While the Republican Party frets over how to stop Donald Trump, time is running out.
With the Republican field so divided after New Hampshire, the path for anyone other than Trump requires nearly all candidates to drop out. Multiple candidates want that to happen. For example, Ted Cruz thinks it is time to unite around one candidate: Ted Cruz. And so on. However, after getting 3 or 4 convention delegates each on Tuesday, Cruz, John Kasich, Jeb Bush, and Marco Rubio all have reasons to stay in. Under these conditions, Trump wins. [...]
The not-Trump scenario occurs if Republicans cull their field, fast. As far as I can tell, if Republicans want a candidate who is acceptable to most of their party to get a majority of convention delegates, their deadlines are:
Deadline 1 (February 29th): Get down to two alternatives to Donald Trump as a consequence of South Carolina and Nevada – and before voting starts on Super Tuesday, March 1st.
Deadline 2 (March 14th): Settle on one alternative to Trump as a consequence of Super Tuesday and the March 5th-12th primaries. [...]
[Stopping Trump] would require Ohioan John Kasich and/or Floridians Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush to get themselves down to one candidate within the coming four weeks. In a tragedy of the commons, driven in part by super-PAC money which is not attached to the Republican Party, such self-elimination looks unlikely.
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At Daily Kos on this date in 2011—Gov. Scott blasted on high-speed rail funds. Gov. Brown says money 'welcome here'
Florida editorial writers and some fellow Republicans are giving newly elected Gov. Rick Scott a thrashing over what can only fairly be described as his loony rejection of federal funding for the first leg of a high-speed rail line that backers hoped would eventually connect Tampa with Miami via Orlando. On the heels of Scott's incomprehensible decision, newly elected Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown says he's eager to see some of that Florida HSR money redirected to California, which has already received more money than any state for its ambitious 800-mile line.
One key Florida Republican, chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure John Mica, expressed dismay that he had been unable to sway Scott from rejecting the HSR funds, a decision he said (being charitable) "defies logic." Many Republican state legislators also are irked. In fact, a veto-proof majority of the Florida Senate is asking the federal government to give the state the $2.4 billion in HSR money even though the governor doesn't want it.
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On today’s Kagro in the Morning show, BuzzFeed mines Trump’s Howard Stern appearances. Jebbie’s Got a Gun! Scalia’s successor could alter our 2nd Amendment mania. Armando chimes in on Heller. Joan McCarter rounds out the Scalia discussion, and notes the FBI’s odd demands on Apple.
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