THANK YOU Cleveland Police Dept. and partners!!!

During the RNC this week, Cleveland has been crawling with paid protesters hoping to disrupt proceedings, but such efforts have been thus far mostly unsuccessful. Prior to RNC week, and having attended two meetings with presentations from law enforcement, Secret Service, and FBI, I was concerned that Cleveland was still vulnerable. This blog post is to say that no matter what happens tomorrow, Clevelanders owe an enormous thank you to the planning and preparations by Cleveland Police Dept. and its law enforcement partners.

Cleveland Tea Party’s roving photographer, Pat Dooley, took photographs today of many of the LEOs, and spoke for all of us when he thanked them for their service and efforts to keep us safe. You’ll see photographs of local and visiting police, mounted police, highway patrols, and others from Ohio State University, Cleveland Clinic, California, South Carolina, Pittsburgh, Austin TX, Florida, Georgia, Ohio National Guard, and many others. (scroll down for photographs or visit the entire album here.

THANK YOU Cleveland Police Dept. and partners!!!

UPDATE at 8:30pm: Geraldo is on O’Reilly at Fox giving credit to Gov. John Kasich for the successful security plans and measures in Cleveland. Whaaaaa  huuuhhhh??? Kasich had NOTHING to do with this! Kasich couldn’t even see his way clear to come to The Q to welcome the delegates to the Convention on Monday in his own state. It’s the Cleveland Police Dept. and FBI and Secret Service and law enforcement partners that deserve our gratitude.

# # #

The Delegate Math

art credit: www.usnews.com

Ted Cruz just got thrashed in the five primaries yesterday, so today, he’s announced his VP running mate: Carly Fiorino. No surprise there. Cruz SuperPacs funders( Club for Growth, Keep The Promise and Robert Mercer) transferred funds to Carly’s campaign. See here and here. Meanwhile, the pro-Trump blogger Sundance runs the numbers following yesterday’s primary results:

The Delegate Math – Going into last night’s contest Trump was holding 848 delegates (Cruz 559).  There were 175 possible delegates available last night, however 54 are unbound from PA.

Based on preliminary results, it appears Donald Trump has swept every pledged delegate in Maryland [38] (won every congressional district), also Connecticut [28] (won every CD and took more than 50% statewide), Pennsylvania [17] (statewide delegates are awarded winner-take-all) and Delaware [16], along with 11 delegates in Rhode Island.

That’s a net pledged delegate gain of 110.  However, the math gets better because it appears Trump has also won 45 of Pennsylvania’s 54 “unbound” district level delegates (delegates declared for Trump, or declared intent to vote for CD winner).  So the approximate gain in delegates yesterday is around 155.

Add those 155 to the previous 848 and you get 1,003.

The Math Will Move In Direct Proportion To The Ideology – Most of the media totals will not include those unbound delegates from PA regardless of who they declared support toward.  Some media totals may include parts or portions of those unbound delegates – so you can expect to see some significant disparity depending on which media outlet is presenting their version of the data.

EXAMPLE:  CNN has a total for Trump of 988 (LINK) –  The New York Times has 950 (LINK)  – Politico is also using 950 (LINK) – and Green Papers has 956 (LINK).  It appears CNN is using “some” of the unbound PA delegates, and the latter three are not using any.

However, the fact that Donald Trump has resoundingly won every congressional district in Pennsylvania, and the fact Trump won the entire state with 57% of the vote total, gives Team Trump an easy leverage point to advance the argument they are entitled to the support of all 54 unbound Pennsylvania delegates.  Again, it appears 45 of them are already pledged to Trump or have agreed to vote for the CD/State winner.

[See here for the charts and map.]

Conservatively it is fair to say Donald Trump has won, at a minimum, 1,000 delegates as of this moment.

The goal is to reach 1,237.  But again, let’s be conservative and say –Moving Forward– Trump needs another 250 just for safe measure.  250 more delegates will easily put him over the top with wiggle room.

There are 502 delegates remaining in the next six weeks.  Indiana (next Tuesday) is holding 57 of those:

27 are district allocated to the winner in each of the 9 congressional districts.  Whoever wins the most votes in that district will receive all 3 convention delegates.

30 (10 base at-large delegates plus 17 bonus delegates plus 3 RNC delegates) statewide delegates are to be allocated to the presidential contender receiving the greatest number of votes statewide. (link)

Currently Donald Trump is slightly ahead of the polls in Indiana.  Senator Ted Cruz has planted his flag, and with it his entire campaign, on winning Indiana.

Prior to last night’s results, Indiana was a must win for Senator Cruz and the #NeverTrump team.  After last night’s results, Indiana is now an absolute MUST WIN for Senator Cruz.

If Donald Trump wins Indiana, taking most, many, if not all of the 57 delegates, the Cruz/Kasich/#NeverTrump scheme is completely wiped out.

However, IF Trump doesn’t win Indiana, and because of the overwhelming victory last night, not much mathematically changes for Trump.

Cruz’s VP announcement today may change the subject for a few days, but it is unlikely to make a significant difference in the remaining primaries.

# # #

Utah Caucus irregularities

cartoon credit: thepoliticalcarnival.net

Some Cleveland Tea Party patriots will have already seen this report, since it was linked on Drudge today, but it is very disturbing:  

UTAH CAUCUS: First hand insider report - Incompetence, Manipulation, and Ballot Stuffing!!!

Just got back from my caucus... My head is still spinning.

Check in was slow but reasonably controlled. Super-long lines. I've never seen turnout like this.

Got my credentials, but no presidential ballot. They said those would be delivered to our caucus room.

Got to my caucus room. I counted about 120 people there (no idea how many were actually registered and credentialed). 

We elected Precinct Officers, State Delegates, and County Delegates - the typical incompetence and ignorance of the rules you'd expect to see from volunteers, but all went somewhat smooth.

...Then came the Presidential Ballot. 

Someone shows up with a stack of probably 250 ballots. The precinct chair splits them up, and starts handing stacks of them out and tells people "take one and pass it down". 

No checking credentials, IDs, NOTHING.

I'm sitting at the end of a row and people start handing me stacks of extras. I literally had over 50 ballots in my hand. 

We were told to mark our vote and place our ballot in a tin can. They then asked for a volunteer to hold the can. At this point, most people filed out the door. 

I cast ONE vote, then stuck around to see what would happen with the votes. 

About 15 minutes later, with only about 10 or so people milling around, someone walks in the room with an envelopes STUFFED full of "absentee" ballots - some envelopes having 2-5+ ballots. 

I raised a question and said, "isn't there an absentee process already in place? Didn't people have to register for that last week?" and was told "Oh no, this is completely normal". 

As I've mentioned in other threads, I was in Party leadership for 6 years and no, this is absolutely not normal.

I then asked if I could observe the vote count, and I was told my observations were not needed and to leave the area while the ballots were being counted. 

I left the room (things were already a complete Charlie Foxtrot at this point) and wandered over to my friends precinct caucus to see if it was just as much a cluster. 

His caucus was just getting to the presidential ballot, and as I walked in the door I was handed ANOTHER BALLOT. 

Again, no credential check, no ID check, NOTHING.

No, I didn't vote again... 

I went back to my precinct and they had the results: 

   74% Cruz

   14% Trump

   11% Kasich

Now just imagine this kind of outright incompetence/manipulation happening in 2000 precincts across the state.

As I left the building, I started overhearing results coming back from other precincts... Overwhelmingly numbers for Cruz... Like 70-90% or more. (In one precinct Cruz got around 100, Trump had 2, Kasich 0).

Bottom line... They basically are going to post whatever the hell numbers they want. 

There were no apparent controls, no credential checks, no ID checks, and ballots being handed around like napkins. 

UTAH RESULTS ARE A COMPLETE SHAM.

 # # #

No moderator, only a timekeeper.

Cartoon credit: cagle.com

Television date: The next GOP primary debate is tomorrow, Feb. 13 starting at 9pm, live on CBS, that’s Channel 4 in the greater Cleveland Time-Warner cable network. Moderator is John Dickerson, with panelists Major Garrett and Kimberley Strassel. The field is down to six: Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, and John Kasich.

The venue in Greenville, South Carolina holds under 2,000. Audience members are allotted tickets based on their allegiance to the party establishment. Via Sundance:

The New Hampshire debate audience was Old School Republicans who cheered Jeb Bush and jeered the ‘next-in-line-jumper’ Marco Rubio.  However, South Carolina has already shown their most preferential candidate in the North Charleston debate, where party insiders were majority Rubio supporters.  Expect Greenville to be more like the latter than former.

I always thought Newt had a better idea: let the candidates debate amongt themselves:   "No moderator, only a timekeeper.”

# # #

Another GOP Debate tonight

Cartoon credit: cagle.com/tag/this-tall/

NOTE that some of the candidates caricatured here have suspended their campaigns.

The next GOP debate is tonight at 8pm from New Hampshire. Watch it on ABC News (channel 5 in greater Cleveland). Still too many candidates onstage. Still no objective moderators; from Conservative Treehouse:

Progressive favorites David Muir and Martha Raddatz will moderate the debate, and position the narrative to expose the Republican party to as much ridicule and marginalization as possible.

As of today, Real Clear Politics is showing the top five candidates:

Trump at 30.7

Rubio at 16.4

Cruz at 12.0

Kasich at 12.0

Bush at 9.1

Fiorina, Christie and Carson are in single digits.

# # #

First GOP debates

cartoon via Lucianne.com 

Vodkapundit Steven Green will NOT be drunkblogging the debate this evening, so you may have to actually watch Fox News:

Fox News 5pm-6pm : candidates who did NOT make it into the top 10

former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum; Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal; former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina; South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham; former New York Gov. George Pataki; and former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore

Fox News 8:50pm–11pm : Primetime Debate: candidates who did

real estate magnate Donald Trump; former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush; Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker; former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee; retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson; Texas Sen. Ted Cruz; Florida Sen. Marco Rubio; Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul; New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie; and Ohio Gov. John Kasich

# # #

Ohio Democratic Party Chairman just threw Ed FitzGerald under the bus

Art credit: One Old Vet

From Cleveland.com:

By Henry J. Gomez, Northeast Ohio Media Group 

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The race for governor won't be decided for another 36 days.

But Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern is now publicly voicing his frustration with his nominee, Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald.

In story posted Sunday night, the New York Times was the latest national news organization to weigh in on the collapse of FitzGerald's campaign.

The piece traced the former FBI agent's troubles to the 2012 incident, unearthed last month by the Northeast Ohio Media Group, in which police found FitzGerald parked after hours with a woman who wasn't his wife. That revelation led to the discovery that FitzGerald hadn't had a driver's license for a decade.

"I've never met a former FBI agent who doesn't have a driver's license," Redfern told the Times' Trip Gabriel, who described the exchange as a figurative finger pointed at FitzGerald. "It's akin to saying, 'Damn, I should have my umbrella' after it rains."

Redfern went on to blast the outside firm that the campaign hired to probe FitzGerald's past, saying he wouldn't hire the company "to clean out my bird cage."

FitzGerald, also the former mayor of Lakewood, faces Republican incumbent John Kasich this fall. Polls show him trailing the governor by double digits.

. . . 

Read the rest here.

# # #

John Kasich releases "Jobs Ohio" Plan (Video)

Please share your thoughts....

From John Kasich --

John Kasich’s top priority is to revive Ohio’s economy and create jobs. With almost 400,000 Ohioans out of work on Ted Strickland’s watch, we know that Ohio’s current strategies aren’t working.

Though once a cutting-edge organization, the Ohio Department of Development has become bogged down with bureaucracy and programs that are not related to economic development. A change is needed.

Ohio’s economic development efforts must be re-aligned to make job creation and economic development a priority and must be rooted in the belief that economic health comes from a strong innovative, flexible private sector, not from government.

A New, Private Sector Economic Development Corporation

As governor, John Kasich will replace Ohio’s government-run economic development functions with JobsOhio, a new not-for-profit corporation which will report to the governor and oversee the state’s efforts to revive the state’s economy and create jobs. A private-sector approach to economic development will be more responsive to the needs of business.

• A board of directors comprised of CEOs will be an important asset for selling the state at the highest levels;

• An expert staff focused solely on economic development will give businesses confidence that their needs will be met and help rebuild Ohio’s reputation as a good place for business;

• The increased accountability of a private corporation will produce better results.

Freeing Ohio’s economic development efforts from their current bureaucratic mindset and shifting them to a new private sector corporation will allow Ohio to more aggressively help existing businesses grow and expand and attract new businesses to Ohio as well.

To read the complete Jobs Ohio Plan click here.

Disclaimer: This posting should not in anyway be taken as our endorsement or implied support for John Kasich. This posting is only meant to serve educational purposes for our members and the general voting public.

Fix Ohio Now - John Kasich (Video)

From Fix Ohio Now --

Disclaimer: This posting should not in anyway be taken as our endorsement or implied support for John Kasich. This posting is only meant to serve educational purposes for our members and the general voting public.