The latest primary results have confirmed the momentum
of the frontrunning presidential candidates in both parties.
Hillary Clinton is the “presumptive” Democratic nominee.
Donald Trump is almost his party’s “presumptive” nominee,
but voters in Indiana and in the far west still have a voice in
this contest.
Ted Cruz has selected Carly Fiorina as his running mate in a
last-ditch effort to block a first ballot victory for Mr. Trump.
This is reminiscent of Ronald Reagan’s vice presidential
choice of Richard Schweicker in 1976, although that failed to
stop Gerald Ford’s nomination at the Republican convention
that year.
John Kasich now seems to be in second place in recent voter
choice, but he lags far behind in committed delegates. He
continues to depend on a stalemated first ballot at the GOP
convention in Cleveland, and on his remaining the only GOP
candidate defeating Hillary Clinton in national polling.
There are many calls now for Democrats to rally behind Mrs.
Clinton, and Republicans to rally behind Mr. Trump. Both of
these “presumptive” or “near-presumptive” candidates,
however, have unprecedented “negatives’ in polls of general
public opinion. The burden of persuasion, therefore, rests on
each of them to unify their parties and bring the supporters of
their opponents to their side for the November election.
This is especially true of Mr, Trump, who has no previous
government record and experience.
This election cycle has been the most unpredictable in memory.
Virtually all “conventional wisdom” has been wrong. There are
almost three months until the two national conventions.
When a theme of a campaign year is the unexpected, and there
is so much at stake, surprises can happen at any time.
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Copyright (c) 2016 by Barry Casselman. All rights reserved.
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