Cruz and Sanders Badger Trump and Clinton in Wisconsin

English: Ted Cruz at the Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The state of Wisconsin normally goes against the grain when it comes to choosing its leaders, and Tuesday night's primary was no exception.  Voters there chose Senator Ted Cruz of Texas over businessman Donald Trump on the Republican side, while Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont defeated former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the Democratic race, both by double digits.

The numbers, according to CNN.com, still say the front runners have little to worry about as far as delegates go.  Trump has 746, which is ahead of Cruz' 510 and Ohio Governor John Kasich's 145.  Trump needs 491 more to win the Republican nomination.  Meanwhile, Clinton leads with 1780 delegates to Sanders' 1099.  She needs 603 more for the Democrats to nominate her.

The "Dump Trump" bandwagon had a great week because The Donald really stepped into it, punching more holes into his candidacy than the cheese normally produced by the Dairy State (the kind you eat and the kind you wear on your head):  advocating the punishment of women for abortions (which even the pro-lifers took umbrage at), defending one of his staffers for allegedly injuring a female reporter, and posting unflattering photos of Cruz' wife.  What's more, some national polls are showing that more and more people are growing rather uneasy about a possible Trump presidency.  And still others say they support Trump, no matter what.

Another factor in Cruz' win was in getting endorsed by Wisconsin governor Scott Walker, who until recently was part of the crowd of GOP hopefuls.  Then Walker thought better of it and went back to ruining his own state.

Another sign that a Trump nomination is freaking out the GOP establishment are reports that Speaker of the House (and Wisconsin congressman) Paul Ryan is being persuaded by party officials to run as a compromise candidate.  But Ryan isn't interested, just like he wasn't interested in the Speaker job before he took it.  What part of "no" does the Republican Party not understand?

As for Sanders, he's now won several states in the Midwest and West (including Wisconsin and Minnesota) where there isn't a whole lot of diversity or plentiful numbers of delegates.  The next few primaries are in the Northeast, and that's home turf for both Trump and Clinton.

There have been plenty of calls for Cruz, Kasich and Sanders to get out of the race.  As long as they think Trump and Clinton are vulnerable, and as long as the money keeps coming in, they'll stay in it.  Then, just maybe, they'll have that brokered convention that everybody but Trump, Clinton and their supporters seems to want.