Super Night for Clinton and Trump

Donald Trump enters the Oscar De LA Renta Fashion Show, New York. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In several states and territories, March 1 was Super Tuesday, a chance for the remaining 2016 presidential candidates to rack up delegates by winning as many primaries and caucuses as they could to qualify for their party's nomination.  It also was the last realistic chance to slow down the campaign juggernauts of Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Turns out, there was something for everybody.  For the GOP, Senator Ted Cruz won his home state of Texas and Oklahoma to the north, while Florida's Senator Marco Rubio got his first win in Minnesota.  For the Democrats, Senator Bernie Sanders did better.  He won his home state of Vermont plus Oklahoma, Minnesota and Colorado.

But Trump and Clinton each won seven states Tuesday, most of them in the South, giving them substantial leads in the delegate counts.  That's going to make it real difficult for their opponents to be anything other than spoilers.

According to ABC News.com, Trump currently has 319 delegates (he needs 1237 to clinch the GOP nomination), Cruz has 226 and Rubio 110.  Among Democrats, Clinton has a 581-338 lead over Sanders (including superdelegates).  She needs 2383 to win.

What does Super Tuesday tell us?  For former Secretary of State Clinton, it means that Democrats seem to prefer a candidate with experience who will continue President Barack Obama's policies, and not the rabble-rousing alternative of Sanders' policies.

Trump?  It's past time to take this guy seriously.  The New York billionaire has tapped into the fear and loathing of those who think they're being left behind, and appreciate his big talk about making America great again.  Minorities, women and certain religions "losers"?  Build a wall on the border with Mexico and making them pay for it?  Tacit approval of the KKK?  No matter how ugly Trump's rhetoric gets, his approval rating keeps going up "tremendously".

If Trump should become the Republican presidential nominee, the party will have no one to blame but themselves.  The GOP, more than anyone else, have brought the country to a standstill with their endless shenanigans in Washington that's been going on since Obama first took the oath of office.  They're even willing to wait a whole year before filling the vacancy in the Supreme Court, which was created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, preferably with a Republican president making the pick.  They're the ones who fell asleep at the switch when Trump was rising, and are now scrambling to find a way to bring him down before it's too late.

We will soon be left with Donald Trump vs. Hillary Clinton (and maybe a third-party candidate?) on the next Super Tuesday.  That's Election Day in November.  As Trump would say, this one's gonna be "yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge".