GOP and Democrat Primaries: Its Not About the Wins and Losses, Its About the Delegates

ITS ALL ABOUT THE DELEGATES …

Don’t let the pundits spin you with wins and losses, especially during the early primaries that are not winner take all. Below is a “Viewer’s Guide: After Super Tuesday, Cold Hard Delegate Math.”  The state primaries have some of the most convoluted mathematical calculations to determine the allocation of delegates, it makes ones head hurt. The delegate numbers will still change after the Super Tuesday ones are allocated to see whether candidates met certain thresholds. For example, Marco Rubio did not have a bad night because he only won one state last night in Minnesota, he had a bad night because he failed to meet the the delegate threshold in a couple of delegate rich states, like Texas. The Politico has 5 takes aways. Take them for what they are worth.

But with the Democrats its not just about the delegates, its about the “Super Delegates” that have unfairly stacked the deck against Bernie Sanders.

Presidential candidates will wake up Wednesday morning to the cold, hard truth of delegate math. It might give the front-runners some breathing room, but for the rest of the field, the truth may hurt.

What to watch for on the day after Super Tuesday doles out a quarter of all the delegates at stake in the GOP and Democratic nominating contests:

THE TALLY: With 12 states awarding delegates, see how the delegate totals stack up when the dust settles.

With some delegates still to be allocated, Donald Trump had won at least 192 Super Tuesday delegates and Ted Cruz at least 132. Marco Rubio had won at least 66 delegates, John Kasich 19 and Ben Carson three. There were 595 GOP delegates at stake in 11 states.

Overall, Trump led with 274 delegates, Cruz 149, Rubio 82. It takes 1,237 delegates to win the Republican nomination for president.

On the Democratic side, Clinton was assured of winning at least 457 of the 865 delegates at stake on Super Tuesday. Sanders was sure to get at least 286. Including superdelegates, Clinton had at least 1,005 delegates. Sanders had at least 373. It takes 2,383 Democratic delegates to win.

Jesse LeRoy Matthew Jr. Expected to Enter Pleas Resolving the Hannah Graham & Morgan Harrington Cases on Wednesday

WHY ACCEPT THE PLEA, SORRY … FRY THE SOB!!!

Jesse LeRoy Matthew Jr. is expected today to enter a plea deal that will once and for all put an end to the heinous murder cases of Hannah Graham and Morgan Harrington. The plea is reportedly spare Matthews the death sentence. Why? Honestly, why would anyone want to spare this human POS death? The hearing is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. today. Jesse LeRoy Matthew Jr. has been charged in the abductions and murders of both 18 year old UVA student Hannah Graham and 20 year old VA Tech student Morgan Harrington. Prosecutors had said they planned to seek the death penalty if the Graham case went to trial. Why stop now? Trust me, even the Black Lives Matter crowd would not protest you putting this SOB to death.

Hannah Graham, left – Jesse LeRoy Matthew Jr., rt

Two remarkably similar murder cases that amplified concerns about campus safety are expected to end when a Virginia man enters a plea deal that will spare him a possible death sentence.

Jesse LeRoy Matthew Jr. is expected to enter pleas resolving the Hannah Graham and Morgan Harrington cases Wednesday, according to Albemarle County Commonwealth’s Attorney Robert N. Tracci. The prosecutor did not disclose the terms of the plea agreement ahead of the hearing.

Matthew’s attorney, capital defender Douglas Ramseur, declined to comment.

Morgan Harrington

The former hospital orderly is charged with capital murder in the September 2014 death of 18-year-old University of Virginia student Graham. He also faces a first-degree murder charge in the 2009 death of Harrington, a 20-year-old Virginia Tech student. He already is serving three life prison terms for a sexual assault in northern Virginia.

According to authorities, Graham and Harrington were young women in vulnerable straits when they vanished in Charlottesville five years apart. Harrington disappeared after she stepped out of a U.Va. arena during a Metallica concert and was unable to get back in. Graham, after having dinner and attending parties off campus, was captured on surveillance video walking unsteadily, and sometimes running, past a service station and a restaurant. She texted a friend that she was lost.

SUPER TUESDAY – Democrat Primary: Hillary Clinton May Have Won 7 States … But Socialist Bernie Sanders Won 4 (VT, OK, CO and MN)

Vermont, Oklahoma, Colorado and Minnesota feel the Bern …

Super Tuesday may have been a big night for the presumptive Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton as she swept through many Southern states, but forgive me if I find it remarkable that self-proclaimed socialist Bernie Sanders actually won 4 states. Never would I ever have picked 4 as the number of states Sanders would win. In the end Sanders defeated Clinton in the People Republic of Vermont, no surprise there, in Colorado, Minnesota and to the surprise of many, Oklahoma.

Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton racked up a string of wins across the south on Super Tuesday, as she widened her lead in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination over rival Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Clinton was projected to win in seven states–Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee, Massachusetts, Virginia and Texas, where the largest number of delegates were at stake. The narrow win in Massachusetts was a particular prize as Sanders has run strongly in other New England contests.

In retrospect, I guess we can understand how Sanders won Minnesota, what has become a liberal states, and of course Colorado. Many have suggested that Bernie Sanders could win the Democrat primaries if along with all the other freebies he has promised the electorate, he would also promise free pot for all. Thus, one can now understand why the Rocky Mountain High state felt the “Bern” last night. But the head scratcher has to be Oklahoma. Really?

Following his Super Tuesday victories Sanders stated, “This is not a general election, it’s not winner-take-all. If you get 52 percent or 48 percent, you end up with roughly the same amount of delegates.” He vowed to fight on. That may all sound good, but the Democrat establishment have stacked the cards against Sanders with “Super Delegates” that have all but broke for Hillary Clinton.

Daily Commentary – Wednesday, March 2, 2016 – As I Record This We Don’t Know the Super Tuesday Primary Results Yet

• My question is, will Marco Rubio win any states at? Will Trump come out as the big winner?

UPDATE I: SUPER TUESDAY – Republican Primaries: Donald Trump Projected to Win in Alabama, Georgia, Massachusetts and Tennessee

UPDATE II: SUPER TUESDAY Republican Primary: FOX NEWS Projects Ted Cruz Will Win Texas GOP Primary

UPDATE III: Trump and Clinton Win 7 states, Cruz 3 and Sanders 4.

SUPER TUESDAY Republican Primary: FOX NEWS Projects Ted Cruz Will Win Texas GOP Primary

With 32% of the vote in … FOX News is calling Texas for Sen. Ted Cruz.

Ted Cruz had to win Texas and he did!

Though Mr. Cruz was viewed as the favorite on the Republican side, his campaign was concerned enough about the outcome to spend precious time campaigning here in recent days when it could have been chasing votes across the “Super Tuesday” map.

Still, the victory provided a needed lift to Mr. Cruz’s delegate count, and a powerful argument against the other Republicans chasing Mr. Trump: Mr. Cruz is the one who has actually beaten him — here and in Iowa. Earlier on Tuesday, Mr. Cruz sought to turn up the pressure on Senator Marco Rubio, whose own home state, Florida, votes March 15.

“There is no doubt that any candidate who cannot win his home state has real problems,” Mr. Cruz said.

It would appear that Ted Cruz will win Texas and out-perform the RCP average polling.

UPDATE I: Ted Cruz is projected to pull out two big victories over Donald Trump

Ted Cruz picked up at least two big victories in the Super Tuesday contests, as he was projected to win the Texas and Oklahoma Republican primaries.

Cruz won the Republican presidential primary in his home state of Texas, multiple outlets and television networks projected. Shortly afterward, The Associated Press projected that Cruz would win Oklahoma’s primary.

The senator pulled out the victories over Republican frontrunner Donald Trump, delivering the mogul his most significant setbacks of an otherwise strong night.