general election

Submitted by Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com,

How reassuring is it to Hillary, exactly, that she won what amounted to a straw poll totaling less than 11,000 votes among the various Nevada hotel employees unions? You could tell from her pained, artificial smile at the victory podium that there is something booby prize-ish about that narrow triumph. And what was with the metallic red outfit that had her looking like a previously-owned Christmas tree ornament? Maybe her handlers put her in Kevlar for the occasion.

There are two opposing narratives among Republicans to explain how their party’s standard-bearer has lost the popular vote in five of the last six presidential elections, despite GOP dominance in state legislatures and governor’s mansions across the country.

Donald Trump appears to have won all 50 delegates in Saturday’s South Carolina Republican primary, but this hasn’t stopped certain pundits from proclaiming Marco Rubio the real story. Rubio took second place with just .02 percent more of the vote than Ted Cruz received. While Cruz was supposed to have an advantage given the state’s large evangelical vote, Rubio had the endorsements of key figures in the state’s political establishment, notably Governor Nikki Haley and Sen. Tim Scott.

A recent poll indicates that Bernie Sanders is gaining support among Democrats, with 72% of registered voters believing he could win the U.S. presidential race against any Republican candidate. In a previous poll conducted in Dec. 2015 only 21% of those surveyed had any faith in the junior United States Senator from Vermont. The public are now ‘feeling the Bern’ and liking it. Sputnik reports: In the poll, Hillary Clinton is believed to be more electable than Sanders, with nine out of 10 voters believing in her, but other polls have been telling a different story.

Jonathan Tobin wonders if it’s too late to thin the Republican field and stop Trump:

We will eventually get down to two or three Republican candidates. But the only way Republicans can be sure that a newly minted conservative that even now still spouts positions on foreign policy and entitlements that sound like recycled Obama talking points, will be if that happens in the next few days.