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.
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.
Despite Bernie Sanders taking 60% of the popular vote in the New Hampshire primaries on Tuesday, he will walk away with fewer delegates than democratic rival Hillary Clinton – due to the nonsensical and unfair nature of “superdelegates”. After winning with a 20-point margin, Sanders is set to walk away with 13 delegates, while Clinton will walk away with 15. Usuncut.com reports: So how does that work? To break it down, New Hampshire has 24 “pledged” delegates determined by the vote, of which Sanders won 13 and Clinton won 9.
It would be exceptionally foolish for me, the man who said Donald Trump could very well run the table, to predict the next twist and turn of this campaign with any confidence. It feels like this thing is now Trump’s to lose, since he will run better in South Carolina than Cruz will in Michigan, and the establishment is in deep disarray. It feels like Clinton needs a win to right her campaign, but that one is fairly assured her in South Carolina for demographic reasons.