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Live Tuesday Primary Updates: Trump Takes Hawaii

by MerleBlackburn9 Posted on March 9, 2016

Mother Jones

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Citizens in four states will cast votes in Tuesday’s nominating contests, with presidential candidates on both sides eyeing the night’s biggest prize: Michigan, where 59 Republican delegates and 130 Democratic delegates are up for grabs. Next up for both sides is Mississippi, where 40 GOP delegates and 36 Democratic delegates are at stake, followed by Republican contests in Idaho and Hawaii (51 combined delegates).

Click here for our 2016 presidential primary delegate tracker.

Early polling gives the advantage to Republican front-runner Donald Trump, who appears poised to maintain his lead over Sens. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, even as his hold of the GOP electorate has appeared to wane. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton is favored to extend her Democratic delegate lead in both Michigan and Mississippi; nationally, she holds a 7 point lead over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Mississippi’s polls are the first to close tonight, at 8 p.m. Eastern, with Michigan wrapping up at 9 p.m. Eastern. The Republican showdowns in Idaho and Hawaii are expected to close at 11 p.m. and 1 a.m. Eastern, respectively. Tuesday’s outcomes will set the stage for next week’s critical primaries in Florida, Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina, and Ohio. (You can track who has won delegates in each primary here.)

We’ll be here with the latest results as they come in.

UPDATE 16, Tuesday, March 8, 2:34 a.m. ET: With roughly 51 percent of precincts reporting, the networks are calling Hawaii for Donald Trump, who leads the field with 45 percent of the vote. Cruz is well behind at 31 percent. Rubio has 12 percent and Kasich 10 percent.

UPDATE 15, Tuesday, March 9, 1:41 a.m. ET: It’s early yet, but Trump is leading in Hawaii. With just 13 percent of precincts in, he’s at just over 42 percent. Cruz has around 28 percent, and Kasich and Rubio are neck and neck at around 14 percent.

UPDATE 14, Tuesday, March 9, 1:19 a.m. ET: Marco Rubio is having a bad night indeed. The Florida senator has gained zero delegates from tonight’s Michigan and Mississippi primaries. If he fails to reach the 20 percent threshold needed to win delegates in Idaho, he could miss yet another chance at getting a little traction in the GOP field. He’s currently just over 17 percent in Idaho, with 75 percent of precincts reporting. At a rally Tuesday night, even as Rubio and his spokesman dismissed reports that his own campaign staffers had told him to drop out, Rubio looked ahead to next week’s Florida primary, with 99 delegates are up for grabs. “It always comes down to Florida,” he said. With 151 delegates in his pocket, he’s a far cry from where he needs to be. Results will be coming in soon from Hawaii, where, with a little luck, Rubio could at least get himself on tonight’s delegate scoreboard.

UPDATE 13, Tuesday, March 9, 12:18 a.m. ET: Fox and NBC and CNN have projected a Cruz win in Idaho, where he now holds more than 42 percent of the vote with 53 percent reporting. But Clinton’s loss to Sanders in Michigan is the story of the night. The Democratic candidates debate again tomorrow evening. The GOP candidates will be debating on Thursday night.

UPDATE 12, Tuesday, March 8, 11:51 p.m. ET: Poll are completely worthless, at least for Michigan, where Hillary Clinton was projected by most to have a comfortable lead. In the Idaho GOP race, with 35 percent of precincts reporting, Cruz has increased his lead to 40.8 percent. Trump hangs back with 30.1 percent, Rubio with 18.2, and John Kasich a distant 6.9 percent.

UPDATE 11, Tuesday, March 8, 11:37 p.m. ET: Several networks have officially called Michigan for Bernie Sanders.

UPDATE 10, Tuesday, March 8, 11:28 p.m. ET: Results are coming in the Idaho GOP primary. With 17 percent reporting, Ted Cruz leads with just under 39 percent. Trump has around 30, and Rubio trails with 20. Bernie Sanders’ lead keeps inching up in the Michigan Dem primary—with 92 percent reporting, he’s carrying 50.4 percent to Hillary Clinton’s 47.7 percent. (CNN)

UPDATE 9, Tuesday, March 8, 11:01 p.m. ET: Leading by nearly 4 percentage points with 85 percent of precincts counted in the Michigan Democratic primary, Bernie Sanders thanked supporters for turning out in Michigan and elsewhere. “What tonight means is that the Bernie Sanders campaign, the people’s revolution that we are talking about, is strong in every part of the country,” he said, speaking to reporters in Miami. “We believe our strongest areas are yet to happen.” CNN reports that the Clinton campaign is preparing for a narrow loss.

UPDATE 8, Tuesday, March 8, 10:46 p.m. ET: Speaking in front of supporters tonight in Cleveland, Hillary Clinton slammed the divisive rhetoric among Republican contenders. “Running for president shouldn’t be about delivering insults,” she said, “it should be about delivering results for the American people.” Bernie Sanders is expected to speak with reporters shortly.

UPDATE 7, Tuesday, March 8, 10:29 p.m. ET: The Democratic race in Michigan is still too close to call. Bernie Sanders currently holds a narrow lead over Hillary Clinton, with more than 60 percent of precincts reporting. Sanders is strongly outperforming polling; as The New Yorker‘s Ryan Lizza points out, he has done well with Michigan’s black voters.

UPDATE 6, Tuesday, March 8, 10:08 p.m. ET: Donald Trump took a shot at Hillary Clinton at his press conference in Florida on Tuesday night, raising questions as to whether the Democratic front-runner would be allowed to run in the general election in light of a federal investigation into her use of a private email server during her stint as Secretary of State.

UPDATE 5, Tuesday, March 8, 9:37 p.m. ET: At a rambling press conference at his country club in Jupiter, Florida, Donald Trump thanked his supporters, including New York Yankees legend Paul O’Neill, for his string of victories in Michigan and Mississippi. Backed by a table bearing what he claimed to be his signature Trump steaks, water, and wine, the Republican front-runner echoed his confidence in running away with the Republican nomination and his ability to beat Hillary Clinton in the general election. “We started off with 17. We’re down to 4. They’re pretty much all gone,” Trump said. “There’s only one person who did well tonight, and that’s Donald Trump.”

UPDATE 4, Tuesday, March 8, 9:15 p.m. ET: Here’s a livestream of Trump’s speech from Florida:

UPDATE 3, Tuesday, March 8, 9:04 p.m. ET: With polls closing in Michigan, NBC News and Fox News have called the Republican primary there for Donald Trump, with John Kasich and Ted Cruz battling for second. Marco Rubio, on the other hand, has had a poor showing in both Michigan and Mississippi. Trump will be speaking in Rubio’s backyard in Jupiter, Florida, later tonight.

UPDATE 2, Tuesday, March 8, 8:31 p.m. ET: The networks are reporting that Donald Trump will win the Mississippi primary in what was a two-man race with Sen. Ted Cruz.

UPDATE 1, Tuesday, March 8, 8 p.m. ET: Just as polls closed in Mississippi, the networks are predicting that Hillary Clinton has won the Democratic primary there.

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Live Tuesday Primary Updates: Trump Takes Hawaii

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This PAC Is Raising Money for Donald Trump. But Where Is It Going?

by Lucile93R19 Posted on March 8, 2016

Mother Jones

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A newly formed political action committee is using Donald Trump’s name and trademarked slogan—”Make America Great Again”—in an unusual fundraising ploy. The group, the Great America PAC, has no connection to the Trump campaign, but it has been blasting out emails soliciting donations that it claims will be channeled directly to Team Trump. In a recent email, the PAC implored donors to help “build a grassroots wall of support around Donald Trump by chipping in at least $5 to have your name placed on his official FEC report by signing the ‘I Support Donald Trump’ petition.” On the PAC’s website, donors are asked to donate between $5 and $1,000.

The website notes that the first $5 of each donation will be sent to the Trump campaign. And Dan Backer, the group’s treasurer, tells Mother Jones that this money is indeed “earmarked” for Trump. What happens to the rest of the money, for any donations greater than $5, is not clear. The email does promise to use money the group raises to build a vaguely described grassroots operation that will help support Trump. But there’s no telling how much of the money gathered by this Trumpy PAC will directly fund pro-Trump activities.

The fundraising email is signed by Amy Kremer, a former chairman of the Tea Party Express. Kremer did not respond to a request for comment.

A recipient of the email might be forgiven for assuming it comes from an official Trump-approved outfit. The website prominently features the official Trump slogan: “Make America Great Again.” And there may be a problem with that. Trump trademarked that phrase for the purposes of “political campaign services, namely, promoting public awareness of Donald J. Trump as a candidate for public office; providing online information regarding political issues and the 2016 presidential election;” and for “fundraising in the field of politics.” The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Asked about the PAC’s use of the trademarked phrase, Backer, a Virginia-based attorney who has helped set up a number of conservative-oriented PACs that capitalize on current events, said the phrase is a quote from Ronald Reagan.

The Great America PAC was first registered with the Federal Election Commission on February 1. But it paid to run pro-Trump radio ads in Iowa in January—which is legal. The ads, which cost a total of $25,000, were produced and placed on air by a mysterious ad-buying firm called GRP Buying LLC, using a rented mailbox at a shipping center in Columbus, Ohio. The PAC has also spent $10,000 on television ads and $15,000 on email blasts.

Initially, this PAC tried to associate itself even more closely with Trump by using the name TrumPAC. But a PAC may not use a candidate’s name if it doesn’t have the candidate’s permission. (For example, last year a super-PAC backing Carly Fiorina was forced to create an elaborate acronym to keep its name: CARLY for America.) When the FEC contacted the PAC in February and inquired about its use of the TrumPAC name, Backer, an FEC critic who was the lawyer in a key Supreme Court case two years ago that removed caps on how much money donors can contribute to political campaigns and committees, had a sharp response. In a letter to the FEC, he stated he didn’t know anyone running for office named “TRUMPAC.” He informed the FEC that another party, whom he did not identify, had requested it change its name and that it would do so, but not because the FEC asked.

So how much has the Great America PAC raised with its Trumpish solicitations? It doesn’t have to file any disclosure reports until late March.

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This PAC Is Raising Money for Donald Trump. But Where Is It Going?

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Donald Trump’s 47 Percent Moment

by JenniHarlow Posted on March 7, 2016

Mother Jones

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Last week, Mitt Romney, the twice-failed GOP presidential candidate, delivered a speech that blasted Donald Trump, the current Republican front-runner, calling the tycoon “a phony, a fraud” and citing Trump’s “dishonesty” and his “bullying, the greed, the showing off, the misogyny, the absurd third-grade theatrics.” It was a clear move on Romney’s part to rally the GOP establishment against the celebrity real estate mogul whose endorsement he warmly embraced during the 2012 campaign. Naturally, Trump responded in kind. Within hours, at a campaign rally in Portland, Maine, he lashed out at Romney.

Trump noted that Romney had “failed horribly” four years ago. He claimed that Romney had begged Trump to endorse him in that race: “I could have said, ‘Mitt, drop to your knees.’ He would have dropped to his knees.” His audience roared with laughter. And Trump went on:

It was a campaign that should have never been lost. You’re running against a failed president. He came up with the 47 percent. He demeaned 47 percent of the people in our country, right? The famous 47 percent. Once that was said, I’ll be honest, once that was said, a lot of people thought it was over for him.

On Monday, after Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) assailed him, Trump returned to this line of attack, tweeting, “Lindsey Graham is all over T.V., much like failed 47% candidate Mitt Romney. These nasty, angry, jealous failures have ZERO credibility!”

In Trump’s view, Romney lost partly due to the infamous remarks, reported by Mother Jones, in which Romney said at a private fundraiser that 47 percent of Americans “believe that they are victims…that government has a responsibility to care for them…that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it.” Romney noted that these people do not pay income taxes and do not “take personal responsibility and care for their lives.” His comments indicted nearly half of the nation as moochers and freeloaders who do not contribute to society.

For Trump, that insult helped doom Romney’s campaign. But last year, Trump voiced a strikingly similar sentiment. During a June 2015 one-on-one interview on Fox News, host Sean Hannity asked Trump if he, as president, could get 50 million Americans out of poverty. Of course, Trump said, and he added:

I would create incentives for people to work. People don’t have an incentive. They make more money by sitting there doing nothing than they make if they have a job. We have to create incentives that they actually do much better by working. Right now they have a disincentive. They have an incentive not to work.

This was a routine conservative contention: Assistance programs cause people not to work. And Hannity pressed Trump: Would he insist that recipients of food stamps, welfare, and other government assistance “have to work for it?” Trump replied that this could be necessary, and he remarked that Bill Clinton had pushed such a approach with welfare reform. Then Trump made a broader point:

The problem we have right now—we have a society that sits back and says we don’t have to do anything. Eventually, the 50 percent cannot carry—and it’s unfair to them—but cannot carry the other 50 percent.

So one half of the nation is carrying the other half, and the attitude of those in the latter half is, “we don’t have to do anything.” This is darn close to Romney’s 47 percent analysis, but 3 percentage points greater. Trump was depicting 50 percent of Americans as people seeking a free ride.

Both Romney’s and Trump’s comments hail back to a right-wing talking point—this is a country of takers and makers—that distorts actual statistics. In 2011, 46.4 percent of US households did not pay federal income taxes. (The number was higher that year than the usual 40 percent or so, due to the recession that hit during the Bush-Cheney years.) This is the stat that Romney had obviously had in mind. The problem comes—the demeaning, as Trump would put it—when folks who do not pay income taxes are equated with lazy ne’er-do-wells merely angling for a handout. That’s not what the numbers show. In 2011, 60 percent of those who didn’t pay income taxes did pay taxes for Social Security and Medicare. These people essentially did not make enough money to qualify for the income tax. Another 22 percent of the people who didn’t pay income taxes were retirees. Only 8 percent of US households paid no federal taxes at all. According to a Washington Post analysis, that was “usually because they’re either unemployed or on disability or students or are very poor.”

So many of the those who didn’t pay income taxes are working and paying some form of tax, and many others within this group—pensioners and poor people—shouldn’t be expected to pay income taxes. These people are not shirkers who say, “We don’t have to do anything.”

But Trump, like Romney, seems to believe the country is indeed equally split between strivers and loafers. And last year Trump had no reluctance in demeaning 50 percent, not 47 percent.

His comment, not surprisingly, didn’t cause a stir. He’s been spraying a fire hose of outrageous remarks since he entered the presidential race, and this one got lost in the wash. It’s also a statement fully in sync with his arrogant schtick that divides the world into winners and losers. Though he’s now blasting Romney for the original 47 percent insult to Americans, Trump, too, apparently views many Americans as parasites. The only difference is that his estimate is higher.

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Donald Trump’s 47 Percent Moment

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Here’s Who’s Looking Strong in Today’s "Super Saturday" Contests

by NevilleLocke2 Posted on March 5, 2016

Mother Jones

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Voters headed to the polls in five states today as Donald Trump looked to continue his march to the GOP nominating convention and Republican party leaders scrambled for ways to stop him. On the Republican side, 155 delegates were at stake in Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Maine; candidates need 1,237 delegates to wrap up the nomination. Donald Trump, who began the day with 329 delegates according to the Associated Press, was looking to extend his lead over Sens. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, who have 231 and 110 delegates respectively. Ohio Gov. John Kasich—who has won only 25 delegates so far—has begun angling for a contested convention in Cleveland while Ben Carson all but dropped out on Wednesday.

For the Democrats, 109 delegates were up for grabs in Louisiana, Kansas, and Nebraska. Clinton headed into these states with 1,066 delegates, the Associated Press reported, nearly half of the 2,383 needed to wrap up the Democratic nomination. (Clinton’s count includes 458 superdelegates, who may vote for any candidate, as the New York Times reports.) Sen. Bernie Sanders started the day with 432 delegates and was hoping to make a strong showing in Nebraska and Kansas: The Huffington Post reported that Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook sent a memo to staffers saying Clinton could lose in those states.

We’ll be here with updates as the results come in.

UPDATE 9, March 5, 8:50 p.m. PT: Speaking to supporters in West Palm Beach, Florida, Trump called for Rubio to drop out of the race after losing all but one of the 19 Republican contests so far. “I think it’s time for Marco to clean the deck,” he said. “I would love to take on Ted one on one. That would be so much fun…That would be easy.”

After commenting that he would order military personnel to torture terror suspects and then backpedaling on Friday, telling the Wall Street Journal that he would be “bound by laws,” Trump returned Saturday to the subject of torture. “I am totally in favor of waterboarding, and if we can, I’d like to do much more than that,” he said. “I will try to get the laws extended, broadened…so we can better compete with a vicious group of animals.”

One journalist brought up Thursday’s Fox News debate, in which Rubio made a jab at Trump’s “small hands”—and Trump reassured voters that “there’s no problem.”

“Marco just made it up, because he’s a politician, and politicians lie,” Trump said Saturday night. For those worried about the tone of a presidential campaign in which the front-runner reassured voters about the size of his manhood, Trump also had an answer: “I will be the most presidential candidate in history.”

UPDATE 8, March 5, 7:55 p.m. PT: The final race of the night has wrapped up. Trump won Kentucky with 35.1 percent of the vote, followed closely by Cruz with 31.4 percent, networks are reporting. Eighty-four percent of results have been counted.

UPDATE 7, March 5, 7:07 p.m. PT: Sanders, who tonight adds victories in Kansas and Nebraska to his wins in Colorado, Minnesota, New Hampshire, and Oklahoma, told the Associated Press that his campaign is bearing out its promise of a “political revolution.” In the coming months, Democratic candidates will turn their sights on New York, California, Oregon and Washington state. “I think in all of those states, we’ve got a shot to win it,” Sanders said, adding that wins in those states could convince some of Clinton’s superdelegates to switch their allegiance to his campaign.

UPDATE 6, March 5: 6:53 p.m. PT: Trump has won the Louisiana primary with 45.7 percent of the vote, networks are reporting, with 16 percent of results in. Forty-six delegates are up for grabs in the state. Cruz is in second with 29 percent of the vote, with Rubio trailing at 15.8 percent.

UPDATE 5, March 5: 6:23 p.m. PT: Networks quickly projected a Clinton win after polls closed in Louisiana, which, with its prize of 51 delegates, is the most important Democratic contest of the night. With just 8 percent of results in, Clinton had won 71.1 percent of the vote. Sanders trailed at 21.4 percent.

UPDATE 4, March 5: 6:10 p.m. PT: Sanders appears to be edging out Clinton in Nebraska, earning 54.8 percent of the Democratic vote to Clinton’s 45.2 percent, announced Vince Powers, the state Democratic Party chair. Seventy-five percent of polling locations are reporting, and the results are not final yet, Powers said.

UPDATE 3, March 5, 5:55 p.m. PT: Cruz picked up his second win of the night, earning 45.8 percent of the vote and 12 delegates in Maine, state GOP party chairman Rick Bennett announced in a speech in Lewiston, Maine. In second, Trump gained nine delegates and 32.5 percent of the vote, while Kasich picked up two delegates and 12.2 percent. Rubio failed to gain any delegates in the state, trailing at just 8 percent in the polls.

UPDATE 2, March 5, 5:30 p.m. PT: The Kansas Democratic Party has called Kansas for Sanders, with 90 percent of the vote in, CNN is reporting.

UPDATE 1, March 5, 2:45 p.m. PT: With just more than half the vote in, the Associated Press has called Kansas for Cruz, with 51 percent of the vote. Forty delegates are up for grabs in the state.

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Here’s Who’s Looking Strong in Today’s "Super Saturday" Contests

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John Kasich Is Banking on a Contested Convention

by TamelaDennys Posted on March 4, 2016

Mother Jones

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Ohio Gov. John Kasich doesn’t have much hope of racking up enough delegates to be elected the Republican presidential nominee by the party’s convention in Cleveland this summer. So far he’s only secured 25 delegates, per the New York Times, far behind Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, let alone front-runner Donald Trump.

But during an appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference outside Washington, DC, on Friday afternoon, Kasich remained optimistic that he could become his party’s nominee—by winning a contested convention. “I don’t think anyone’s going to get that,” Kasich said when Fox News’ Sean Hannity asked him about the prospects for any candidate to gain enough delegates to win the nomination on a first-ballot vote. “Could you think of anything cooler than a contested convention?” Kasich said, adding that it would make for a fun civics lesson for viewers at home.

Before he sat down with Hannity, Kasich roamed the CPAC stage solo, speaking to the crowd. He kicked off his speech with remembrances of how, as a young man in 1976, he worked to force a contested convention in order to put Ronald Reagan forward as the Republican nominee over incumbent President Gerald Ford. (Ford won the nomination but lost the presidency.) “The fact is, we got him on the ballot, and I was at the convention with Gov. Reagan, and I had at a very young age found myself in charge of five states for Gov. Reagan,” Kasich said.

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John Kasich Is Banking on a Contested Convention

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Donald Trump Says Mitt Romney "Would Have Dropped To His Knees" For Him

by MagaretNazario3 Posted on March 3, 2016

Mother Jones

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Donald Trump addressed a frenzied crowd in Portland, Maine, on Thursday afternoon during a campaign press conference.

The GOP front-runner hit all his usual marks—calls for building a border wall and deporting undocumented immigrants, reading polls from pieces of paper he pulls from his inside jacket pocket—but devoted a fair chunk of his time to lashing back against former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who publicly criticized Trump and questioned whether he was fit to be president.

“Mitt is a failed candidate. He failed. He failed horribly,” Trump said. “That was a race—I have to say, folks—that should have been won. That was a race that absolutely should have been won. He disappeared, and I wasn’t happy about it, to be honest, because I am not a fan of Barack Obama.”

Romney had begged for his support, Trump claimed, during Romney’s bid to unseat President Obama in 2012: “You can see how loyal he was, he was begging for my endorsement. I could have said, ‘Drop to your knees!’ and he would have dropped to his knees.”

Trump also claimed he intimidated Romney, who “choked” and “chickened out” of running for president in 2016.

Romney responded to Trump’s comments in a tweet posted on 2:13 p.m. Eastern.

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Donald Trump Says Mitt Romney "Would Have Dropped To His Knees" For Him

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Conservatives Defend Trump Over KKK Dodge

by StarSlonemfxegk Posted on March 3, 2016

Mother Jones

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Last Sunday, Donald Trump declined to disavow David Duke, a white supremacist and former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan who asked his supporters to back Trump for president. The next day, Trump blamed his response on a bad earpiece garbling the question. It wasn’t until Thursday morning that he finally came around to condemning Duke. By then, the media and Trump’s GOP rivals had spent five days attacking Trump over the issue and hand-wringing about the state of the Republican Party. “So is this how the party of Abraham Lincoln dies?” asked Joe Scarborough, the conservative co-host of MSNBC’s Morning Joe.

But the fact that it took Trump days to condemn a white supremacist didn’t faze many Republican voters at the Conservative Political Action Conference, the annual conservative gathering just outside of Washington, DC.

“Ridiculous,” said Sharon Begosh, 54, of Maryland, when asked about the furor over Trump’s response to the David Duke question last week. She’s pretty sure Trump didn’t hear the question correctly. “There’s not a racist bone in his body,” she said.

Begosh, who is supporting Cruz, said the Duke controversy is an example of people playing the “race card” when they have nothing else on their political opponents.

“The Ku Klux Klan won’t rise again,” said Grace Hagerty, 83, of Virginia, who voted for Trump on Super Tuesday.

While pundits have pointed to Trump’s KKK dodge as evidence that the Republican front-runner is riling up racist elements in the party, CPAC attendees saw it differently. One of the most common responses to questions about the Duke issue was that politicians simply are not responsible for who their supporters are or what they believe.

“I don’t think you can control who your supporters are,” said Nestor Riano, 53, of Minnesota.

Brian Bledsoe, 35, of Texas echoed that sentiment. “Can’t blame the candidate about who’s supporting him,” he said.

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Conservatives Defend Trump Over KKK Dodge

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Who Said It: Donald Trump or Mitt Romney?

by KobyABTxzeisz Posted on March 3, 2016

Mother Jones

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On Thursday, former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney trashed his party’s 2016 front-runner, Donald Trump, as a phony and con artist who is leading the GOP to electoral disaster. And sure, there’s some truth to that. But the two formerly pro-choice Northeast Republican businessmen have more in common than they’d like to acknowledge—from their records on immigration to their favorite sport(s) stars to their choice of profanity. Okay, maybe not the last one.

See if you can tell them apart:

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name : ‘subhed’,
finder: function(container)
return container.find(‘.’ + this.name);
,
create_element : function(slide)
if (!slidethis.name) return ”;
return $(” +
slidethis.name +
”
);
}
},

name : ‘text’,
finder: function(container)
return container.find(‘.’ + this.name);
,
create_element : function(slide)
if (!slidethis.name) return ”;
return $(” +
slidethis.name +
”
);
}
},

name : ‘bottomimage’,
finder: function(container)
return container.find(‘.’ + this.name);
,
create_element : function(slide)
if (!slidethis.name) return ”;
return $(”
);
}
},

name : ‘bottomvideoembed’,
needs_aspect_ratio : true,
finder: function(container)
return container.find(‘.’ + this.name);
,
create_element : function(slide)
//check aspect ratio
if (!slide.bottomvideoembedaspectratio) return ”;
return $(” +
slidethis.name + ”
);
}
}
],

init : function(quiz_data, results_data, options)
self = this;

if (options)
for ( var option in options )
selfoption = optionsoption;

}

if (typeof(quiz_data) === ‘string’)
// is a google spreadsheet.
// Will call init_data in a callback
self.load_from_google_spreadsheet(quiz_data);
else
if (!results_data)
results_data = make_default_how_you_did_htmls(quiz_data.length);

self.init_data(quiz_data, results_data);
}

return self;
},
init_data: function(quiz_data, results_data)
self.quiz_data = quiz_data;
self.results_data = results_data;

self.calculate_aspectratios(quiz_data);
self.create_cover();

for ( var i = 0; i < self.quiz_data.length; i++ )
self.append_question(i);

self.append_how_you_did_section();
self.update_how_you_did_element();
self.preload_answer_images();
},
append_how_you_did_section: function()
how_you_did_element = $(”);
cover.append(how_you_did_element);
,

load_from_google_spreadsheet: function(spreadsheet_id)
Tabletop.init(
key: spreadsheet_id,
prettyColumnNames: false,
callback: function(data)
var quiz_data = self.make_quiz_data_from_spreadsheet_data(data);
var results_data = self.make_results_data_from_spreadsheet_data(data, quiz_data);
self.init_data(quiz_data, results_data);

});
},
calculate_aspectratios: function(data)
for (var i = 0; i < data.length; i++)
var row = datai;
for (var k = 0; k < row.possible_answers.length; k++)
var answer = row.possible_answersk;
self.find_aspectratio_for_each_type_of_video_embed(answer);

self.find_aspectratio_for_each_type_of_video_embed(row.question);
}
},

find_aspectratio_for_each_type_of_video_embed : function(slide)
for (var i = 0; i < self.possible_display_elements.length; i++ )
var display = self.possible_display_elementsi;
if ( display.needs_aspect_ratio && slidedisplay.name )
slidedisplay.name + ‘aspectratio’ =
self.find_aspectratio(slidedisplay.name);

}
},
find_aspectratio: function(videoembed)
var height = videoembed.match(/height=”d+”/);
if (!height
height = parseInt(height0.replace(/height=”/, ”).replace(/”/, ”), 10);

var width = videoembed.match(/width=”d+”/);
if (!width || !width0)
console.log(‘Your video embed code needs a width.’);
return ”;

width = parseInt(width0.replace(/width=”/, ”).replace(/”/, ”), 10);

return (height / width)*100;
},
pull_answer_value_from_spreadsheet : function(row, value, wrong_number, correct)
correct = correct ? ‘right’ : ‘wrong’;
if (rowcorrect + wrong_number + value && rowcorrect + wrong_number + value !== self.defaulting_flag)
return (rowcorrect + wrong_number + value);

if ((self.defaulting_behavior_on && rowcorrect + wrong_number + value !== self.defaulting_flag) ||
(!self.defaulting_behavior_on && rowcorrect + wrong_number + value === self.defaulting_flag)
)
return (rowcorrect + value && rowcorrect + value !== self.defaulting_flag ?
rowcorrect + value :
(row’answer’ + value && row’answer’ + value !== self.defaulting_flag ?
row’answer’ + value :
row’question’ + value
)
);
else
return ”;

},
get_possible_answers : function(row, is_correct)
var possible_answers = [];
var right_or_wrong = (is_correct ? ‘right’ : ‘wrong’);
if (rowright_or_wrong)
possible_answers.push(self.make_possible_answer(row, ”, is_correct));

for (var i = 0; i < 10; i++ )
if (rowright_or_wrong + i)
possible_answers.push(self.make_possible_answer(row, i, is_correct));

}
return possible_answers;
},
make_possible_answer: function(row, row_number, is_correct)
var right_or_wrong = (is_correct ? ‘right’ : ‘wrong’);
var answer =
answer: rowright_or_wrong + row_number,
correct: is_correct
;
for (var i = 0; i < self.possible_display_elements.length; i++ )
var display_element = self.possible_display_elementsi.name;
answerdisplay_element = self.pull_answer_value_from_spreadsheet(
row, display_element, row_number, is_correct
);

return answer;
},
make_quiz_data_from_spreadsheet_data: function(tabletop)
var i, j, sheetName, data;
var quiz = [];

// Find a sheet that _isn’t_ named “Results”.
for (sheetName in tabletop)
if (tabletop.hasOwnProperty(sheetName) && sheetName !== ‘Results’)
break;

}

data = tabletopsheetName.elements;

for (i = 0; i < data.length; i++)
var row = datai;
var possible_wrong_answers = self.get_possible_answers(row, false);
var possible_right_answers = self.get_possible_answers(row, true);

var right_answer_placement = [];
for (j = 0; j < possible_right_answers.length; j++)
right_answer_placement.push(
Math.round(Math.random() * possible_wrong_answers.length)
);

// IMPORTANT TO SORT THIS. rather than check if a value is in, we only check the first
right_answer_placement.sort();

var possible_answers= [];
var right_answers_placed = 0;
for (j = 0; j <= possible_wrong_answers.length; j++)
while (j === right_answer_placementright_answers_placed)
//push right answer
possible_answers.push(possible_right_answersright_answers_placed);
right_answers_placed++;

if (j === possible_wrong_answers.length)
continue;

possible_answers.push(possible_wrong_answersj);
}

var question =
question :
,
possible_answers : possible_answers,
rowNumber : row.rowNumber – 1
};
for (j = 0; j < self.possible_display_elements.length; j++)
var display_value = self.possible_display_elementsj.name;
question.questiondisplay_value = row’question’ + display_value;

quiz.push(question);
}
return quiz;
},
make_results_data_from_spreadsheet_data: function(tabletop, quiz_data)
var ret = make_default_how_you_did_htmls(quiz_data.length);

var data = tabletop’Results’ ? tabletop’Results’.elements : [];
for (var i = 0; i < data.length; i++)
var index = datai.numberofrightanswers;
if (index) index = parseInt(index, 10);
if (!isNaN(index))
if (!retindex)
console.log(“Invalid number of correct answers: ” + index);
else
retindex = datai.html;

}
}

return ret;
},
append_question : function(question_index)
var question_data = self.quiz_dataquestion_index;
var question_container = $(‘<li class=”question_container row-fluid question_’ +
question_index +
‘”>’
);
question_container.append( self.build_question_element_from_row(question_data) );
question_container.append( self.build_possible_answer_elements_from_row(question_data, question_index) );
container_elem.append(question_container);
,
build_question_element_from_row: function(row)
var question_container = $(”);
for (var i = 0; i < self.possible_display_elements.length; i++)
question_container.append(
self.possible_display_elementsi.create_element(row.question)
);

return question_container;
},
build_possible_answer_elements_from_row : function(question, question_index)
var answers_container = $(”);

function bindClick(question_index, answer_index, possible_answer)
possible_answer.bind(‘click’, function()
// was it the right answer?
var was_correct = self.quiz_dataquestion_index.possible_answersanswer_index.correct;

// Add correct classes to possible answers
answers_container.find(‘.selected’).removeClass(‘selected’);
$(this).addClass(‘selected’);
$(this).removeClass(‘possible_answer’);
answers_container
.find(‘.answer_’ + answer_index)
.addClass(
was_correct ? ‘correct_answer’ : ‘wrong_answer’
);

//track how many you got right the first time
cheater_answer_trackingquestion_index = was_correct;
if ( typeof(answer_trackingquestion_index) === ‘undefined’ )
answer_trackingquestion_index = was_correct;
cover.find(‘.question_’ + question_index).addClass(
‘first_guess_’ +
(was_correct ? ‘right’ : ‘wrong’)
);

self.update_how_you_did_element();

//show new slide
self.display_answer(self.quiz_dataquestion_index, question_index, self.quiz_dataquestion_index.possible_answersanswer_index);

// track that this was selected last
self.quiz_dataquestion_index.previously_selected = self.quiz_dataquestion_index.possible_answersanswer_index;
});
}

for (var i = 0; i < question.possible_answers.length; i++)
var answer_data = question.possible_answersi;
var possible_answer = $(” +
answer_data.answer +
”);
bindClick(question_index, i, possible_answer);
answers_container.append(possible_answer);
this.note_answer_images(answer_data);

return answers_container;
},
answer_images : {},
preload_answer_images: function()
for (var url in this.answer_images)
var img=new Image();
img.src=url;

},
note_answer_images: function(answer_data)
var image_elements = ‘backgroundimage’, ‘topimage’, ‘bottomimage’;
for (var i = 0; i < image_elements.length; i++)
if (!answer_data[image_elementsi]) continue;
this.answer_images[answer_data[image_elementsi]] = true;
}
self.possible_display_elementsi.name;
},
add_display_in_correct_place: function(container, place_in_display_elements, slide)
for ( var i = place_in_display_elements; i > 0; i– )
if (self.possible_display_elementsi – 1.finder(container).length )
self.possible_display_elementsi – 1.finder(container)
.after( self.possible_display_elementsplace_in_display_elements.create_element(slide) );
return;

}
container.prepend(
self.possible_display_elementsplace_in_display_elements.create_element(slide)
);
},
display_answer : function(question, question_index, answer)
var displayed_slide = question.previously_selected ?
question.previously_selected :
question.question;
var slide = container_elem.find(‘.question_’ + question_index + ‘ .question’);
slide.addClass(‘revealed_answer’);
for (var i = 0; i < self.possible_display_elements.length; i++)
var display_value = self.possible_display_elementsi.name;
if ( answerdisplay_value !== displayed_slidedisplay_value )
if ( !answerdisplay_value )
self.possible_display_elementsi.finder(slide).remove();
else if ( !displayed_slidedisplay_value )
self.add_display_in_correct_place(slide, i, answer);
else
self.possible_display_elementsi.finder(slide).replaceWith(
self.possible_display_elementsi.create_element( answer )
);

}
}
},

create_cover : function()
cover = $(‘#’ + self.container);
container_elem = $(”);
cover.append(container_elem);
container_elem.addClass(‘quiz_container’);
container_elem.css(‘padding’, ‘0px’);
,
update_how_you_did_element: function()
var right_answers = 0;
var user_answers = self.cheating ? cheater_answer_tracking : answer_tracking;
var unfinished = false;
for (var i = 0; i < self.quiz_data.length; i++)
if (typeof(answer_trackingi) === ‘undefined’)
unfinished = true;

if (user_answersi)
right_answers++;

}
var html;
if (unfinished && typeof(this.not_finished_html) !== ‘undefined’)
html = this.not_finished_html;
else
html = this.results_dataright_answers;

how_you_did_element.html(html);
}
};
return quiz.init(quiz_data, results_data, options);
};

$.fn.quiz = function(quiz_data, results_data, options)
if (!options) options = results_data; results_data = null;
if (!options) options = ; }
options.container = this.attr(‘id’);
this.quiz = $.quiz(quiz_data, results_data, options);
return this;
};
})(jQuery);

var quiz = jQuery(‘#quiz_container’).quiz(‘1EeGW-Yb3WO_LIv1Qw-jMXQbuiZGTag6XHzohSNlCGN4’);
Photo credits: Trump: Allen Eyestone/Zuma; Romney: Eric Draper/Zuma

Original article:

Who Said It: Donald Trump or Mitt Romney?

Posted in GE, ONA, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Who Said It: Donald Trump or Mitt Romney?

Ben Carson’s Super-PAC Is Still in It to Win It

by DLTClaribe Posted on March 3, 2016

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

Ben Carson’s presidential campaign may be nearing its end, but don’t tell his biggest fans, who are still out in force at the Conservative Political Action Conference, the annual confab just outside Washington, DC.

On Wednesday, Carson announced that he’d be skipping Thursday’s Republican debate and that he didn’t “see a political path forward in light of last evening’s Super Tuesday primary results.” He promised more news at his CPAC speech scheduled for Friday afternoon.

But in the basement exhibition hall at the Gaylord National Harbor Hotel, Beth Trivett was still handing out Ben Carson 2016 car decals and “I Like Ben” buttons. Trivett was manning the booth for the 2016 Committee, the main super-PAC backing Carson’s campaign. “The brilliant doctor generally has a plan,” Trivett told me when I asked if it was dispiriting to be campaigning for Carson right before he likely ends his presidential run.

Still, while upbeat about Carson in general, Trivett didn’t have nice things to say about the shape the presidential race had taken this year. “We all saw the media and parties literally lynch this brilliant man,” she said, pointing over her shoulder to a cardboard cutout of Carson.

There’s already been some talk that Carson could try his hand at another political run—perhaps for Marco Rubio’s Senate seat in Florida. But Trivett, who was working with the group before Carson even entered the race, wasn’t sold on that idea. “We drafted him specifically to be the president,” Trivett said. “This was for POTUS. POTUS is still my preference.”

More:

Ben Carson’s Super-PAC Is Still in It to Win It

Posted in Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Ben Carson’s Super-PAC Is Still in It to Win It

Hillary Clinton Just Won the South Carolina Primary

by CelsaLuster317 Posted on February 28, 2016

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

Hillary Clinton won the South Carolina Democratic primary handily on Saturday, according to multiple news outlets, which called the race as soon as the polls closed. Just days before Super Tuesday, her win underscores what many pundits have been saying all along—despite her opponent Bernie Sanders’ surprise success in early states, Clinton still holds critical sway among Southern black voters.

According to preliminary exit polls, more than 60 percent of South Carolina primary voters were black; an astounding 84 percent of them voted for Clinton. Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, have long been popular among black voters, while Sanders has struggled to make his message resonate in the state.

Clinton worked hard to consolidate her support in the lead-up to the primary, traveling to far-flung corners of the state and deploying Bill Clinton for good measure. Sanders, by contrast, appeared to be looking ahead to primaries in other states.

The real test for both campaigns comes Tuesday, when 11 states, American Samoa, and Democrats abroad will all vote on their choice for the Democratic nomination.

This story has been updated.

More:  

Hillary Clinton Just Won the South Carolina Primary

Posted in alo, Anchor, Everyone, FF, GE, LG, ONA, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Hillary Clinton Just Won the South Carolina Primary