Coming off a major win in South Carolina over the weekend, Hillary Clinton has definitely reversed the momentum in the election and taken it from Bernie. On Super Tuesday, Hillary and Donald Trump won big, as predicted. They both won the same seven states, including Virginia, an important purple state in the General.
Sanders only won four states, including his home state (in my opinion, this doesn’t count. You SHOULD be able to carry your own state, though if you don’t, that’s more significant.)
On the GOP side, Cruz did handily win second place, though it comes to a point when winning #2 isn’t really winning. Texas came through for him, as well as conservative Oklahoma and Alaska, despite former Gov. Sarah Palin’s endorsement for Trump.
Shocking no one, Kasich and Carson failed to win anything. They really need to see the writing on the wall. Marco Rubio finally grasped his first win in this election with Minnesota; but despite his impressive campaign, he is quickly looking as disillusioned as Kasich and Carson.
If nothing else, he needs to do the delegate math. It’s soon not going to be possible. Obviously Rubio will hang in there long enough for Florida’s primary, though he’s not even in first in the polls in the state. It will be a major humiliation if he loses his own state. Even if he were to win Florida, what good does that do? Ok, he’s won two states. It’s meaningless.
Rubio did keep making some interesting statements in network interviews. He kept repeating that Trump is a “con-artist” and also that Trump would “never be the nominee.” Rubio also stated, “We are going to be in this race as long as it takes to ensure that he never gets to 1,237 delegates and we do.” On first blush, they sound like typical campaign promises; of course you are going to say that you are in it until the end, will beat the front-runner, etc…but his wording was suspicious. Rubio is the Republican establishment’s last hope in this election; they know they will not be able to control Cruz or Trump. There have been rumors that the RNC will try to find a loophole, cause a brokered convention or in some way give Rubio the crown.
Let’s look at how the candidates’ speeches came off. Hillary gave another glowing, happy thank you speech for giving her a domination over the night. Bernie’s speech was interesting in comparison to both speeches of the winners’ of the night. He definitely seemed down, while he spoke for 15 minutes, he sensed he was the loser of the day and didn’t try to pretend it was any other way. But he still gave his usual 15 minute speech, thanking his supporters and reiterating his platform. Besides his glum and tired demeanor, the setup of his speech on camera looked fantastic. Instead of a boring, usual stage behind him with a few supporters, Bernie’s campaign knows how to set up for the camera well. He and his wife look like they were on a platform in the middle of a sea of supporters. They were surrounded, and while the camera didn’t pan out much to show the whole crowd, it sounded huge.
By direct comparison, for some reason though Trump can attract massive rallies, he decided to hold a press conference with a subdued Gov. Chris Christie introducing him. Instead of a screaming group of fans, it sounded like there were a few supporters there with mostly press. It sounded extremely awkward and made him look like the loser of the night. Perhaps he thought this would make him look and sound presidential, like he’s already addressing the nation, but it fell flat. Not to mention the mocking the next day of how unhappy and robotic Christie seems at Trump events.
Cruz gave a more energetic and positive victory speech, compared to his last few, to an excited crowd. He stated, as he has before, that his campaign has been the only one to beat Trump (although Rubio does have Minnesota now, but the point still applies) and that he wants any anti-Trump support. He made an appeal to the other candidates to join him, as that’s the only hope to beating Trump at this point. But even that may not be enough.
