Il Douché and His Discontents: The 2016 Primary Voting Thread, Part 4

As titillating as Trump's campaign has been, atm I am thinking the best case scenario on the Republican side of things would be if Cruz arrives at the convention with roughly the same number of delegates as Trump, but neither one has it sewed up on the first ballot.

Next, Cruz takes the nomination on the third or still later ballot, after a brazenly sleazy set of parliamentary maneuvers which totally alienates Trump's supporters from the party (bcz alienating people is Cruz's biggest talent). After which Cruz goes on to the general election and alienates independent voters so badly he loses in all but a dozen states and his name becomes a byword for political sleaze and gross failure for generations to come.

that would be p cool

Trump's clearly a big nickname guy (everyone knows somebody like that), and I suspect that'd continue as president. Kim Jong-un would be L'il Kim, Putin'd be Lyin' Vlad, etc.

Pooty-tang

the trump movement getting folded into cruz' schtick seems like the worst possible scenario

i like the thing louie ck write

I suspect Cruz would be the easier to beat in a general--he's a true-believer conservative, so you know what kind of a campaign to run against him, plus he's so creepy; Trump scrambles up everything, so there's an element of uncertainty--but I want to see him denied as much pleasure in this life as possible, so I always root against him.

i don't think republicans are winning this general, regardless

or if they did, something really will have happened to this country between now and then

*bad

Like a monster invasion

an inasion by monsters, totally

Monster invasion would benefit Clinton. Now, if someone blew up a Trump building ...

Speaking of which, if you live in one of his buildings, and your building namesake not only reveals himself to be an asshole of the highest order but keeps amping it up, do you feel secure? Would you want more security? Would you want to move out?

you might think 'i might soon be living in a building owned by the president'

and then you'd probably be on a list for posing that question ha :/

pwned

this building is pwned by the president

from what i read cruz is thought by dems to be easier to beat in the general because he's not such a wild card and has been far, far more clear and consistent about his ideas, and his ideas are *extremely* unpopular.

currently according to ppl watching returns closely, the louisiana vote was heavily for trump from early voting, but in actual primary day votes it's trending toward cruz - that the romney speech and debate and such has actually been damaging to trump. and that there is some sign anti-trump voters are voting tactically as romney said, supporting cruz in states he can win, and i assume will support kasich in ohio/michigan and rubio in florida. i assume the goal here is to put together enough delegates to have a brokered convention?

what is hilarious is that cruz is meanwhile not exactly on board with this plan (clearly out for himself once again proving why his colleagues hate him) and opening field offices in florida to try and knock rubio out

omg and if cruz succeeds at this and accumulates the 2nd number of delegates.. sorry to quote klein but

https://twitter.com/ezraklein/status/706254511661150208

The Trump-Cruz ticket is going to Make Democrats Great Again

what is hilarious is that cruz is meanwhile not exactly on board with this plan (clearly out for himself once again proving why his colleagues hate him) and opening field offices in florida to try and knock rubio out

― arts and crafts THIS GUY (daria-g),

cruz thinks he can make trump voters believe, i bet he's just going for a kill

lyin ted could become flexible ted when nothing means anything anyway

http://www.salon.com/2016/03/05/stop_laughing_democrats_as_the_gop_goes_down_in_flames_your_post_bernie_civil_war_is_almost_here/

I feel like there really is hope for an actually charismatic democratic socialist.

had dinner with my parents tonight. it was weird being able to say 'socialism' without looking over our shoulders

if only my grandpas were around ha

I really wish someone had snuck a bucket of piss into UCF Arena today and doused the ole windbag w/ it, Carrie-style.

his fans seem to be the type that would view that as a 'weak moment'

wow Cruz did way better in Louisiana than I expected (just catching up now, was out).

has to be a good sign for possible Cruz Interruptus

Trump sounds a little shaken and subdued.

good thing his GI tract is solid

back in things that actually happened, Sanders wins Kansas and Nebraska, Clinton Louisiana

Cruz closer than expected in La., won Maine as well as KS xp

thx morbz

also currently up 60-46 over Trump for delegates won for the day. Trump sucks at caucusing

Sanders pretty respectable day! my absentee ballot on the way, guessing he is who I will cast mine for.

regretting being a registered repulbican

lol

Donald J. Trump says Ted Cruz "should do well in Maine because it's very close to Canada, let's face it."

the thing about these trump press conferences is just how much goddamn complaining he does the whole time. he's had to answer soooo many questions, why won't rubio just drop out, everything is so terrible, so horrible, such a disaster, blah blah blah. there's the fascism and all, but also he's such a drag

the trump cadence is truly a thing

that whole exchange just now was truly revolting

In a normal world, this press conference would be considered rambling, desperate, and incoherent enough to be damaging. This year, probably not.

the only time i've seen it not be funny is jimmy fallon, worst impression yet

that salon piece's pretty otm

trump's stem-winding complaining is part of his whole schtick though. like he's a regular common-sense guy who built a great company, facing down the bad-faith wheelers and dealers of politics. he speaks for exasperated americans, common-sense people. fantastic people. terrific people. you get into politics - lemme tell you. it's a disaster. it's a disaster. you've never seen such dishonest people. they are outta control. these people - he could straighten them right out. politicians, the press... we're gonna get rid of that, we're gonna make america great again.

he's struggled

like lemme tell you, who WOULDN'T be complaining dealing with these jokers? you wouldn't believe it. it's a mess. and anybody with any sense could just clean that right up, and trump, he can do it. he sees through them because he built a great company. he's come back to report on what pushovers all these fat-cats and media parasites really are.

yeah but why again

x-post

Doctor Cashon xpost

xxxxxpost he's not as teflon these days though. people didn't notice as much at first that people were starting to get sick of him because it only moved the needle a small amount and not enough to knock him out of victory lane, but the last two sets of primaries showed him losing a few states he had previously lead in, and thinning the gap in states he was previously supposed to win in blowout fashion.

Stuff still impacts him less negatively than other candidates, as I think Silver's theory of a 30% floor seems pretty accurate, but I think he's past the point of being able to say anything, and is going to have to be a little more careful now, something I dunno that he's very good at.

think this is the beginning of the wheels starting to come off, even though he's still obv the frontrunner. I am not sure I think the multi-headed dragon approach to beating him is the right one anymore, either. Perhaps it's too soon for Cruz to beat him one on one, but I think at least one more candidate needs to drop.

Not sure which one it needs to be though - Kasich maybe? I'm just not convinced all of Rubio's votes would go to Cruz if he was the one to leave.

the oppressed and aggrieved billionaire

too many words

he's not actually a billionaire

also another interesting piece of info going around twitteronia is that he definitely can't afford to self fund a general election campaign and has not raised hardly any money

I think he's past the point of being able to say anything, and is going to have to be a little more careful now, something I dunno that he's very good at.

my impression was that he'd already started The Pivot, cf what daria posted (way) earlier about sandersish rhetoric and the evaporation of any remaining gop loyalty

i guess that doesn't necessarily mean he's gonna stop saying, like, he's gonna dismantle the first amendment, or whatever