High Stakes Tuesday

Rick Klein: “Of all the complicated delegate-math scenarios to ponder, Tuesday’s voting is frustratingly simple for two of the four candidates: win a home game, or go home. John Kasich and Marco Rubio have long since been forced to abandon any realistic shot of getting a majority of convention delegates. Kasich, of course, is still looking for his first victory, anywhere, and Rubio has consistently failed to meet delegate thresholds in big states.”

“It’s a measure of how quickly and completely Donald Trump has taken over as the dominant force in the Republican Party that he can have a middling night when two of his rivals have their home states voting and still be the overwhelming favorite to finish with the most delegates. But wins by Kasich in Ohio and/or Rubio in Florida could bring about one last stand for the so-called establishment wing of the party, perhaps coalesced behind one of those two men. At this point, the only hope for stopping Trump is delaying his path to clinching. It may be that no day of voting from here holds as much promise on that front as this one.”

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