Tuesday, May 03, 2016

Among the Hoosiers

John Kasich and Ted Cruz made a pact to leave the path clear for one another in a handful of states, including Indiana, where Kasich has held off so that Cruz could take on T-rump mano-a-mano.  So Cruz has everything on the line in the Hoosier state.

And he’s about to go down in a Texas-sized blaze of rhetorically-fueled collapse.  The T-rump Meglomaniac Train is nowhere close to shutting down and he’ll be schooling our man Ted tonight.  He’ll be doing it with the help of Hoosier favorites, former coaches Lou Holtz and Bobby Knight.  Both have endorsed T-rump in a display of stupid that is especially horrifying, given that we are looking for a national leader, not a zone defense.

T-rump will win Indiana with about 45% of the vote to Cruz’s 35% and Kasich’s 15%.  He’ll proclaim his awesomeness to anyone who will listen while the thoughtful voters of this nation throw up in their mouthes.


Over in the Democratic corner, there is some reason to believe that the demographics of Indiana favor Bernie Sanders but the polls don’t suggest it’s translating.  Expect Hillary Clinton to score the win in Indiana, with over 50% of the vote in the state.


I no longer wake up on primary day crossing my fingers that the Republican voters in these states will hand T-rump a loss that will translate to the collapse of his ego or his campaign.  That’s frustrating for me, because I actually believe in democracy.

Morning after update: Leaving aside Cruz's withdrawal from the race, the big story last night was that Sanders prevailed in Indiana's Democratic contest, with 52.5% of the vote to Clinton's 47.5%, a solid victory. The state offered demographics that helped Sanders in the form of a less racially diverse collection of Democratic voters.  Sanders prevailed among younger voters; Clinton did better with African-Americans and older whites.  Exit polls show that late-deciders broke for Sanders, casting the Clinton campaign's decision not to run ads and be a presence in Indiana to look troubling.  Clinton retains the delegate lead and the path forward for Sanders remains a challenge.  On May 10, the contest goes to West Virginia and then we head to California and New Jersey.  The roller coaster isn't over.

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