Bernie Sanders said that “he plans to head to the Democratic National Convention to continue fighting for a progressive party platform this July,” CBS News reports
“But he didn’t say in his carefully crafted statement that he’s still fighting for the Democratic nomination.”
“I’m going to be taking a lot of what Bernie Sanders says and using it… he’s got a lot of good material.”
— Donald Trump, quoted by Bloomberg.
A new Reuters/Ipsos poll finds that more than half of American voters believe that the system the political parties use to pick their candidates for the White House is “rigged” and more than two-thirds want to see the process changed.
“The results echo complaints from Republican front-runner Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Bernie Sanders that the system is stacked against them in favor of candidates with close ties to their parties – a critique that has triggered a nationwide debate over whether the process is fair.”
Dan Balz: “But there is more at work than just counting numbers. When Trump broke the 60 percent barrier in the popular vote in New York, it forced many Republicans to take notice and begin to acknowledge, if grudgingly, that he seemed more likely than before to prevail. That feeling could gather force on the basis of his powerful showing Tuesday night, when in state after state he rolled up huge margins.”
“Beyond his victories, there was evidence in the exit polls to suggest that the will among rank-and-file Republicans to stop a Trump nomination, even if he falls a bit short of 1,237 at the end of the primary race, might not be as strong as Cruz, Kasich and the GOP establishment would like to see.”
Donald Trump “is essentially two key states from the nomination,” according to Nate Cohn.
“By sweeping five states on Tuesday, he pulled only a few hundred Republican delegates short of the 1,237 he needs to win without a contested convention.”
“He has long been favored in the polls in two of the remaining primary states, New Jersey and West Virginia. That leaves Indiana and California as the crucial prizes that would put Mr. Trump over the top — and while he was once thought to be vulnerable in both states, polls have shown him with a modest lead.”
Nate Silver: It’s Trump’s nomination to lose
National Review: “The Indiana governor may not have been abducted, but he’s certainly missing in action on the central question facing the Republican party: Are you with Trump, or against him?”
“Pence is hardly alone on the sidelines, of course. But the crowd of wet-fingered politicians trying to determine which way the wind is blowing doesn’t matter. Pence does. If Donald Trump loses the May 3 Indiana primary, it is all but certain he will fall short of the 1,237 delegates necessary to win the nomination on the first ballot. Indiana is now the Gates of Vienna for stopping the Trumpian takeover of the GOP.”
“In the wake of her victories in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Connecticut and Delaware, some of Hillary Clinton’s top operatives are ready for Bernie Sanders to call it quits. But Clinton’s own refusal to give up in 2008, even after she had no real path forward, remains an obstacle to ramping up that pressure,” Politico reports.
“Indeed, some veterans of Clinton’s 2008 campaign are urging empathy and space for Sanders, emphasizing that the decision to slog on is not about having a viable path forward — it’s about feeling that you’ve gone as far as you can go.”
Politico: “The frugal Manhattan mogul has begun opening his wallet for the air war, spending more than $900,000 on TV and radio ads. He’s working the inside game, wooing Gov. Mike Pence one-on-one in what multiple Indiana insiders said appears to have been a successful effort to keep the governor on the endorsement sidelines. And Trump’s new campaign strategist Paul Manafort has been telling Republican officials, multiple people told POLITICO, that Trump is in the midst of doubling the ground team there, with plans to balloon his in-state operation to 40 people.”
“The sudden infusion of operatives, cash and attention is a sign of Indiana’s fulcrum position in the Republican primary fight. Trump can’t win the nomination there. But it’s where he could lose it.”
Byron York: “What was once furious Republican opposition to Donald Trump’s proposal to temporarily ban foreign Muslims from entering the U.S. has turned to virtual silence in the face of widespread GOP voter approval.”
“Exit polls from the nation’s biggest Republican primaries show impressive majority support for Trump’s proposal. In the latest example, in Pennsylvania Tuesday, 69 percent of GOP voters said they support ‘temporarily banning Muslims who are not U.S. citizens from entering the U.S.’ In New York last week, the number was 68 percent.”
Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), “a seven-term congressman who has risen rapidly through the ranks of the Democratic leadership in Washington, won the party’s nomination for Maryland’s open Senate seat Tuesday,” the Baltimore Sun reports.
“The son of a Baltimore family, Van Hollen ran as a pragmatic deal maker in a time of polarized politics. Though he was supported by many establishment figures — and raised significantly more money than any other candidate — he faced tough opposition from Rep. Donna F. Edwards, who represents a neighboring congressional district in the Washington suburbs.”
Donald Trump won in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Rhode Island and Connecticut.
Hillary Clinton won in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Delaware. Bernie Sanders won in Rhode Island.
Sen. Bernie Sanders and his campaign advisers “plan to reassess where his candidacy stands after five states vote on Tuesday, though he is adamant that he will remain in the race until the Democratic convention this summer,” the New York Times reports.
“As Mr. Sanders spent the morning happily greeting voters across Philadelphia, his senior campaign strategist said the senator understood the challenges ahead and would talk with his staff on Wednesday to decide how his bid will continue.”
“Donald Trump will never change. The motto of the campaign has been and continues to be: Let Mr. Trump be Mr. Trump.”
— Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, quoted by Politico.
“A New York judge decided Tuesday that a fraud case against Donald Trump over his former school for real estate investors will go to trial – raising the possibility that the Republican presidential primary front-runner could testify during campaign season,” Fox News reports.
“Suggesting that Bernie Sanders has been treated unfairly by the Democratic Party, Donald Trump on Tuesday said that the Vermont senator should abandon his run for the Democratic nomination and instead seek an independent path to the White House,” Politico reports.
Said Trump: “Bernie Sanders has been treated terribly by the Democrats — both with delegates and otherwise. He should show them, and run as an Independent!”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Wonk Wire, Political Job Hunt and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
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