The New York primary having come and gone resulted in far better results than anyone had anticipated. Not only did Donald Trump have one of the most successful GOP primaries ever, he also annihilated his two Republican opponents in embarrassing measure. Governor John Kasich came in second but only gained two delegates and Senator Ted Cruz came in last and received no delegates.
After two of the most press unfriendly and campaign disaster weeks since his announcement, the New York primary win for the Donald in such grandiose fashion was just what the doctor ordered for what many were beginning to call a doomed and dying campaign.
Of course the reality is, the Trump campaign was never in danger; it was only a desperate and dying Cruz campaign along with the main stream press attempting to push for a contested convention which gave the appearance that the Trump campaign was on life support.
In actuality, it was just the opposite; it was like a bi-week in the NFL. While the Cruzers leaked every delegate gain made by Cruz either for ballot one or ballot two delegates during the two weeks following the big win by Cruz in Wisconsin, the Trump organization spent the time beefing up its game plan and adding important new players to its team roster getting ready for the beginning of the GOP playoffs leading to the championship game of the political convention in Cleveland.
The Cruz campaign being given credit by both media and political pundits alike as having the best “ground game” and knowing the political mechanics of the Republican Party far better than the Trump organization continues to utilize manipulation, lies and pure political cronyism to achieve what many believe to be a near cultic following of the Texas Senator who has actually been deemed by many including Cruz’s Pentecostal father as “God’s Political Messiah to America”.
This “cronyism” tactic has not only been brought to light by the Donald himself at Trump rallies but in a statement by Governor Paul LePage of Maine. LePage brought to light this weekend the links to which the Texas Senator’s organization will stoop to gain delegates for what Cruz is insisting will be at least a second ballot win for him if not an actual contested convention.
In a statement issued on Saturday, LePage suggested that the incident of trying to take already committed Maine delegates was part of a larger trend of deceit from the Cruz team. “As we have seen throughout the country, Cruz’s national campaign is run by greedy political hooligans. I can’t stand by and watch as Cruz and the Republican Establishment forcibly overrule the votes of Mainers who chose Trump and Kasich. I call on Senator Cruz to condemn (David) Sawyer’s (Cruz’s Northeast Political Director) disrespectful and dishonest tactics in Maine.”
Again, the truth that the “TrusTed” team isn’t telling anyone is that they know numerically the path for a decisive delegate win on the first ballot for either Cruz or Kasich is impossible and Cruz knows the longer Kasich remains in the race lessens his chances and greatly increases the chances for Trump to achieve the magic 1,237 first ballot delegates.
Trump definitely “Cruzed” to victory in the New York Republican Primary. That’s a fact. The win was definitive and substantial. Trump got sixty two percent of the Republican vote and no one expected more than fifty one percent at best; which polls had suggested. Those same polls were also been used to calculate estimates of future 1st ballot bound delegates in the next Northeast Super Tuesday Primaries through the June 7th California primary; originally forecasting Trump’s inability to reach the necessary 1,237 delegates to win on first ballot.
With new added higher percentages for Trump and Kasich from the New York primary, along with Cruz’s drastically reduced percentage factors make those projections no longer valid. The result is higher projections for Trump and Kasich. All three campaigns now aware of these new statistics and projections result in new strategies and press leaks. For Trump it simply means more voters and supporters getting on board the Trump train; an example is the already 20,000 Democrats switching to the GOP in support of Trump.
For both the Cruz and Kasich campaigns however, it means lots of good old propaganda; if it looks bleak, tell your followers it’s not that bad and give them some good news even if you have to distort the facts. Nobody does it better than Ted Cruz. Like it or not he is a politician “extraordinaire” and hasn’t come this far without political knowledge and strategy.
The big press propaganda leak for Cruz came this this weekend as Pro Cruz news outlets leaked non-consequential news about Cruz supposedly gathering up ninety four unbound delegates from various states and totally humiliating Trump. If you believe the Social Media posted article, you’d think Trump was losing and Cruz is now the winner. It’s an attempt to “stump the Trumpers” and every minute counts with the Northeast Super Tuesday primaries just two days away in which Trump will undoubtedly widen his already substantial lead. The problem with the delegates Cruz supposedly won on Saturday is that they are unbound and most not until the second ballot which means they can just as easily move to Trump as Cruz.
Again, in reality, the chances are Trump will win delegates on the primary level and come to Cleveland with 1,237 or close to it, resulting in more delegates going to Trump; it’s simple psychology and momentum, people like a winner. But people also don’t want to be on the losing side either and the more Ted Cruz and John Kasich look like losers or even GOP convention spoil sports, those delegates will probably jump ship and join Trump.
None of this Cruz hoopla really matters. It’s all about the 2nd ballot for Cruz; nothing more. He simply cannot win on the first ballot. The latest indications based on new statistics, even by party officials give Trump nearly 1,300 bound delegates by the convention totally eliminating a second ballot. Some political pundits and party analyst believe because of Trump’s big win in New York and the percentage by which he won, the delegate count could go as high as 1,400. This was even noted in a Trump organization internal memo. There are also some indications this same GOP information was leaked to the Cruz and Kasich camps (by the GOP) in an attempt to privately urge suspension of their campaigns.
Newt Gingrich, Pat Buchannan, Bill O’Reilly and many other well-known political pundits have stated that apart from a miracle for Cruz (which they do not see), Donald Trump is the presumed Presidential Nominee of the Republican Party. Even Dr. Charles Krauthammer, syndicated columnist and FOX News contributor (who is no fan of Trump) has said the remaining primary polls are devastating for Cruz and that Republicans need to unite and get use to the idea of Donald Trump becoming the nominee.
Trump is rapidly becoming accepted by many of the Washington establishment GOP leadership even if they’re holding their nose to do so. Trump is already giving policy speeches (favoring GOP) and helping to raise money for Senatorial campaigns. Like it or not Trump is the presumed nominee.
It’s time for Ted Cruz to follow his own advice and do the very thing he asked John Kasich to do when there was no mathematical path for Kasich to win on the first ballot, step down. Then Ted should make that magical unifying phone call and sit down with the Donald, acknowledge what is best for both party and country and preserve for himself a possible Supreme Court nomination; a place where he could do far more to defend and preserve the constitution than he could ever do as president.
