At a certain point you have to wonder what they did. Because at this point it seem like God is just f ‘ing with the GOP. Like pulling wings off a fly. As you can see in the live election results data to the right, Ted Cruz looks like close to a lock to win the Kansas caucus. Only 25% of the precincts have reported so far. But he’s had roughly 50% of the tally consistently all the way so far. Unless the distribution of the returns is wildly uneven it’s hard to see how he doesn’t win. (So far no returns appear to be in from greater Kansas City metro region.) That will be Cruz’s fifth win so far. And it does not seem improbable at all that he could win at least one more. (Just as I typed this, the first 5% of precinct results came in from Maine. He’s winning there too.)
I haven’t done it in a long time. But over the years, I’ve posted charts or non-graphical updates on what kinds of browsers and operating systems people use to access TPM. So for instance, way back in January 2010 (amazingly, that’s 6 years ago), our browser breakdown was like this.
Firefox: 39.82%
Internet Explorer 29.10%
Safari 21.83%
Chrome 7.17%
Today it is …
Chrome 39.41%
Safari 28.8%
Safari (in-app) 12.48%
Firefox 10.97%
Internet Explorer 5.32%
I wrote last night that the already trembly #NeverTrump ‘movement’ would soon collapse under the weight of its own ridiculousness. And that is even more clear this afternoon. Mitt Romney appears to be the only actual member of the #NeverTrump ‘movement’. Small movement. Sad!
Like I said last night, #NeverTrump is really #EventuallyTrump. In a Kentucky radio interview today, Marco Rubio is forced to admit that #NeverTrump actually only applies for the primaries. Audio here.
TPM Reader CS …
Having listened to (much) of the debate last night and read your commentary, I am struck by the fact that we seem to have become perfectly comfortable with moderators that are actively, openly, and aggressively trying to undermine a single candidate.
It’s a bit hard to judge since CPAC or any conference would be hard pressed to command much media attention in the face of the current implosion of the GOP. But it’s hard not to sense that the diminished prominence of CPAC this year is not part of the more general crack up of the current GOP coalition, elites and establishment versus voters, changing definitions of conservatism, different gatekeepers, etc.
After TPM’s pioneering work identifying the new metrical form of the Trump attack haiku, readers came through with a more extensive examination of Trump’s work …
I’ve noted this several times today in different contexts. But it’s worth repeating clearly and on its own. Romney, Rubio and a slew of other Republicans are denouncing Donald Trump as someone who cannot be allowed to become President. He’s a danger to the country, a danger to the Republican party, a danger to conservatism. Yet none of these people is willing to rule out supporting him in November. Even Mitt Romney today clearly did not rule out supporting Trump in the fall. That is too big a contradiction to stand. The essence of what people are calling the #NeverTrump hashtag ‘movement’ is that it’s Twitter based, and in the nature of Twitter people can’t be pressed on this elemental question. Rubio is trying to be this ‘movement’s’ leader; but tonight he said he’d support Trump as nominee.
Because of this the #NeverTrump movement will likely soon collapse under the weight of its own ridiculousness.
This was the first GOP debate where I saw them make Donald Trump bleed. I really don’t know whether he ‘won’ or ‘lost’. I suspect his support is too ingrained at this point to be easily shaken. But this time Rubio and Cruz and mainly the moderators knocked Trump off his stride.
It’s not a matter of catching him in some logical contradiction or baloney answer. That’s happened a hundred times and it’s irrelevant. The issue is that his opponents are sharpening a number of attack lines that are commonsensical, direct and understandable: the scam of Trump University, importing foreign labor for the ‘short season’ at Mar-a-Lago. It’s hard for him to smack people down on these attacks with a single broadside.