The primary in Wisconsin turned out just as polls had predicted. Among Republicans, Sen. Ted Cruz beat Donald Trump, while among Democrats, Sen. Bernie Sanders beat Hillary Clinton. This is important, but what’s more important is the number of delegate votes at the party conventions because the delegates are the ones who choose the parties’ presidential candidates for the November election.
So, after the Wisconsin primary, Trump has 743 delegates, Cruz has 517, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich has 143 delegates, while a total of 1,237 delegates are needed to win the nomination at the Republican convention to be held July 18-21 in Cleveland, Ohio.
As for the Democrats, Clinton has 1,749 delegates against Sanders’ 1,061, while 2,383 delegates are needed in order to be nominated at the Democratic convention to be held July 25-28 in Philadelphia.
The primary elections will continue until June; there are still 882 Republican delegates and 1,955 Democratic delegates to be won.
This month will witness primaries in a number of states including Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. But I think that the election in New York on April 19 will be the most important for the contenders in both parties. New York is the second largest state in number of residents, after California, offering 95 Republican delegates and 291 Democratic delegates, meaning victory there will be a huge achievement for anyone wanting to make it to the White House.
Among the Republicans, the choice for Arabs is between “bad” and “worse.” Trump is an idiot who doesn’t know a thing about foreign policy—and most of his supporters are just like him. As for Cruz, he’s prepared to sell his soul in order to win the nomination, and his statements in support of Israel exceed what the AIPAC, the Jewish lobby, asks of candidates.
Can you believe that Trump said that the kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a “milky cow” and that he wants their milk (that is, their money) in exchange for America’s protection? Of course, American protection is nonexistent, and the Saudis don’t need it anyway. As for America’s presence in the Gulf or elsewhere, that’s simply to protect American interests, not to defend Saudi Arabia, or the United Arab Emirates, or any other Arab country.
As for Cruz, there’s nothing I can say about him that he hasn’t said himself. His speech at the AIPAC conference was as vulgar as the man who gave it, saying that he agreed with the war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu in being against Hamas, referring to the Palestinian resistance as terrorists. He supports Israeli terrorism because he is a “lowlife.” I say to him that all of Israel is occupied Palestinian land.
Gov. Kasich is better than Trump and Cruz put together, but his chances of getting nominated are very weak.
The Democratic contenders, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, are much better. Clinton possesses a wide range of experience since she worked as secretary of state during Barack Obama’s first term. She holds reasonable positions and doesn’t think of the world as America’s plantation.
Sanders describes himself as a Democratic Socialist, and the center-right leaning Jewish groups in the U.S. continuously attack him, even though he’s Jewish, because he doesn’t blindly support Israel and he tries to be fair. I have even noticed that throughout his election campaign, he has defended Islam and Muslims and has been moderate with regard to Israel and the Palestinians.
I can’t say for sure today who will win the presidential nomination in either party, but I will say that the Republican Party leadership is conspiring against Trump, and the Democratic candidate will have a better shot at winning, not because he or she is better, but because the Republican candidate will be so much worse.
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