REPUBLICAN

    verses    DEMOCRATIC CONVENTIONS

Arizona was the prize of the day for both Democrat & Republican front runners and the results there were much as had been predicted, but nevertheless significant. Democrat Hillary Clinton has walked well over only rival Bernie Sanders, who needed a stronger showing in this State really to launch an effective comeback from his previous setbacks – but it wasn’t to be, was it? [No, Clinton took  41 delegates and Saunders 26 delegates].

Similarly, on the Republican side Donald Trump justified his poll lead, as his anti-immigration platform resounded well with their conservative voters, to give him a substantial triumph over his nearest rival Ted Cruz, and with increasingly third-rate no-hoper John Kasich well off track to make any headway in his own desperately needed comeback. So Trump marches ‘slowly’ forward to his goal of locking up his nomination. [Trump secured all 58 delegates as this was a winner-takes-all vote, and the other hopefuls saw no return for the extensive time, energy, and money squandering, eh?].

However, nothing is simple or that cut & dried in politics is it? No not really, because at the same time, over in Utah the voters were delivering a totally different message to all the candidates, weren’t they? In a bizarre role reversal set of results, Democrat Sanders trounced Clinton, while Republican Cruz completely destroyed Trump, who was further humiliated by some most enthusiastic voters by being pushed into a derisory third place behind even Kasich. While Trump will doubtless will shrug-off this significant drubbing, notwithstanding that, it will badly dent his fake ‘always a winner’ claims, having also already been beaten in Ohio (by Kasich that time). [Here Clinton gets 5 delegates to Sanders’ 24 delegates, while Cruz gathers in all the 40 Republican delegates as he got well more than half the cast votes to achieve that prize].

Across in Idaho, it was again Sanders who won the Democrat caucus – by an astounding margin leaving Clinton well in his wake and he took the lion’s share of spoils, while in the Republican primary Cruz got one over on Trump ‘yet again’ albeit by a bit smaller margin, but still taking the bulk of delegates [Democrats Clinton 5 delegates, Sanders 18 delegates: Republicans Cruz 20 delegates, Trump 12 delegates].

So where does this all leave us in determining who is going forward to contest the Presidency of the United States? Well, not with clear winners yet that is to be sure, but with some further pointers, don’t you think?

For the DEMOCRATS, Clinton must remain favourite though is not yet in clear water, while Sanders having won two out of three yesterday has shown that he still has momentum and wins States with Democrats predominately white – but is it enough to grant him the eventual crown? Overall on the day Clinton added about fifty delegates to her role call, while Sanders could only manage about fifteen more, so still has much-much catch-up to do, eh?

The charts show that while Clinton only got one win, she just needs to keep picking up delegates each primary, while Sanders needs to widen his appeal if he is going to sprint ahead by beating her in the delegate rich and  winner-takes-all States coming up, doesn’t he?

For the REPUBLICANS, Trump only got one win out of three, nevertheless remains in the frontrunner spot, but he is a long shot off being the ‘unbeatable’ candidate that we had been increasingly told about, don’t you think? Overall Trump added about sixty delegates to his tally, while Cruz grabbed only half a dozen more than that, so still is still trailing behind, but not out of sight yet, eh?

As the above shows, if the Republican establishment want to see-off Trump and achieve Cruz’s stated ambition of him being defeated  before the Convention, then they will have to get behind a unifying candidate [John Q. Public in the chart] and that does now looks to be Cruz, surely?  In light of yesterday’s results it shouldn’t be impossible to persuade Kasich to stand aside, should it?

–ooOoo–

[The World is clearly very much paying attention to who just might be the next US President. Britain has particular concerns as well, because it has had a long-term predominantly close relationship with America

            The President of the United States