THE DAY AFTER: TRUMP, HILLARY WIN BIG; NOVEMBER SHOWDOWN ALL BUT CERTAIN
BY DAN VALENTI
PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY
(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 2016) — Ta-Da! Today is THE PLANET‘s 1,400th column since Oct. 1, 2010.
You say you were beating up a convict who was trying to date your daughter and as a result missed what happened on Super Tuesday? Fear not. THE PLANET is here. The texting version is this: Donald and Hillary, on to November. That’s 34 characters. The 110 remaining won’t be needed, thanks.
True, Trump and Clinton didn’t sweep in the 13 states voting or caucusing yesterday, but they might as well have done it. Trump took Massachusetts, an “inevitability” that only months ago would have earned a palm d’or with oak leaf clusters for preposterousness. THE PLANET told you so then, but since we’re not the “We told you so” type, we won’t rub it in that we told you so.
Here are some things we can glean from yesterday.
- Trump and Clinton are now all but locks on their respective nominations. Sanders, Rubio, and Cruz are still alive but unwell. They have seen the front runners reduce their magic numbers to veritable single digits. They are still mathematically alive, which is another way of saying that barring an act of God or an assassin’s handiwork, we have the November showdown set.
- There are paths for both Sanders and Rubio/Cruz to win the nomination, but with each passing day, those paths become more overgrown and less worn for the wear. Sanders faces even longer odds than Rubio because, unlike Marco, he doesn’t have the Party Establishment, i.e. the Bosses, behind him. Rubio’s best shot is to win as many delegates as he can heading into convention and survive a first ballot. If there’s no nominee after the first ballot, technically delegates are released and the back-room deals can begin. Even at that, however, we’re talking long odds. There can’t be a “brokered” convention for the GOP as there are no “brokers.” Trump’s running on his own dime, and he can’t be bought.
- Trump has had an energizing effect on turnout. According to NPR, Republican turnout is up dramatically from 2012. On the other hand, turnout on the Democrats’ side is down. To a lesser extent, Sanders has gotten more young people to vote for the first time, although that comes with a footnote. If and when Bernie bows out, experience shows that those youngsters will drop out with him.
- Are Bernie’s Battalions feeling the Burnout? Signs of desperation abound. For example, on Facebook last night, councilor and Big Bernie Backer and our Right Honorable Good Friend John Krol announced that The Bern won … in Pittsfield Ward 1B, 223 to 218. This means if he finishes no worse than a 3-vote loss in 1B, Bern would replace Lisa Tully as the new Ward 1 councilor. That’s a thought worth pondering, now ain’t it?
- Incomplete returns showed Trump taking Massachusetts (“Don’t blame me. I voted for McGovern”), Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Alabama, and Georgia. He was leading in Vermont. Cruz won Texas (his home state) and Oklahoma. Rubio was leading in Minnesota. Hillary took Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, and Virginia. She was leading in the Bay State. Sanders won Oklahoma and Vermont (homie), with leads in Minnesota and Colorado.
- Cruz, with his two wins, repeated his line that “our campaign is the only campaign that has beaten, that can beat, and that will beat Donald Trump.” Forgive his jump to future tense. The guy is plain bat-shit on the looney side of the evangelical Christian right fringe.
- Rubio, in failing to take Virginia, now has one hope: Stay alive until Florida, his home state, and hope against hope there that a big win there provides a rationale for continuing. Florida is Rubio’s Rubicon.
- Cruz threw a “Hail Mary” pass at the aptly named Redneck Country Club in Stafford, Texas. Yes, that is the name of the joint: the Redneck Country Club. Cruz called for “the candidates who have not won a state, who have not racked up significant delegates, I ask you to prayerfully consider our coming together, uniting.” In other words, Cruz asked Ben Carson, Rubio, and John Kasich to drop out of the race. Prayer has nothing to do with it, big guy.
There’s a lot of politicking to be done between now and the national conventions. God help us. Sure as heck, none of the candidates will.
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“I am not unmindful that some of you have come out here out of excessive trials and tribulations.” — Martin Luther King, from his “I Have a Dream” speech, (1963).
“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”
LOVE TO ALL.
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Dan what are your thoughts on Hillary? Please give us your thoughts on Hillary as President. I think she would be a nightmare. A repeat of the Obama presidency. She can’t be trusted to tell the truth. The locals who support her do so because she is a Democrat and for many in the area she represents their job security if she is elected.
I remain a loyal supporter of Ted Cruz. I like his idea of abolishing the IRS. I like his ideas on Planned Parenthood, religious freedom and protecting the 2nd Amendment.
So if Ted Cruz abolished the IRS (which is impossible since it is part of the Treasury Dept. a cabinet level department), how would you collect taxes? You’d simply need to start a new bureaucracy. Wouldn’t it be smarter just to fix the one that exists?
Government collects taxes regardless of how odious we think they are. For mall that we all hate the IRS, I would say 99% of us have zero dealings with them in our lifetime other than to file our tax returns. The complexity of the tax code is a problem resting squarely on the Congress. If they did not pass laws with so many exemptions, exclusions, and preferences – the original tax code of 1913 would suffice for us all.
Trump 234 delegates, Cruz 199. Hillary is a crook, plain & simple. The only reason she isn’t in prison is because Obama is in office and she is the “best” candidate the Dems can put in the horse race.
Please tell me why Chris Christie stood directly to the side of Trump during Trump’s speech last nite – hopefully he is not going to be Trump’s running mate?? I realize he endorsed The Donald but just wondering why his mug was in the camera for the whole speech!
Trump 316 Cruz 226
Thanks Joe for the update. Watching Fox News – you’d think that RobotRubio was the winner! Geez they love that guy! He’s the Republican “chosen one” but has only won one state.
Scott Brown for VP
Brown would be an excellent choice for Trump as Veep but he might want to go with a state that has more electoral votes. The votes in Mass. are not in play. They go lock step to the Dem Hillary. It won’t be Bernie although I am hoping it might still be.
Need to pick west coast or southern running mate.
“We don’t need to make America great again,
We need to make it a Hole”.
– Hitlery Clinton
I did not realize that party delegates during this 2016 presidential campaign are skewed and that a vote in one state is not equal to one vote in another. States are awarded bonus delegates based on criteria like their current elected officials, when they hold their elections, how close they are to ‘bordering’ states that hold the elections in the same time period, and which party controls the state legislature. If I was a Republican in California I would be miffed that my vote wasn’t as equal in the nomination process as a vote in Texas, Georgia, or North Carolina.
I was thinking that too, shh. Some states are winner takes all.Other award delegates proportionately. Then there’s the superdelgates. They go to whoever the party bigwigs decide. Some states caucus which doesn’t even include a popular vote. It’s a screwed up nominating process that produces poor candidates.
Gov. Christie fits in better than you think. He calls them as he sees them. He doesn’t kiss the establishment butt.
I love watching the rank and file piss their pants!
Christie is toxic. They are talking about recalling him to get him out of New Jersey. He is as self serving as a political can get. And he and Trump would not get along.
right the room is not big enough for both egos – and Christie would certainly have the advantage of being able to suck all the oxygen out of any room you put the two of them in.
A VP running with Trump needs thick skin and a small ego. Hard to find in the political class. Maybe another businessman would fill the bill.
Is he allowed to pick one of his kids?? He could get both the men and woman vote if he chooses his daughter as his running mate. And she is a lot classier than he is.
The H-Beast:
three-faced, deceitful, wicked, immoral ,vindictive, godless atheistic, wholly lacking conscience, covetous, felonious, cruel and vicious. And some fool was dumb enough to breed with her…………..
I’ll pray to God you don’t get what you’ve voted for Massachusetts.
Chriistie is a RINO of the worst sort and why voters are disgusted with RNC establishment.
In his endorsing Trump ,I see a big fat rat jumping off, because he ain’t going to swim, and the people on shore have no use for him
Now on to something local. I was told that kids in the middle (and maybe the high) schools do not get issued text books in every class. This started a few years back as a cost saving measure – the parent who told me this was complaining about how hard it was to help her kids with their home work, since she has no text book to use as a reference.
Since I have no kids in the system at the moment – I would not know, so I am asking the great crowd who between all the posters, someone has kids in the system: is this true?
Gee I thought they bought all they kids laptops a few years ago. But ya know they have a tight budget over there with the administration sucking up the real money.
and by the way…what the hell makes you think it is all about the kids anyway? If you were to ask some of them Mercer building folk they would probably say…… “What kids? There are kids involved?”
I think the laptops are a thing of the past.
True. Way too many of the $$$ go to admininstation and huge staff and teacher raises.
Hardly anything goes into the classroom. Part of the racket DV writes so eloquently about
It varies. Some classes (PHS) have enough books to issues, some do not. Teachers sometimes post to their web pages or Google classroom.
Laptops are not issued in high school, only iPads if you are in an AP level class.
so let me see if I get this: we do not have enough money to equip each child with either a tablet, kindle or laptop OR a textbook – but we have 10 or 12 Deputy Superintendents or other folks without that title but with pay pushing $100K per year?
and everybody just got raises…..what does that tell you about Mc Candless priorities?
that he’s out to skin us alive and not rock the boat. He gets his $200 Big Ones.
Southeast, are there more than one person posting with this name? Your posts vary between very good and very dumb. This one is good.
nope – I’m it. I vary between smart and dumb many days 🙂
Off topic but Pittsfield water $ Sewer bills are due soon. Once again they City will be picking our pockets so I glad that we have the war system we have. The rates could be higher if former mayor Smith didn’t pick who he picked to build our plants.
And soon, very soon I would imagine, there is going to be a new gasoline tax to fix the local roads.. Mainly because people like Ruberto spent all the road money on other stuff. He just ignored the roads for 8 years.
I’, not certain of that Donna. Lenox has the wizard’s system and their rates are 6X what Pittsfield’s are. Lee’s are about 5X what Pittsfield’s are and they don’t have his system. I think the water rates in Pittsfield are pretty reasonable – and they will remain so no matter whose sewer treatment we choose to meet the Federal standards.
Lenox has *Krofta’s* system. Gaetani has none.
if one system costs 10 million and another costs 90 million you don’t think there will be a difference in cost to the taxpayer? Are you using voodoo math or common core math?
I doubt that there is really an $80 million difference. With today’s public bidding laws, prevailing wage rates, and the liability placed on the designer – I would doubt if there would be a 5% difference. That said, any money saved is money saved – but then there are operating costs to consider and the availability of tech support over the next 20+ years.
The water and sewer revenues go into enterprise funds that should be dedicated to operating, upgrading, maintaining, and expanded the system as needed. Communities can’t just take those revenues and apply them somewhere else.
could they go to overtime pay for certain individuals who might be let go because they never really worked the overtime and then get a new job in another town?
Johnny, that could never happen in Pittsfield.
No but they can use the funds to create unneeded hack jobs within the water/sewer works among other games
An example of a unneeded worker is Collingwood. He is just an impediment to those working in the water/sewer department but no-one has the courage to fire him so his 87K plus babies has to come from somewhere
benefits not babies
I am sure there are salaries from the operators to the billing personnel and the administration that are covered or prorated against their functions in the system, or at least it should be.
Exactly Donna, it’s almost gotten to the point of being contrite to the fact Mr. G did this with no fanfare back in the day. What would been the cost had we not have had his implementation?
Gaetani’s a semi retired millionaire who works for free on his time off, for unfortunate citizens paying the freight for the GOB SIG. What don’t you understand about millions in savings to the citizens of Pittsfield, it’s not a pipe dream?
If he had millions he probably should have hired some help for his political aspirations.
Or gone to the Riviera as promised.
the wizard reminds me of the old saying….”how can we miss you if you won’t leave”
Half of these posters on the planet are just obtuse soon throwers
stone not soon
No, I am supremely confident that even if he had a message worth hearing his “campaign” was so inept that he now has zero cred as a competent manager.
Zilch
Nada
Am I the only one sick of hearing about Gaetani? What the hell, give us a break.
Sick oh hearing about him but yo love to bring up his name
I’m sick of hearing about my taxes going up every year and I sick of thugs shooting each other in my city
I love Mr. G! And thank him for being my watchdog!
Think about it, dirty polluted water everywhere,but Pittsfield,with it’s filthy polluted river over the years we can pretty much say the water is delicious and safe. The water has never been an issue since the Sandfloat.
Because Pittsfield’s water supply is not in Pittsfield? DUH
Dick, heard you were on the NoclueLewLothroShow? Talk about a drag. When you have a show for call in folks, have the system checked before you take calls.