Ted Cruz, John Kasich Join Forces to Stop Donald Trump

[Hissyspit]

Source: CNN

Ted Cruz, John Kasich join forces to stop Donald Trump
By David Mark

Updated 10:29 PM ET, Sun April 24, 2016

(CNN)Ted Cruz and John Kasich issued startling statements Sunday night about their paths ahead, the first sign the two campaigns are coordinating to deny Donald Trump the Republican presidential nomination.

Within minutes of each other, the pair issued statements saying they will divide their efforts in upcoming contests with Cruz focusing on Indiana and Kasich devoting his efforts to Oregon and New Mexico. The strategy is aimed at blocking Trump from gaining the 1,237 delegates necessary to claim to GOP nomination this summer.
Cruz campaign manager Jeff Roe said in a statement the Texas senator will focus on the May 3 Indiana primary while the Ohio governor will have a free hand in the Oregon and New Mexico primaries in the flowing weeks.

In the statement, Roe called Trump at top of ticket "a sure disaster," adding "to ensure that we nominate a Republican who can unify the Republican Party and win in November, our campaign will focus its time and resources in Indiana and in turn clear the path for Gov. Kasich to compete in Oregon and New Mexico".

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/24/politics/ted-cruz-john-kasich-join-forces-to-stop-donald-trump/index.html

[rpannier]

1. Blunder Twins Powers Activated

I'm sure that frightens Trump

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

5. Power Rangers unite!

[rpannier]

6. Their powers would be

Cruz: form of oil sludge on the groun
Kasich: form of road kill

[IkeRepublican]

2. ...

|

[hibbing]

4. hehehe

Funny picture for this thread, but he scares the daylights out of me as do the two making these grand plots against him.


Peace

[oberliner]

3. Kinda weird that they are actually announcing this

Seems like it plays right into Trump's hand.

[No Vested Interest]

7. Perhaps the announcement plays into Kasich's and Cruz's need

to raise cash quickly.

[fred v]

8. Silver: Trump’s ‘System Is Rigged’ Argument Is Working

Apr 23, 2016 at 10:30 AM

Donald Trump has had a good run of numbers lately. While his victory in New York this week was expected, he got 60 percent of the vote, more than the roughly 55 percent projected by the polls. He appears headed for victories in Maryland and Pennsylvania, which vote on Tuesday. He’s gained ground in California and is narrowly ahead of Ted Cruz in the first public polls of Indiana. He’s added about 2 percentage points over the past two weeks in our national polling average.

You could push back against some of these details. Some of the California polls come from pollsters1 that have had a Trump-leaning house effect or that used an unorthodox methodology. The Indiana polls have Trump leading, but with only about 39 percent of the vote, which might not be enough if the rest of the vote consolidates behind Cruz. The national poll gains are small and may just be statistical noise.

But with Trump’s path to 1,237 delegates on such a knife’s edge, every percentage point matters. And it’s possible that Trump has moved a few voters into his column with a series of process arguments that he’s been pressing recently. The more restrained version, as you can see in a recent op-ed published under Trump’s name in The Wall Street Journal, is that the candidate who gets the most votes should be the Republican nominee — that delegates shouldn’t upend the people’s verdict. In public speeches, Trump has taken the argument a step further, describing the GOP’s nomination process as “rigged” and “crooked.”

Polling suggests that a majority of Republicans agree with at least the milder version of Trump’s argument, although the framing of the question matters. Last week’s NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found that 62 percent of Republicans thought the “candidate with the most votes in the primaries” should become the nominee in the event that no candidate wins a majority of delegates, compared with 33 percent who said Republicans should choose the “candidate who the delegates think would be the best nominee.” Only 40 percent of Republicans had Trump as their first choice in the same poll, which implies that there’s a group of Republicans who personally don’t prefer Trump but wouldn’t want to deny him the nomination if he finished with the plurality of delegates and votes, as he is almost certain to do. We might call this group the #TolerateTrump faction of the GOP, as opposed to pro-Trump and #NeverTrump blocs.

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/trumps-system-is-rigged-argument-is-working/

Trump can now add a "They're Ganging Up On Me!" argument as a side dish.

[pampango]

9. 'Trump at top of ticket "a sure disaster"'. We can always hope.

Democrats worry Trump will be too good a candidate. republicans worry that he will be too bad a candidate. Interesting times.

[houston16revival]

10. Monopolistic Collusion

If businesses did this the FTC would be after them

It really is a cynical strategy

Desperate

[Mr. Sparkle]

11. Trying to rig elections is now a part of their DNA.

They really are the party of crooks.

[LibDemAlways]

12. Their strategy is really nothing more than an

admission that Cruz does well in states with a lot of rightwing uber religious types while Kasich likely has more appeal to less theocratic types in the west. Although neither is exactly wildly popular.

Trump's going to have a field day with this.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

13. Excellent.....

They are only motivating tRump-nuts more to think the party is out to railroad him. If they actually pull it off at the convention and deny The Hairy Oompla Loompa the nomination, Cleveland will thank the lord they have that gun edict in effect.

[Myrina]

14. ... because blocking & obstructing is what the GOP does best!

SMDH.