Donald Trump won everywhere but Ohio, where John Kasich won. Ted Cruz was only .2% behind in Missouri, and less than four points in North Carolina.
Judging from his numerous fundraising emails, Kasich seems disinclined to take his participation trophy and go home.
A few links:
Now everyone is waiting to see if Rubio endorses Cruz…
Mr. Rubio, 44, was felled by many of the same forces that drove other contenders from the race: a deep anger at the Republican leadership, a level of mistrust among the party’s most motivated voters, a field of candidates splitting up the vote, and an inability to stop Mr. Trump from exploiting all those factors.
But Mr. Rubio also notably lacked what both Mr. Trump and Senator Ted Cruz could boast of: victories in a string of early nominating contests. Mr. Rubio carried only Minnesota, along with Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, sapping his campaign of critical energy and fueling the perception — no matter how hard he tried — that he was incapable of winning the nomination.
He claimed to be the only candidate who could unite the Republican Party, but he could never unite enough voters behind him to persuasively make that case.
It’s either Ted Cruz or Donald Trump. Vote accordingly.
Only 10% of the vote in, but AP is projecting that Donald Trump beats Marco Rubio in Rubio’s home state.
It’s long, long overdue for Rubio to leave the race. If he doesn’t do that tonight, then he’s essentially declaring he wants to see Trump rather than Ted Cruz win the GOP nomination.
Another big primary day, with Florida, Ohio, Illinois, Missouri and North Carolina voters going to the polls today.
In case anyone wondered who the MSM hand-picked to be the GOP nominee. @jakeyeaton @Imagine0468 @Morning_Joe pic.twitter.com/ncGcYULIk7
— Mark Petereit (@Ohmaar1) March 15, 2016
Floridians for Immigration Enforcement, a group that opposes illegal immigration, supported Rubio in his campaign for Senate that election cycle, in part due to an hourlong-conversation they had with him on that fateful day in 2009. During that meeting, Oliver said, Rubio pledged never to support “amnesty or legalization of people” in the United States without documentation.
“He ran for president as a graceful way to exit. He would have lost the Senate seat if he had run for reelection.”
How do you know you’ve won the game of life?
When you get certified as the oldest living man in the world, which is what Israel Kristal just achieved.
Moreover, Mr. Kristal, who was born in Poland, survived being sent to Auschwitz.
That means not only did he win the game of life, but he did it on the highest difficulty level.
Now Kristal lives Haifa, Israel, surrounded by a large family.
In your face, Hitler!
(Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)
Ted Cruz has won the Wyoming Caucuses with 66.3% of the vote, picking up 11 delegates. Marco Rubio finished a distant second (or as he calls it, Rubio Gold™) with 19.5% of the vote, while Donald Trump came in third with 7.2%, each of them picking one one delegate.
An additional 14 delegates will be selected at Wyoming’s state Republican convention, and I would expect Cruz to do very well there as well.
Meant to put this up last week, but the crush of events pushed it to the back burner.
Three brothers who groomed, raped and sexually assaulted 15 teenage girls in Rotherham have been jailed.
Arshid Hussain, 40, was jailed for 35 years while siblings Basharat, 39, and Bannaras, 36, were jailed for 25 and 19 years respectively.
Their uncle, Qurban Ali, 53, who was found guilty of conspiracy to rape, was jailed for 10 years.
Associate Karen MacGregor, 59, was jailed for 13 years and Shelley Davies, 40, given an 18 month suspended term.
Of course, 15 girls is just the number proven in court; the original estimate was more than 1,400 young girls had been sexually abused in Rotherham.
The local government tolerated sexual violence on a vast scale. Why? In part, because the criminals who committed these sickening acts were Muslims from the local Pakistani community, and noticing their depravity was considered insensitive at best, racist at worst.
The British home secretary says “institutionalized political correctness” contributed to the abandonment of hundreds of girls to their tormentors. Imagine something out of the nightmarish world of Stieg Larsson, brought to life and abetted by the muddle-headed cowardice of people who fear the disapproval of the diversity police.
In Rotherham, multiculturalism triumphed over not just feminism, but over the law, over basic human decency, and over civilization itself.
How many more Rotherhams are there?
Not a surprise, but now it’s official:
Conservatives have had difficulty choosing a champion in the presidential race in part because it has featured so many candidates with very good claims on our support. As their number has dwindled, the right choice has become clear: Senator Ted Cruz of Texas.
We supported Cruz’s campaign in 2012 because we saw in him what conservatives nationwide have come to see as well. Cruz is a brilliant and articulate exponent of our views on the full spectrum of issues. Other Republicans say we should protect the Constitution. Cruz has actually done it; indeed, it has been the animating passion of his career. He is a strong believer in the liberating power of free markets, including free trade (notwithstanding the usual rhetorical hedges). His skepticism about “comprehensive immigration reform” is leading him to a realism about the impact of immigration that has been missing from our policymaking and debate. He favors a foreign policy based on a hard-headed assessment of American interests, one that seeks to strengthen our power but is mindful of its limits. He forthrightly defends religious liberty, the right to life of unborn children, and the role of marriage in connecting children to their parents — causes that reduce too many other Republicans to mumbling.
That forthrightness is worth emphasizing. Conservatism should not be merely combative; but especially in our political culture, it must be willing to be controversial. Too many Republicans shrink from this implication of our creed. Not Cruz. And this virtue is connected to others that primary voters should keep in mind. Conservatives need not worry that Cruz will be tripped up by an interview question, or answer it with mindless conventional wisdom when a better answer is available. We need rarely worry, either, that his stumbling words will have to be recast by aides and supporters later. Neither of those things could be said about a lot of Republican nominees over the years.
Not sure it moves the needle much, since National Review has made its preference for Cruz over Donald Trump clear over the last year, but maybe it will help some of Marco Rubio’s wavering backers push him more strongly to get out of the race.
Here in Texas it’s rained every day this week, resulting in flooding along the Sabine. Try to stay dry and enjoy this complimentary Friday LinkSwarm:
Europe’s population of pensioners, already the largest in the world, continues to grow. Looking at Europeans 65 or older who aren’t working, there are 42 for every 100 workers, and this will rise to 65 per 100 by 2060, the European Union’s data agency says. By comparison, the U.S. has 24 nonworking people 65 or over per 100 workers, says the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which doesn’t have a projection for 2060.
Also this:
The global decline of the blue model stands to inflict even more pain on Europe than on the United States. Europeans are worse at making babies than the United States, worse at integrating immigrants, worse at saving money to pay boomer retirement bills—but no worse at making promises to voters that they will be unable to keep.
(Hat tip: Pension Tsunami.)
Busy working on other stuff, so consider this an “instead of a real update” update: