Wednesday 16 March 2016

Michael Patrick Cullinane on the 2016 Election

The following is an excerpt of Michael Patrick Cullinane's essay in The Conversation, "Trump crushes Rubio, but fails to shut down the race."

With five more states weighing in, Donald Trump has cemented his status as Republican frontrunner – but he still hasn’t sealed the deal.

Trump netted the lion’s share of delegates available, winning North Carolina, Illinois, and the night’s biggest prize, Florida, where he won by such a humiliating margin that the state’s favourite son, Marco Rubio, suspended his campaign.

But it was hardly a sweep. Conservative hero Ted Cruz, who has already won several states, gave Trump a serious scare in Missouri, while John Kasich won his home state of Ohio. Together, they’ve ensured that an already extended political battle will be a long haul.

Kasich’s survival will be a comfort to the Republican establishment, to whom he’s the only remaining acceptable candidate. But his first win of the primaries, it must feel somewhat pyrrhic: he is, after all, Ohio’s two-term governor, and he still has fewer delegates under his belt than Rubio did when he bowed out.


Nonetheless, by rejecting Trump and keeping Kasich in the race, the voters of Ohio have seriously cut Trump’s chances of clinching the nomination before the national convention this June. Regardless of how team Trump spins the latest rash of contests, without Ohio, it’s now a very tall order for him to muster the 1,237 delegates necessary to clinch the nomination.  read more>>>

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