Donald Trump wins the Mississippi and Michigan primaries
It is shaping up to be a good night for Donald Trump: he is already projected to win both the Mississippi and Michigan primaries. What makes this news even better for the billionaire businessman is that as I write this John Kasich is edging out Ted Cruz for second place in Michigan. John Kasich will use his better than expected shoeing in Michigan as justification for staying in the race despite his poor showing in Mississippi and this will help split the anti-Trump vote.
Meanwhile Marco Rubio is in fourth place in both states and it is pretty clear the primary voters want nothing to do with the Senator from Florida. If this holds up there is no way he can any longer spin these losses as victories, at some point he is going to have to do the right thing and drop out. If he is smart he will do it before he gets embarrassed in his home state.
We still have two more contests which will end later tonight so at this point we do not know how complete Donald Trump’s victory will be but if he wins all four contests and then defeats Marco Rubio in Florida this race will be just about over.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
Michael Bloomberg, according to several reports, was seriously considering a third-party run for President but today he has officially announced that he will not be running. Here is more:
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced on Monday that he will not mount a presidential run this year, saying he doesn’t want to pave the way for Donald Trump or Ted Cruz to win the White House.
Bloomberg’s decision to back away from an independent bid is a relief for Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, who could have seen support bleed over to Bloomberg in a three-way race.
In an editorial he posted on Monday, Bloomberg said that if he had run, it was unlikely that any candidate would win a majority of electoral votes and that the responsibility of choosing the next president would be kicked to Congress.
“As the race stands now, with Republicans in charge of both Houses, there is a good chance that my candidacy could lead to the election of Donald Trump or Senator Ted Cruz. That is not a risk I can take in good conscience,” Bloomberg said.
Some of Marco Rubio’s campaign advisers are urging him to drop out of the race before Florida
It is pretty clear that Marco Rubio does not have a path to win the Republican nomination and that this is now a two person race between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. Obviously Marco Rubio wants to hold on until his home state of Florida votes in the hope that a big victory there will jump start his floundering campaign.
However it is now being reported in this story that some of Marco Rubio’s campaign advisers are urging him to drop out of the race before Florida votes. Here is more:
A battle is being waged within Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s campaign about whether he should even remain in the Republican presidential race ahead of his home state primary on March 15, sources say.
Rubio himself is “bullish” on his odds of winning the critical primary, despite some advisers who are less hopeful and believe a loss there would damage him politically in both the short- and long-term.
Publicly, the campaign is maintaining they are still a contender in this race, touting a Sunday win in Puerto Rico’s primary that delivered Rubio 23 delegates. But privately, the campaign is having a debate about whether he should remain in the mix — even for his home state of Florida’s primary.
“He doesn’t want to get killed in his home state,” one source familiar with the discussions said, noting “a poor showing would be a risk and hurt his political future.”
some advisers are warning that if Rubio does poorly in his home state, it could not only hurt his presidential campaign but also his future politically, including a potential gubernatorial run in 2018 or chance to be on the ticket as a vice presidential candidate.
Marco Rubio wins the Puerto Rico primary
While Puerto Rico residents are not allowed to vote in the general election both parties allow them to vote in the primaries, and the Republican primary was held today. Marco Rubio needed a little good news after his disastrous performance on Super Saturday and he got it today in the form of a landslide victory in Puerto Rico.
Here is more:
With 44 percent of precincts reporting, Rubio was at 71 percent, well ahead of Donald Trump, who was a distant second with just 12 percent.
Rubio was the only candidate to visit the U.S. territory, holding a rally in a San Juan suburb on Saturday. The Florida senator also secured endorsements from the territory’s three RNC committee members, Republican chairwoman Jenniffer González Colón, committeewoman Zori Fonalledas, and former Gov. Luis Fortuño.
Sunday, March 6th open thread: ‘People Who Died’
Here is the open thread for Sunday, March 6th. Please feel free to post links to interesting articles and to discuss whatever issues arise during the course of the day. Nothing is off-topic here.
Last week we covered 12 stories, did you miss any of them? If so there is an easy way to make sure it does not happen again. I understand that all of you are busy and cannot always find the time to check the blog for updates so why not subscribe to America’s Watchtower and receive email updates whenever I write a new post? That is the easiest way to follow the blog to ensure you never miss another post.
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My most popular post of all time is a list I posted back in 2007 about all of the suspicious deaths surrounding the Clinton’s. Hardly a day goes by when this post is not read and with the election season upon us it has been either the most popular post of the day or within the top three for a few weeks now. However in the last three days this post has taken off at a remarkable pace (at least for America’s Watchtower) and it has been due to being shared on Facebook. I think this serves as a great reminder what a powerful tool social media can be when it comes to spreading our message and I think we micro-bloggers could help each other out immensely if we make an effort to share each other’s posts on Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, and the like. You never know when it will lead to a post taking off.
The popularity of this post reminded me of a song by the Jim Carrol Band called “People Who Died” and so I thought I would share it with you today, it seems fitting. It is a little but morbid but here goes:
“Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died”
frui diem
Ted Cruz has guaranteed at least a split in today’s contests; the Senator from Texas won Kansas earlier today by a wide margin and now he has won the state of Maine by a margin of about 46-33%. Donald Trump looks to be rebounding as I write this. As of right now it looks as if the billionaire businessman will win Kentucky. With 32% of the votes counted he is holding onto a 12 point lead and this has been consistent all night so I don’t see much changing there.
The polls in Louisiana have just closed and Donald Trump has jumped out with a big lead, it is way too early to predict a winner but Donald Trump is looking good early on. Speaking of looking good, or should I say not so good, Marco Rubio had a very poor performance in Maine coming off of his third place finish in Kansas–he finished behind John Kasich with 8% of the vote.
Update: Politico has just called Louisiana for Donald Trump.
It is pretty clear that at this point John Kasich and Marco Rubio no longer have any reason to be in this race because there is no path forward for either of them to win the nomination–unless their goal is to play the spoiler…
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
Ted Cruz wins the Kansas caucuses
Both Politico and CNN are projecting the winner of the Kansas caucuses to be Ted Cruz. With about 50% of the votes counted it is possible the numbers could change slightly but they have been remaining consistent all afternoon long. It looks as if Ted Cruz will win right around 50% of the vote with Donald Trump coming in somewhere around half that number.
Marco Rubio, in what I am sure he is going to claim is a victory, is coming in a distant third place followed by John Kasich. Both of these two should see the writing on the wall however I expect both will stay in the race until they have a chance to compete in their home states. That is unless polling shows an embarrassment could be brewing for them in their home states…
With three more contests being decided tonight it will be interesting to see if Ted Cruz is gaining momentum or if his victory will be short-lived.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
According to this story the FBI is now investigating the possibility that Hillary Clinton shared her email password with her aides–needless to say this is a big no-no.
Here is more:
The FBI is investigating whether computer passwords were shared among Hillary Clinton’s close aides to determine how sensitive intelligence “jumped the gap” between the classified systems and Clinton’s unsecured personal server, according to an intelligence source familiar with the probe.
The source emphasized to Fox News that “if [Clinton] was allowing other people to use her passwords, that is a big problem.” The Foreign Service Officers Manual prohibits the sharing of passwords.
Fox News was told there are several potential scenarios for how classified information got onto Clinton’s server:
- Reading intelligence reports or briefings, and then summarizing the findings in emails sent on Clinton’s unsecured personal server.
- Accessing the classified intelligence computer network, and then lifting sections by typing them verbatim into a device such as an iPad or BlackBerry.
- Taking pictures of a computer screen to capture the intelligence.
- Using a thumb drive or disk to physically move the intelligence, but this would require access to a data center. It’s unclear whether Clinton’s former IT specialist Bryan Pagliano, who as first reported by The Washington Post has reached an immunity deal with the Justice Department, or others had sufficient administrator privileges to physically transfer data.
Most of these scenarios would require a password. And all of these practices would be strictly prohibited under non-disclosure agreements signed by Clinton and others, and federal law.
Now that the man who set up and maintained the former Secretary of State’s email server, Bryan Pagliano, has brokered a deal with the Justice Department for immunity in return for his testimony, and with the possibility of the scandal swirling around Hillary Clinton’s aides, I would expect more people to start asking for immunity. Hopefully this is the beginning of the end.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
Is Mitt Romney preparing a convention coup to wrestle the nomination from Donald Trump?
Earlier today Mitt Romney gave a blistering anti-Trump speech in which he, of all people, called Donald Trump a phony. He also talked about how in the upcoming primaries the voters in the individual states should vote for the candidate most likely to defeat the billionaire businessman in that particular state. In typical Mitt Romney fashion rather than taking a stand and endorsing a single candidate he said he would vote for different candidates in different states in order to stop Donald Trump from winning the required delegates to win the nomination.
I have to say I found this speech to be baffling to me in regards to why this two-time loser decided to enter the fray because it seemed to me as if he had nothing to gain by taking on Donald Trump. But now it is starting to become a little clearer if this story is true. Apparently Mitt Romney has not given up on his Presidential aspirations and is looking to wrestle the nomination away from Donald Trump at a brokered convention.
Here is more:
Here is the latest Firewall video from Bill Whittle entitled “The Most Shameful Injustice.” In this video he talks about “the Detroit model” of a failed city and how it is sadly spreading to other cities. I think you guys will enjoy this one.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
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