REPUBLICAN

    verses    DEMOCRATIC

CONVENTIONS

The Presidential candidate nomination jousting continued yesterday in another five American States and the front runners of the two Parties continued to take the spoils. For the Democrats Hillary Clinton again significantly upstaged her rival Bernie Sanders by securing the biggest tranche of delegates while on the Republican side it was Donald Trump who once more shone through winning everywhere with a clean sweep, despite his upsetting ways.

While Sanders keeps snapping annoyingly at Clinton’s heels, she nevertheless strides forward and as she does so, snatches double the number of delegates that he obtained by his efforts – not only does she have a quarter more ‘pledged’ delegates than him but is further backed-up by having the ‘promised’ support of over ninety percent of the superdelegates (not controlled by voters).

If Sanders and his supporters had the best interests of the Democrat Party at heart he would concede defeat to Clinton now, stop his confrontational attacks on her, and present a united front to the nation – but there is no sign of him doing that, is there? No, it looks as if he is going to try to take it all the way until she wins outright with sufficient pledged delegates in the bag (which still seems likely), or if not fight her at the Convention when he will try to turn her superdelegates. With no realistic chance now of himself getting sufficient delegates in the remaining Primaries and being well adrift in the popular vote , it is difficult to understand Sanders continuing to soldier on, isn’t it?

The one with the bloody nose from the latest Republican Primaries is Ted Cruz, isn’t it? While Trump steamed full ahead to secure well more than half the popular vote and gaining some hundred more delegates in the process, Cruz was left well in his wake and even far behind the third candidate John Kasich when they only picked-up a derisory half dozen extra delegates between them.

While the wheels are far from falling-off Trump’s wagon and he is rolling ahead on the trail to the nomination, he is however still a long way off the finish. The basic fact is that he has secured only half of the available delegates this far, so it remains quite possible that he will end up a bit short of the target – even if by only a dozen or two. Trump is fully aware of that scenario and it gives him sleepless nights, no doubt?

As Trump is still nigh-on three hundred short he needs to get more than half of the remaining five hundred delegates still to be assigned, to be the outright winner – so he is only three quarters of the way home. Isn’t he?

The half hearted pact between Cruz and Kasich to gang together to block Trump from getting the required total delegates during the remaining Primaries, is however unlikely to have any noticeable impact, as only full-blooded ‘tactical voting’ could swing things this late against Trump – even then the big problem is that each of them are actively disliked by the other’s supporters, so potential votes are not necessarily transferable, are they?

In the end if it does come down to a contested Convention it might not be a sound bet on Trump getting the nomination,, however close he gets to the required majority of pledged delegates – and he knows it? That is when the preverbal will hit the fan, as they say. Certainly it would be a fascinating and spectacular gathering for all us outsiders to eyeball, don’t you think?

PRIMARIES still to come:

[DEMOCRAT: -1487 delegates; . May 3 Indiana 92 Delegates, May 7 Guam 12 Delegates, May 10 West Virginia 37 Delegates, May 17 Kentucky 61 Delegates, Oregon 73 Delegates, Jun 4 Virgin Islands Caucus 12 Delegates, Jun 5 Puerto Rico Caucus 67 Delegates Jun 7 California 546 Delegates, Montana 27 Delegates, New Jersey 142 Delegates, New Mexico 43 Delegates, North Dakota Caucus 23 Delegates, South Dakota 25 Delegates, Jun 14 District of Columbia 46 Delegates

REPUBLICAN: 502 delegates;- May 3, Indiana: 57 Delegates(WTA): May 10, Nebraska 36 Delegates West Virginia: 34 Delegates: May 17, Oregon 28 Delegates: May 24, Washington : 44 Delegates: June 7, California 172 Delegates Montana :: 27 Delegates New Jersey: 51 Delegates New Mexico: 24 Delegates South Dakota : 29 Delegates]

–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