The Indianapolis Star’s editorial board made a plea to voters ahead of Tuesday’s primary contest to do their part in “halting Trump’s march.”
“Front-runner Donald Trump could move close to sealing the nomination with another strong win. That would be a disaster in the making,” the board wrote in an embittered non-endorsement criticizing all of the 2016 presidential candidates.
The editorial clobbered the GOP frontrunner for what the board called his unsophisticated policy proposals, “appalling comments about women” and divisive rhetoric about immigrants and minorities.
Noting that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) was also “ill-suited to serve in the Oval Office” thanks to his penchant for launching “ideological crusades” on Capitol Hill, the board argued Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) offered “the best choice for voters.”
The board reserved some sharp words for the short-lived alliance between Kasich and Cruz to defeat Trump in critical primary races, including in the Hoosier State. Kasich did not campaign heavily in Indiana in recent days and let Cruz take the reigns, although he still urged voters in the state to support him.
The Star called the botched deal “disappointing” for cutting Indiana voters out of the equation and leaving them with no chance to “hear directly from the candidate most qualified to represent the Republican Party in the fall campaign for the White House.”
Despite its criticism, the takeaway message of the editorial was quite similar to the intention of the Kasich-Cruz alliance: stop Trump at all costs.
“We are withholding a formal endorsement in either race,” the board wrote. “Indiana voters can still have a big impact with their ballots Tuesday in halting Trump’s march. The best we can hope is that Hoosiers do just that — and say no to a candidate who is not merely flawed but is clearly unfit for the office he seeks.”
Campaigning across the state this week with notorious Indiana University basketball coach Bobby Knight, his latest endorser, Trump has hammered the outsourcing of industrial jobs in the state.
I don’t think Northern Kentucky will wield much influence in the GOP nominee contest.
Honestly–and I know this is a very difficult choice to make–but the editorial board could have chosen the rare route of telling their readers they have no endorsement on the Republican side, that all of them are ill-prepared to be President.
Kasich could’ve been President but he couldn’t pass the Republican purity test. There’s a lesson there for Bernie or Bust people.
If only John Philip Sousa was alive to compose a sprightly buy dirge-like Trump March…
If only a sane, well respected and experienced Republican could be found that wanted to strip millions of health insurance, control women’s bodies contrary to their wishes, lower taxes on the richest 1% of the population, destroy the public school system, outlaw labor unions, prevent the construction of mosques, force gays back into the closet, eliminate Social Security and the minimum wage, open up public lands to strip mining of coal and pumping of oil, dismantle OSHA, deport 12 million Hispanics back across the southern border, eliminate all gun regulations and provide police immunity from prosecution for shooting little black boys, then the Indianapolis Star could have someone to endorse.