GOP elites to Republican voters: Drop Dead

cartoon credit: niftyatheist.com

CNBC reports (h/t Gateway Pundit):

Political parties, not voters, choose their presidential nominees, a Republican convention rules member told CNBC, a day after GOP front-runner Donald Trump rolled up more big primary victories.

“The media has created the perception that the voters choose the nomination. That’s the conflict here,” Curly Haugland, an unbound GOP delegate from North Dakota [and a Republican convention rules member], told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Wednesday. He even questioned why primaries and caucuses are held.

Haugland is one of 112 Republican delegates who are not required to cast their support for any one candidate because their states and territories don’t hold primaries or caucuses.

Even with Trump’s huge projected delegate haul in four state primaries Tuesday, the odds are increasing the billionaire businessman may not ultimately get the 1,237 delegates needed to claim the GOP nomination before the convention.

This could lead to a brokered convention, in which unbound delegates, like Haugland, could play a significant swing role on the first ballot to choose a nominee.

Most delegates bound by their state’s primary or caucus results are only committed on the first ballot. If subsequent ballots are needed, virtually all of the delegates can vote any way they want, said Gary Emineth, another unbound delegate from North Dakota.

“It could introduce Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney, or it could be the other candidates that have already been in the race and are now out of the race [such as] Mike Huckabee [or] Rick Santorum. All those people could eventually become candidates on the floor,” Emineth said.

And at Politico we see that (h/t HotGas)

Former Speaker John Boehner said Paul Ryan should be the Republican nominee for president if the party fails to choose a candidate on the first ballot.

"If we don't have a nominee who can win on the first ballot, I'm for none of the above," Boehner said at the Futures Industry Association conference here. "They all had a chance to win. None of them won. So I'm for none of the above. I'm for Paul Ryan to be our nominee."

Wading into the GOP nominating battle for the first time since leaving office last fall, Boehner said that "anybody can be nominated" at the convention in Cleveland this summer.

The GOP establishment / elite (GOPe) couldn’t breathe life into the Jeb! campaign. Then they tried to push Marco Rubio as the Jeb! surrogate and that maneuver failed. Gov. Kasich’s job in the race was to deprive any momentum candidate of the 66 Ohio winner-take-all delegates. Kasich succeeded, but otherwise it is now a two-candidate race. Neither Cruz nor Trump is acceptable to the GOPe. So we are seeing the GOPe preparing to force a brokered convention. And it's now out in the open.

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Get out and vote!

Ohio Primary today

Get out and vote!

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More photos and video from Cleveland rally for Donald Trump

Backstage at the Trump rally

Here is a Must See video of Pastor Darrell Scott of New Spirit Revival Center Ministries of Cleveland Heights introducing Mr. Trump :

Here are a few photographs courtesy Pat J Dooley:

IX Center filling up

Pledge of allegiance and Star Spangled Banner

Cleveland Tea Partiers Ralph King and photographer

A homemade sign

Mr. Trump onstage

Posters, cameras, selfies galore

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Governor John Kasich on Immigration, amnesty

Art credit: beforeitsnews.com

Illegal immigration has emerged as one of the most important issues in this primary election season. Fair (Federation for American immigration Reform) summarizes some fiscal and employment impacts of illegal immigration:

This report estimates the annual costs of illegal immigration at the federal, state and local level to be about $113 billion; nearly $29 billion at the federal level and $84 billion at the state and local level. The study also estimates tax collections from illegal alien workers, both those in the above-ground economy and those in the underground economy. Those receipts do not come close to the level of expenditures and, in any case, are misleading as an offset because over time unemployed and underemployed U.S. workers would replace illegal alien workers.

Tomorrow’s Ohio primary is less than 24 hours away, and here’s a report from Julia Hahn at Breitbart:

With Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL)’s presidential hopes diminishing as his personal demons catch up with him—from his relationship with billionaire Norman Braman to his role in pushing Obama’s amnesty—the donor class seems to be turning its eyes to John Kasich’s last stand in Ohio.

The hope seems to be that a Kasich win in Ohio will not only deny GOP frontrunner Donald Trump delegates, but will also create a new vehicle for arriving at a contested convention.

Because the Kasich campaign was largely ignored as a non-factor prior to Rubio’s polling collapse, Kasich went months with virtually no scrutiny of even his most bizarre statements on the campaign trail.

However, in recent days, Trump has increasingly set his sights on Kasich—whether it be Kasich’s role at Lehman Brothers during the time of the economic collapse, as well as Kasich’s support for NAFTA and Obama’s Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement—a deal which Donald Trump and Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) have warned would destroy Ohio’s auto industry.

In particular, Trump has zeroed in on Kasich’s heretofore overlooked push for massive amnesty. Though it has transpired without much attention, Kasich has quietly amassed a string of bizarre, peculiar, and extreme statements on immigration that places him to the furthest leftward reaches of not just the Republican President field, but the Democratic Presidential field as well. This perhaps underscores an element of seriousness to Kasich’s previous declaration, which he had intended in jest: “I ought to be running in a Democrat primary.”

Below are just some of Kasich’s most bizarre and radical statements on immigration, which have flown under the radar.  

1) “God Bless” Illegal Immigrants . . .

2) “I couldn’t imagine” enforcing our current immigration laws: “That is not… the kind of values that we believe in.” . . .

3) Kasich likened deporting the illegal population to Japanese internment camps . . .

4) Illegal immigrants “are some of the hardest-working, God-fearing, family-oriented people you can ever meet.” . . .

5) Allowing ICE officers to do their jobs is not “humane” . . .

6) America can’t deport illegal immigrants because they are “made in the image of the Lord”  . . .

7) Kasich has called for implementing an open borders-style policy where workers can come and go as they please. . . .

8) Kasich would enact amnesty within his first 100 days. . . .

9) America shouldn’t address ending birthright citizenship because it’s “dividing people” . . .

10) Illegal immigrants should be allowed to stay because “they’re here” . . .

Read the full report here.

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Trump rallies in Ohio: just who are these protesters?

Branco cartoon credit: http://comicallyincorrect.com/

Gov. John Kasich criticized the Trump campaign for creating a “toxic” environment inthe GOP race for the presidential nomination, blaming the Trump campaign for the thug violence that resulted in a rally being postponed the other day in Chicago. But the thugs are the usual suspects:  MoveOn.org, Black Lives Matter, and Communists, among others (via Gateway Pundit).   

At the Cleveland rally at the IX Center, protesters lined the access road into the parking lot, but a few made it past security and tried to disrupt the rally. They were thrown out, and Trump supporters chanted “Trump. Trump, Trump” while the thugs were removed. No violence. 

As Trump said, it’s not Trump supporters who are disrupting rallies. It’s those who are supporting, in particular, Bernie Sanders. 

The Cleveland rally for Trump can be viewed here or here.

Cleveland and other Ohio Tea Partiers were there and reported firsthand. And take a look at Cleveland Tea Party’s very own Ralph King backstage (below) with Mr. Trump. 

More photos to come...

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Countdown to the Ohio GOP primary: Kasich and Trump

Photo credit: onpolitics.usatoday.com

It’s coming down to a contest between Governor John Kasich and Donald J. Trump.

From CNN Politics:

Internally, Kasich's team is encouraged by what they see happening on the ground. Save for a series of ad buys and a few appearances in the state, they've seen little else in the form of an organization from Trump in the state. Marco Rubio, focused solely on survival in Florida, and Ted Cruz, aren't planning any stops in the state.

The only remaining campaign stops in Ohio before next Tuesday's primary are tomorrow, Saturday, March 12, both rallies for Donald J. Trump:

In Dayton at 10a.m. 

In Cleveland at 2pm.

The latest polling at Real Clear Politics shows Kasich and Trump in a close race.

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Confusion on the Ohio Primary Ballot ~ GOP

A day or two ago  Conservative Treehouse posted a 3-minute video about Confusion on the Ohio Primary Ballot for Republican voters. The Democratic party ballot is straightforward. 

Secretary of State John Husted has finally responded with a press release that includes the following:

State election leaders say there is nothing unusual about the ballots, urging voters to choose their candidates in both columns.

Cleveland Tea Party Patriots’ Ralph King confirms that a voter’s principal choice is for the Delegate-at-Large, but a second vote for a District Delegate / District Alternate does not cancel out or affect the at-Large vote. So vote twice for the candidate of your choice. 

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