Though Donald Trump and his supporters have reveled in the nontraditional nature of his candidacy, the limitations of that approach were brought into relief Saturday when rival Ted Cruz trounced him in delegate support in Colorado. Trump also underperformed in South Carolina.
Cruz nabbed support from all 34 of Colorado's delegates at the state’s GOP convention while Trump gained the support of just one delegate of six in South Carolina. (The others either went for Cruz or will remain uncommitted heading into the convention.) Hand-to-hand combat is now the name of the game and Trump quite simply sucks at it. So on Monday, he did what losers do—started trashing the system as a “crooked deal,” reports Nick Gass:
“Well it really started with Colorado, and the people out there are going crazy — in the Denver area and Colorado itself — and they’re going absolutely crazy because they weren’t given a vote, this was given by politicians. It’s a crooked deal, and I see it," the Republican front-runner said in a telephone interview on "Fox & Friends," ...
Naturally, Republican National Committee (RNC) chair Reince Priebus really stepped up and gave a steadfast defense of the party’s process.
Priebus said that while most states have primaries or caucuses, a few states like Colorado have convention systems, “and that’s perfectly OK,” he told conservative radio host Mike Gallagher.
Underwhelmed? Yeah, how Priebus has remained head of the GOP for another presidential election cycle is beyond comprehension. Anyway, an NBC analysis of the math showed that, in actuality, the process has given Trump an unfair advantage based on the share of the vote he's won to date. Ari Melber has the details:
Trump now leads the Republican field with 756 delegates — or 45 percent of all delegates awarded to date. Yet he has won about 37 percent of all votes in the primaries, according to the NBC analysis, meaning Trump's delegate support is greater than his actual support from voters.
For each percentage point of total primary votes that Trump has won, he has been awarded 1.22 percent of the total delegates.
So, in fact, Trump's gotten a 22 percent boost over and above what he's actually earned in votes. Poor Donald, the facts are so hard for him to grasp.
