Cruz is out?

[CheerfulYank]

So Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee.

Is this real life? Is this my country?

What is happening? I know one person who supports Trump. ONE.

[CheerfulYank]

Not that I wanted Cruz, of course. But dear God. I just don't understand.

[Out2pasture]

many are frustrated with politics as it stands and a vote for trump in some way is a vote for change.

[claig]

Not a moment too soon!
He looked like he was "out of it" from the start and now he's gorn.

[claig]

Trump praised Cruz, called him "one tough competitor". Trump will now unite the party and thrash Hillary.

He said that unlike Hillary who said she would "lay off" the miners, that they "would be proud to be miners" again and that the miners will get back to work. It is over for the whole climate change agenda. The world's "leaders" looking on in sheer, utter panic.It's all over

[claig]

Trump says "we're going to be saying Merry Christmas again"
The end of political correctness and that will spread to all our useless politicians over here too.

[liinyo]

It is scary. We normally visit family in the USA every year (and have done since Obama was the front running Democrat candidate - happy days.`). I cannot imagine wanting or being able to visit if DT becomes president.

[CheerfulYank]

Everyone says Merry Christmas! That's utter bullshit.

He doesn't care about the country, he cares about himself.

[DoctorTwo]

I think that losing in a reasonably conservative state like Indiana made it inevitable that Cruz would throw the towel in. If the Democratic Party go with Hilary Trump will play what Thom Hartman called "The Woman Card". Polls have shown that Bernie will beat Trump, but it's close between Trump and Hilary as many voters drink up the bullshit their 'news' outlets feed them.

[Mistigri]

Cruz was always going to be a terrible "anyone but Trump" candidate because most of his own party hate him, and he's nearly as divisive as Trump himself.

I saw a poll yesterday - sorry no link, can't remember where - which suggested that a signficant number of Republican primary voters would have abstained or voted Dem in the general election if Cruz had been the nominee. (The number of potential abstainers is even higher with Trump as nominee.)

Will be interesting to see if the Republicans can bring themselves to rally around Trump now. Who will be the first high profile Republican to say in public that s/he will not vote for the party's presidential candidate? Has such a thing ever happened before?

[mamamea]

Trump will win easily against Hillary, who is every bit as unlikeable as he is, but lacks his charisma.

[MorrisZapp]

How can this be happening? The Republican party need to look at their internal processes. What an utter embarrassment for them and for the USA. Kennedy, Clinton, Obama.... Trump.

You couldn't make it up.

[pratiaalba]

I don't think charisma makes a scrap of difference- people will not vote Hilary because they could not countenance a female president.
Thank goodness Cruz has gone though. What a disaster for women he would have been.

[CheerfulYank]

My hope is if he does get in (dear God, can that actually be a real sentence that I'm actually typing) he'll just be...well, what he is. A clown. A colossal joke that ends as quickly as possible. Not what he has the potential to be, which is evil and dangerous.

[DoctorTwo]

I see Kasich has also quit, handing the nomination, in theory at least, to the bouffant idiot.

What I hate about the Democratic party race is that even if Bernie gets more delegates than Hilary the super delegates will most likely vote for her. It's hardly democratic to allow money to determine the outcome, but that's what passes for democracy nowadays, money buys power.

[Mistigri]

Something extraordinary would have to happen for Bernie to get more regular delegates than Hillary. And in that unlikely event, there's no reason to believe that the super delegates would override the decision of primary voters.

(But it's a moot point because it's close to mathematically impossible for Bernie to win now. He is still in the race in order to push the Dems leftward, not because he expects to be the nominee).

[STIDW]

Doubt he will become president though because he will bring out the voters - those on the other side. Trumps problem is too many people don't like him, & some really, really dislike him - not just Democrats but Republicans too..

[CheerfulYank]

I feel like Bernie could beat Trump more easily than Hillary.

[pratiaalba]

I concur, cheerful. However, Hilary does have sway with the Hispanic population, which counts for a lot in the larger states (pop wise).

[CheerfulYank]

Yes. I want Bernie in the worst way but obvs will vote for Hillary if I have to.

[BigChocFrenzy]

You afraid of this, cheerfulYank ?

2016: "Trump won't beat Clinton"

2017: "President Trump can't do that, can he?"

2018: "You watching The Hunger Games tonight? I hope my District wins."

[mamadoc]

I just read the thread title and thought

'Gosh I'd no idea the Beckham's middle son was gay'

[mathanxiety]

Hi Cheerful!

I too know exactly one Trump voter. I wonder if this election could have the lowest voter turnout ever.

[lljkk]

Cheerful & MA: who do you think Trump will choose as running mate? DD & I speculated that Carson is certainly angling to be VP.

[CheerfulYank]

Yes I am BigChoc. I posted that very thing on FB a few weeks back.

I have no idea who he'll choose! God. I shudder to think.

Math I know! Who is voting for him?!

[Mistigri]

A low turnout would be terrible news. The one thing we know about Trump is that he can get his supporters out to vote.

I think it is more likely that there will be a reasonably high turnout given a match between a populist demagogue and the first female candidate.

There was a high turnout in 2008 to elect Obama. A high turnout tends to favour democrats (because the demographic groups that record the lowest turnouts are also the most likely to vote Dem).