Wednesday, May 04, 2016
Cruz closes up shop
It has been a bad week for Ted Cruz. First, former Speaker of the House John Boehner said that Cruz was "Lucifer in the flesh." That offended America's satanists, who objected on behalf of Lucifer. That's pretty harsh.
Next, he spent a lot of time and effort in Indiana, then lost yesterday's primary by 15 points. Finally, he dropped out of the race.
The consensus of America's pundits seems to be that the field is now set: Trump versus Clinton in the general election.
I would say that I am surprised, but I really am not. Back in July of 2015, long before the first primary, I wrote this:
I'm not so sure that support for Trump will evaporate immediately, as some think. The truth is that his brash anger appeals to a substantial plurality of Republicans-- the Tea Party folks who are mad as hell, don't trust establishment candidates, and didn't like John McCain anyways. The reason that some of the Republican candidates haven't strongly condemned Trump is that they realize this.
Of course, I then went on to predict that Jeb Bush would prevail, so it turns out I am not such a good prognosticator after all!
For what it is worth, while people in Indiana were voting, I had a lot of fun talking to Ian Levitt for a full hour yesterday on AM 950 here in MSP. You can hear the podcast here. And, if you are into that kind of thing, my rant at the White House last month is now up on Youtube. You can see it here; the rant begins at about 2:48:00 or so.
Next, he spent a lot of time and effort in Indiana, then lost yesterday's primary by 15 points. Finally, he dropped out of the race.
The consensus of America's pundits seems to be that the field is now set: Trump versus Clinton in the general election.
I would say that I am surprised, but I really am not. Back in July of 2015, long before the first primary, I wrote this:
I'm not so sure that support for Trump will evaporate immediately, as some think. The truth is that his brash anger appeals to a substantial plurality of Republicans-- the Tea Party folks who are mad as hell, don't trust establishment candidates, and didn't like John McCain anyways. The reason that some of the Republican candidates haven't strongly condemned Trump is that they realize this.
Of course, I then went on to predict that Jeb Bush would prevail, so it turns out I am not such a good prognosticator after all!
For what it is worth, while people in Indiana were voting, I had a lot of fun talking to Ian Levitt for a full hour yesterday on AM 950 here in MSP. You can hear the podcast here. And, if you are into that kind of thing, my rant at the White House last month is now up on Youtube. You can see it here; the rant begins at about 2:48:00 or so.
