general election

Authored by Ben Tanosborn,

Forget about the number of superdelegates; or the several undemocratic manipulations by the Democratic National Committee (DNC).  The reality that stands out loud and clear at the end of April, with almost two-thirds of the primary-caucus vote having been cast, is that Hillary Clinton is commandingly leading Bernie Sanders in the democratically-chosen delegate count by a tally of 55 percent against 45 for the senator. 

Byron York reports on the magical thinking behind the grudging acceptance of Trump by some leading Republicans:

“Trump does bring a little magic to this in that he could shuffle the traditional battleground map,” one former presidential campaign manager told me. “I haven’t seen any data on that, but I’m just getting a feeling that he’s going to put a couple of Midwestern states in play [bold mine-DL].”

As the make-or-break Indiana primary looms for the GOP establishment, Ted Cruz suffered a develishly-dismal day. First, as Gallup reports, Cruz's favorability has utterly collapsed in the last few days (blame Carly?) with 45% unfavorable to 39% favorable (a negative spread for the first time in his campaign).

Noah Millman points us to Andrew Sullivan’s essay on Trump and democracy. Sullivan says this of Trump:

In terms of our liberal democracy and constitutional order, Trump is an extinction-level event.

Yes, says Bill Galston, contending that “Donald Trump is waging and winning the third major revolution in the Republican Party since World War II.” First there was Eisenhower reconciling the GOP with the New Deal. Then there was Reagan, who wrought a “remarkable fusion of supply-side economics, anti-Soviet internationalism and social conservatism.” And now? Excerpt: