I mentioned before that Republican primary voters nationwide seem clearly against awarding the party’s presidential nomination to someone who didn’t get the most votes or delegates in the primaries and caucuses, regardless of who they support themselves. A new poll shows that 62% of Republicans say it would be “unacceptable” for the candidate who won the most votes not to get the nomination, if no candidate was able to clinch outright by getting to 1237 delegates.
There are two additional points worth noting about this new poll.
Following up on my review of Pathfinders, I wanted to return to another book that I discussed a few years ago. This is actually a revised version of an earlier review. But I’m returning to it because this is another book that centers on this basic historical question of why did Europe dominate the last two or three centuries of global history. It is a fascinating question and one that is only now quite approachable as dominance of Europe and now North America’s extension of Europe has begun to recede.
Trump Attack Haikus make appearance in amazing anti-Christie billboard campaign in New Jersey.
Trump surrogate Palin says voters will “rise up” if Trump or Cruz isn’t the nominee.
Earlier this week, numerous pundits were suggesting that Donald Trump’s presidential campaign was all but finished. A number claimed that unless Trump came into the convention with 1237+ delegates and secured the nomination on the first ballot, he was toast.
Sen. Mark Kirk (R) says he’s going to be too busy with his campaign to make it to the GOP convention in Cleveland.
Lauren Fox explains how the blown budget deadline shows that Paul Ryan’s Speakership faces the same structural, numbers breakdowns as Boehner did and indeed as has played out in the GOP presidential primaries.
I don’t know who “won” the debate, or even how to decide who won, but I am worried, as I was after the Michigan primary, that Hillary Clinton, who is the odds-on Democratic nominee, will have difficulty in the fall even against Donald Trump or Ted Cruz. I don’t understand why she can’t put the Goldman, Sachs question behind her. I initially assumed that she either didn’t have transcripts or that what she said was the usual milquetoast stuff politicians offer up. But her continued refusal to provide transcripts (which I now assume must exist) suggests that there must be something damning in them.
11:00 PM: I’m not sure I’ve heard two candidates yell at each other at such a sustained clip for two full hours. And they’re both over 65. That’s stamina.
10:25 PM: What’s Bernie Sanders’ endgame here exactly? Did Senator Sanders watch what the Obama administration did on the Israeli/Palestinian front during its first term when Hillary Clinton was Secretary Clinton? This primal scream phase of Sanders campaign reminds me of Barney Frank’s critique of Sanders as someone who spent all his time critiquing the inevitable compromises that go into actual passing laws rather than actually putting his shoulder on the back of the car and helping push.
10:34 PM: Sanders’ surrogate …
Rosario Dawson: Clinton’s foreign policy “sounds kind of racist to me…seems kind of sexist and classist to me.”https://t.co/9zYs5G3K3y
— jasonbellini (@jasonbellini) April 14, 2016
What’s the endgame here exactly?
10:36 PM: It’s notable that Sanders’ proposals for single payer and free college education at public universities have barely been mentioned here tonight. It’s now virtually all attacks on Clinton, in a lot of cases dumpster diving for phony issues.
10: 43 PM: Hillary now filibustering Bernie on his never-ending attempts to find an issue that he and Clinton disagree on.
10:51 PM: I will say that I find the question of who’s a ‘real Democrat’ pretty lame. Track record of raising money and campaigning for Democrats, that’s a bit different. But any thriving party is welcoming newcomers.
10:55 PM: Slaughtered in the Deep South, the most conservative part of the country, overwhelmingly with the votes of African American Democrats.