered there, with the help of open primary, to get octogenarian Tommy Thompson to lose to Tammy Baldwin. Wisconsin, with conservative Scott Walker as Governor, has an openly lesbian Tammy Baldwin in the Senate. Good Grief.
If Donald Trump arrives at the Republican National Convention with less than a majority of delegates bound to him, his message will be simple: I got way more votes than anyone else, and party insiders are conspiring against me to give the nomination to somebody else.
This complaint will be true, it will be valid, and anti-Trump Republicans will dismiss it at their peril.
http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-gop-nomination-odds-right-2016-4
_________________________________
“Now it’s just an oligarchy, with unlimited political bribery being the essence of getting the nominations for president or to elect the president. And the same thing applies to governors, and U.S. senators and congress members.”
– Former President Jimmy Carter
The 2016 election has been a wild ride, with two insurgent grassroots campaigns literally giving the political establishment a run for its money. But as the events of this presidential primary season play out, it’s becoming clear the U.S. election — and even more so, the presidential race — is a big scam being perpetrated on the American people.
Events from the last week have exposed the system as an illusion of choice and a farce. They have reinforced at least one study showing the U.S. is an oligarchy rather than a democratic republic.
This brings us to the events that transpired during the Republican nomination process in Colorado on Saturday. The Republican Party of Colorado didn’t even bother letting people vote before using arcane rules to strip the democratic process of its democracy. According to the Denver Post:
“Colorado GOP leaders canceled the party’s presidential straw poll in August to avoid binding its delegates to a candidate who may not survive until the Republican National Convention in July.
“Instead, Republicans selected national delegates through the caucus process, a move that put the election of national delegates in the hands of party insiders and activists — leaving roughly 90 percent of the more than 1 million Republican voters on the sidelines.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-04-13/2016-year-americans-found-out-their-elections-are-rigged
“If Donald Trump arrives at the Republican National Convention with less than a majority of delegates bound to him, his message will be simple: I got way more votes than anyone else, and party insiders are conspiring against me to give the nomination to somebody else.
This complaint will be true, it will be valid, and anti-Trump Republicans will dismiss it at their peril.” At this point speaker needs to either pound the table, or heave a deep sigh and fall back into their chair with back of one limp wrist on their forehead. Voice should be choked with emotion.
“Most votes” means a plurality, while “more than half” means a majority. They are not the same thing. Everybody who voted for somebody else was also voting for not Trump. The Majority voted not Trump. If Donald arrives at the convention with the most delegates, but not a majority, and doesn’t get the nomination, he won’t be the first. That happens.
“Anybody but Trump” got more votes than Donald did. That’s true, that’s valid, and only an insane Trumpbot would keep arguing.
“Colorado GOP leaders canceled the party’s presidential straw poll in August to avoid binding its delegates to a candidate who may not survive until the Republican National Convention in July.
“Instead, Republicans selected national delegates through the caucus process, a move that put the election of national delegates in the hands of party insiders and activists — leaving roughly 90 percent of the more than 1 million Republican voters on the sidelines.
You’ve quoted the reason they made the change, thank you for digging that out. Let’s say they had not changed the rules. Then Colorado might have 39 delegates bound to Senator Rubio, who is out of running. This way they have delegates who can make a difference on the first ballot, even if that first ballot is denying Donald the nomination. While it is unfortunate that not all registered Republicans in Colorado were able to attend the caucus’s, that is also the point. If participating in the caucus was a priority, they would have been there. Darn.
In Missouri Donald received 0.2% more of the popular vote than Ted, but garnered 25 delegates to Teds’ 15. Is that fair? While others failed to meet the minimum and received no votes at all. Is that fair? Requiring a minimum threshold, is that fair? Maybe not, but it streamlines the process and eliminates less popular candidates. In 1984 I got to participate at an Iowa precinct party caucus. Somebody spoke for each candidate, and held up a sign. Supporters of each candidate stood by that sign. We calculated how many was 15%. The smallest group didn’t have 15%, so they split up into other groups. Then we counted. The smallest group didn’t have 15%, so they split up and we counted again. This repeated itself until every group had at least 15% of the people present. Were there some Democrats absent that night? Probably. Was it unfair their vote didn’t count? No.
There are different voting schemes. One has that votes vote 1-2-3 for first choice, second choice, and third choice. If their first choice is eliminated then their second choice counts. So in Missouri somebody might have voted Kasich-Ted-Trump. Since Kasich didn’t make the minimum their vote would go to Ted. However, it has been demonstrated by mathematicians different papers, that any known voting system is unfair, some how. The point is, are the rules set in advance so everybody knows them, are they reasonable, and are they followed. Caucusing is a reasonable approach.
There are MORE anybody but Cruz votes idiot. That argument is childish.
Out of 17 candidates Trump will have several millions more votes that second place. He will have the fewest anybody else votes. Cruz will have MANY MORE anybody else votes.
Not that I agree an anybody else category exists. It doesn’t but you are the idiot making such an unfounded unprincipled argument that they do exist.
There are MORE anybody but Cruz votes idiot. That argument is childish.
Out of 17 candidates Trump will have several millions more votes that second place. He will have the fewest anybody else votes. Cruz will have MANY MORE anybody else votes.
Not that I agree an anybody else category exists. It doesn’t but you are the idiot making such an unfounded unprincipled argument that they do exist.
Wait. We’re supposed to make principled, founded arguments? Since when?
Yes, “There are MORE anybody but Cruz votes idiot. That argument is childish.”, this is true. However, whereas once upon a time there were 17 candidates, there are now 2 or 3. All those people who preferred Carson, or Rubio, they have to give up on that dream and figure out a new plan, and move to Trump, Cruz, or Kasich. So the question is, of all the millions of didn’t-vote-Trump-the-first-time people, who aren’t already Cruz people, need to find a place to land. As do the didn’t-vote-for-Cruz-the-first-time people.
“Not that I agree an “anybody else” category exists.”
Whether you agree or not is totally irrelevant. Think of a Venn Diagram. There are two circles, one for Trump, and one for Cruz, and the circles don’t over lap. Either a voter was in the Trump circle, or they were not. Either they were in the Cruz circle, or they were not. Those voters, those delegates, need to go somewhere. Some of those who didn’t vote for Trump the first time might vote for him the second opportunity, or they may be in the die-hard never vote. We obviously don’t know. However it appears to this observer that many of those who voted for someone outside the Trump circle and Cruz circle are choosing Cruz, now that we are down to two really viable candidates.
This complaint will be true, it will be valid, and anti-Trump Republicans will dismiss it at their peril.
Can’t you liberals stop whining about Bush winning the electoral college, even though he got fewer popular votes than Gore, already?
Geez, it’s been over 15 years…
My suggestion for Ted in New York, and elsewhere, is to focus on character. Since Donald makes up policy whenever he is talking, there is no point in discussing policy, other than broad terms. Talk about character. What does Donald do when he runs into a snag? Whine and cry. What deep convictions, besides gathering personal wealth, helps guide him in decision making. Does he have any principles which guide him?
One analysis is that using his self-reported worth from years ago, and from today, that he would have been better off putting all of his money into index funds and going golfing than trying to make deals.
Does he want bigger government, or does he believe we can sort out our problems without government intervention?
He has said he never apologizes because he has never done anything he needed to apologize for. Wow. He is his own best adviser because he has a big beautiful brain. While some of his positions might be for bargaining, how can we tell what he is serious about, what he isn’t? (At least Kennedy and Carter, both, came off worse for it after their first meetings with Soviet leaders, and revamped their approach to dealing with the Soviets. President Obama has demonstrated a lack of such self awareness. To whom will Donald be more similar?)
Perhaps he wavered on disavowing the KKK, and proposed punishing mothers who got abortions, because he thought that is what his crazy, right-wing, misguided followers wanted. Which shows how out of touch he is with the positions he claims to have.
It’s funny how most people here would mock the Democrat “super delegate” system a “fix” that rigs the primary for Hillary, yet they would Republican primary shenanigans as an implemenation of Republican primary “rules.” Newsflash, the Dems’ super delegate system operates under “rules” too. The question is not whether or not they’re rules, but whether or not they are fair or fairly exercised.
The Democratic Convention of 1968 was very chaotic. There were significant problems with seating delegations from various states due to civil rights problems. Remember the water hoses and dogs on the bridge? The Chief of Police there was a National Democratic Chairman. Well in 1972 there were equal amounts of chaos. The Democrats had thrown the whole thing to very democratic voting and got chaos. The point of the super-delegates is to add some institutional memory to the process, to make sure the old pols aren’t voted out. The Republican Party has some vestige of that. In some states the party chair person is automatically a national delegate. There may be more. Other states have some many delegates per congressional district and others are selected by state convention, all in the same state. The idea is to not throw open the doors entirely. I understand the Rand Paul movement had delegates in place by stealth, which is dishonest. What is “fair” is probably in the eyes of the beholder. Don’t the Democrats have a higher proportion of such delegates than the Republicans?
The rules for the Colorado caucus selection of national delegates were widely available for a long time.
Donald Trump – He gets it or Why he has millions more votes than Cruz
From WSJ
Mr. Cruz has toured the country bragging about his voterless victory in Colorado. For a man who styles himself as a warrior against the establishment (you wouldn’t know it from his list of donors and endorsers), you’d think he would be demanding a vote for Coloradans. Instead, Mr. Cruz is celebrating their disenfranchisement.
Likewise, Mr. Cruz loudly boasts every time party insiders disenfranchise voters in a congressional district by appointing delegates who will vote the opposite of the expressed will of the people who live in that district.
That’s because Mr. Cruz has no democratic path to the nomination. He has been mathematically eliminated by the voters.
While I am self-funding, Mr. Cruz rakes in millions from special interests. Yet despite his financial advantage, Mr. Cruz has won only three primaries outside his home state and trails me by two million votes—a gap that will soon explode even wider. Mr. Cruz loses when people actually get to cast ballots. Voter disenfranchisement is not merely part of the Cruz strategy—it is the Cruz strategy.
The great irony of this campaign is that the “Washington cartel” that Mr. Cruz rails against is the very group he is relying upon in his voter-nullification scheme.
My campaign strategy is to win with the voters. Ted Cruz’s campaign strategy is to win despite them.
What we are seeing now is not a proper use of the rules, but a flagrant abuse of the rules. Delegates are supposed to reflect the decisions of voters, but the system is being rigged by party operatives with “double-agent” delegates who reject the decision of voters.
How have we gotten to the point where politicians defend a rigged delegate-selection process with more passion than they have ever defended America’s borders?
Perhaps it is because politicians care more about securing their private club than about securing their country.
Let us take inspiration from patriotic Colorado citizens who have banded together in protest. Let us make Colorado a rallying cry on behalf of all the forgotten people whose desperate pleas have for decades fallen on the deaf ears and closed eyes of our rulers in Washington, D.C.
The political insiders have had their way for a long time. Let 2016 be remembered as the year the American people finally got theirs.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/let-me-ask-america-a-question-1460675882
This looks like a letter a loser would write. He is complaining about things like he has already lost. If the voters really want this buffoon for president they can make it happen. I don’t believe they want him though and he knows it.
“The great irony of this campaign is that the “Washington cartel” that Mr. Cruz rails against is the very group he is relying upon in his voter-nullification scheme.”
I thought one of the Trump objections to Cruz was that Cruz was so ideological and fanatical that he couldn’t do deals with the insiders. Now Cruz is doing deals with insiders and Trump calls him a sell out.
While I usually disagree with Trump, it is true insiders have feathered their own nests. Some of this does appear tainted. However, the rules are state by state and exist for reasons related to each state. As G.K. Chesterton would opine, if you find a barrier across a road, before you tear it down, find out why it was built. Somebody went to a lot of trouble to build a barrier across a road, perhaps their reason still has merit. I don’t know why Colorado has had the caucus process since 1912 and still has it. Or why Wisconsin has had an open primary for years beyond my memory. But they do. That’s how they roll.
“Now Cruz is doing deals with insiders …”
Well, if someone offered you a bazillion dollars for your campaign for President, would you turn it down?
The problem is that, were Rafael Edward Cruz to be elected President, he would have to kneel to the policies of that bazillion dollars, thus betraying the very people that voted for him because he presented himself as a conservative and as anti-establishment.
The only problem with this Cruz is a sell-out and he’s becoming one of Them claims is that it’s laughable on its face.
Cruz didn’t say one thing on the campaign trail and do another (as Rubio and a host of others did and continue to do), Cruz didn’t campaign as a conservative Tea Party candidate and immediately abandon his values (see Rubio, Brown, just about every other Republican elected in and since 2010), and Cruz hasn’t changed his principles, values, or policies (as Trump has done, almost daily). Cruz didn’t “sell-out” in Iowa to pander to the ethanol lobby and base; Trump did. And he still lost.
Cruz doesn’t get new values every day depending on how things are polling; Trump does. Cruz can talk about his beliefs with deep knowledge, passion, and conviction. The only thing Trump talks about with any passion and conviction is Trump (and as an ancillary effort “making America great,” but that’s just as empty and ridiculous as “Hope and Change”). Oh, and he’s very passionate about “my wife is hotter than your wife,” but then, he’s a shallow, soulless cad who actually belittled Heidi Klum because she’s not a “10.”
Trump is an emotionally and psychologically stunted pre-pubescent. He runs on emotion, he runs on taunts and bullying, he runs on insults and ridicule, and he runs on imagining that he’s some sort of god-like being who is better than anyone and everyone else. He’s a diva.
That even the insanely stupid GOPe can see that is evidence only that the old adage about a stopped clock being right twice a day may hold some water.
Trump is, in every sense, a complete disaster. That the GOPe are now trying to get something going with Cruz to stop him says nothing about Cruz and everything about Trump.
The GOPe hate Cruz; he’s not for sale, and he’s not willing to bow to their agenda for any reason. He’s stated clearly and publicly that the GOPe have told him to stop trying to keep his campaign promises because they don’t actually matter . . . that’s just stuff you say to get elected. Cruz rebels against that, and he has since his first day running a primary challenge to Texas’s GOPe stooge back in 2011.
Cruz doesn’t believe, as Trump does, that “everything is negotiable.” He won’t sell his soul for the presidency, and his working with the GOPe to ensure that America doesn’t have to endure the horror show that would be a Trump presidency says he is willing to compromise with and work with them when their goals are the same.
All this blather about how everyone hates Cruz and he can’t work with anyone is just that . . . blather. Cruz is showing, right now, that when the stakes are high, and his integrity is not on the line, he can and will work with people who do not share his conservative values.
Trump? He’s besties with George Soros, the Clintons, the Weiners, and the Reids.
I’ll take Cruz any day of any week in any year. And I will be voting for him in November.
You have to ignore actual performance to make a comment as stupid as you just did.
In Iowa, T-rump, Mr. Establishment, sold out to BIG CORN for a few crappy caucus votes. He then lied about why he did it.
Cruz stood by his free-market principles.
Wow.
What a whiny pack of lies.
Coupled with T-rump’s lack of respect for federalism. And a small legion of straw men.
Reminds me of Obama.
Brilliant post! I am already getting tired of Trump’s feigned outrage when he is bested, and I could go a whole day–would love to go a whole day–without seeing him thrust out his pouty lip and shrug his shoulders while claiming to be a victim.
This is the smartest, most winningest, bestest person on the planet who has sworn that if there were some area about which he didn’t know all, he’d hire the smartest, most winningest, bestest persons in that field.
Apparently, he’s a bit slow on the uptake, however, as he’s playing catch-up while even Kasich is running circles around him. He’s ridiculous as a candidate, a joke, a caricature, a global laughingstock.
Nothing says he has to know arcane rules from each state regarding delegates, but everything says he should know well enough to hire people who do. Instead, he chose to ignore the rules and the delegate selection process, and now he stomps his stompy foot, flails his pudgy arms, and screws up his face in a remarkable imitation of a spoiled baby who had his bestest toy taken away.
It’s pitiful. It’s also a key indicator of what kind of leader he is: he doesn’t lead in any real sense of the word. He just stomps around, slinging threats and trying to intimidate, and when that doesn’t work he drops to the floor, pudgy limbs flailing, screaming “it’s not fair!”.
I correct myself, it’s not pitiful, it’s pathetic. And embarrassing.
TrusCalgaryTed
Good news! Donald Trump is now openly telling the NYT he thinks his followers are gullible idiots. In January he confided to the editorial board that he tells the Trumptards a lot of things he doesn’t mean, but only off the record and behind closed doors.
Then word leaked that he had done that and, nothing. No negative consequences for him bragging that his primary campaign is a pack of lies. And it dawned on him; Trumptards don’t read the NYT. So he can go ahead and say what he wants.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/13/us/politics/donald-trump-losing-ground-tries-to-blame-the-system.html?_r=0
“WASHINGTON — Donald J. Trump and his allies are engaged in an aggressive effort to undermine the Republican nominating process by framing it as rigged and corrupt, hoping to compensate for organizational deficiencies that have left Mr. Trump with an increasingly precarious path to the nomination.
Their message: The election is being stolen from him.
…By blaming the process rather than his own inadequacies as a manager, Mr. Trump is trying to shift focus after Senator Ted Cruz of Texas outmaneuvered him in delegate contests in states like Colorado, North Dakota and Iowa, losses that could end up denying Mr. Trump the nomination.
…But in what sounded like a wink-wink aside, he said, ‘Don’t forget, I only complain about the ones where we have difficulty.'”
Got that, Trumptards? If he wins in one state, the system is great, perfect. He’ll happily “disenfranchise” the voters who didn’t vote for him of their delegates. If he loses in another state, they system is rigged; it’s unfair; it’s corrupt, and his supporters are being disenfranchised.
And it could be the exact same system in both states. It doesn’t matter, he knows his base. And he knows his base is stooooopid. They’ll believe anything The Donald says.
Suckers.
Seriously, Trumptards, how is possible for someone to have absolutely no self-respect? I don’t know what that’s like, so maybe one of you can describe it. He’s scamming you, and he can’t help but brag about how easy it is for him.
This is right up there with Rep. Murtha and Barack Obama calling Democrat voters in western PA a bunch of stupid hic racists in 2008. And then the stupid hic racists go ahead and vote for Murtha and Obama anyway.
And the funny part is, you Trumptards think the guy who openly describes you as a bunch of gullible idiots will be working on your behalf if he gets elected. The guy who spent his whole life bribing politicians not to listen to you is going to be your savior.
As I said on another thread, you Trumptards have earned his contempt. And ours.
But why should you care? If you had an ounce of self-respect you wouldn’t be voting for a con-man. Particularly a con-man who is telling reporters what a bunch of easy marks you are while he’s conning you.
I think this website maybe needs to change it’s name from “Legal Insurrection” to “Trump Insurrection”…
Trump is a clown.