the primaries

Authored by Darrel Delamaide via MarketWatch.com,

The mainstream media is misleading the public by adopting a “fuzzy math” in treating the delegate counts for the Democratic nominating convention as carved in stone.

Given its bias against Donald Trump, the media are happy to parrot the Republican establishment’s prediction that their convention in Cleveland will be an “open convention” — that is, open to manipulation by the apparatchiks and the rules they set.

After winning only six delegates in Wisconsin, and with Ted Cruz poaching delegates in states he has won, like Louisiana, Donald Trump either wins on the first ballot at Cleveland, or Trump does not win.

Yet, as that huge, roaring reception he received in his first post-Wisconsin appearance in Bethpage, N.Y., testifies, the Donald remains not only the front-runner, but the most exciting figure in the race.

Submitted by Jake Anderson via TheAntiMedia.org,

With Senator Bernie Sanders winning seven of the last eight delegate battles — the most recent was Tuesday night’s Wisconsin victory — there’s a feeling in the air that most progressives haven’t felt since the Iowa caucus. It speaks to a hard truth Hillary Clinton and her choleric campaign staffers will encounter when they wake up in the morning: Bernie really could still beat Clinton and become the Democratic nominee for president.

Wisconsin Republican voters go to the polls for their presidential primary today, and Trump seems certain to lose the state to Cruz. Nate Cohn explains why Trump is having so much trouble in the Badger State:

But his problem in Wisconsin is mainly about the state’s demographics, not self-inflicted wounds. Even a 10-percentage-point loss there wouldn’t necessarily indicate any shift against him.

The state has always looked as if it would be one of Mr. Trump’s worst. This was true even before the primaries began.

Although I’ve developed something of a reputation as a Trump booster (I can’t imagine why), I’ve always been aware of the potential difficulties actually winning the nomination that Ross Douthat identifies. Because of his extraordinarily low level of support from party regulars, if Trump doesn’t actually get an outright majority of the delegates, enabling him to win on the first ballot, it’s difficult to see him winning additional support on a second, third or later ballot.