Ted Cruz Tag

If Donald Trump gets 1237 delegates prior to the Republican convention, it's lights out. But that is looking less and less likely unless Trump scores a major upset in Wisconsin on Tuesday, at the Colorado convention on April 9 (where the delegates technically are unbound but the sides are fighting to get their people selected as in North Dakota), and wins big in New York on April 19. Cruz has little chance himself of getting to 1237 prior to the convention, so his strategy is focused on the second ballot. That strategy, as it is playing out in real time, has two components: Make sure only Trump and Cruz are the choices facing the convention, and make sure there are large defections on the second ballot of delegates pledged to Trump on the first ballot.

Strategy, Part 1: Keep it Trump or Cruz

When it comes to keeping it to two, Trump and Cruz are on the same page. They are planning to fight to keep Kasich from being put in nomination, much less someone not currently in the race. The NY Times reports:

At one level, the North Dakota delegate selection today was not a big deal, because the delegates are "unbound" even on the first convention ballot. The delegates were not even required to openly state their candidate preferences as the Bismark Tribune reported:

Delegates at the North Dakota Republican Party convention elected 25 unbound delegates to be sent to the Republican’s national convention following a debate and failed request providing candidates the choice to declare their preference for president prior to the vote.

One of Senator Cruz's latest campaign ads sounds a little bit familiar. Worried, released late last week, has no mention of the Washington Cartel, DC insiders, or Obamacare -- Cruz's hallmark talking points. Instead, his campaign has opted for a soft embrace of a few Trumpisms.

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.

Remember when Donald Trump threatened to "spill the beans" on Heidi Cruz? Yesterday Katrina Pierson, Trump's campaign spokesman, "spilled the beans" in an interview. Ironically, as Katrina was spilling the beans on Heidi, Trump SUPPORTERS were spreading wild rumors about Katrina and Ted Cruz (which she denies). Katrina tweeted yesterday about the rumors with an apparent lack of self awareness that the rumors were published by a magazine that has endorsed Trump, and were being spread by supporters of Trump: https://twitter.com/KatrinaPierson/status/713383676931772416

We all know that Donald Trump won the Louisiana primary. As to delegates it was a tie. Right? Maybe not. The Wall Street Journal reports that Cruz may walk away with as many as 10 more delegates than Trump:

By now you likely have heard of The Thing. I've waited for some public comment from people allegedly involved in The Thing before posting anything about it, even though a couple of our commenters have done so in the comment section to other posts, and it's going wild on Twitter. The thing is about The Thing is that I don't want to spread what might be false rumors, on the other hand, The Thing is now a thing on TV and elsewhere, so it can't be totally avoided. In the age of Bill Clinton, John Edwards, and many others, I'm hesitant to say The Thing is not a thing because even the National Enquirer has gotten someTHING right in the past. The National Enquirer, though, carefully couched its reporting as there being rumors into which investigators are looking, not actually having evidence. It may have evidence, and it may just be doing a slow baited roll out getting people to commit publicly before revealing the evidence. Or it may have nothing but rumors, and is hoping the publicity draws out witnesses and other evidence.

This may now officially be a series, "Can you imagine Trump in control of ...." Prior posts on topic:

• Trump threatens owners of Chicago Cubs ("So the new plan is to threaten to expose supposed secrets about people who contribute against you? ... It’s not funny anymore, if it ever was.")
• Rule of Jaw: Trump says BOYCOTT APPLE unless they unlock phone for Feds ("What, me worry about him in control of the IRS, FBI, DOJ, CIA, NSA, EPA, and Park Police?")

Current entry in the series: A small SuperPAC founded and run by Liz Mair did a mailer in Utah showing a public photo of Melania Trump from a magazine shoot 15 or so years ago. I have to say, Melania looked marvelous in the shoot. It's almost -- almost -- enough to make some anti-Trumpers reconsider. But it was a completely sleazy tactic attempting to "slut shame" Melania.