Tuesday thoughts

This past Tuesday was a big deal for the USA, as Drumpf and Clinton both became the presumptive nominees of their respective parties. No one seemed surprised by that, nor should they have been: It was obvious all along.

The fact that Drumpf did well in the Northeast surprised no one: It’s his region, and if he hadn’t done well, THAT would have been news. His margins were “yuge” in many cases, which tells us pretty much nothing: The extreme far-right Canadian-born Rafael “Ted” Cruz was never going to do well in the region, and Kasich, who differs from Cruz mainly in that he knows how to keep his mouth shut, did only marginally better as the “not Criz” and “not Drumpf” candidate, not because anyone actually wants him, because—clearly—hardly anyone does.

On the Democratic side, I’m amaized that anyone didn't see the results well in advance: All of the primaries were closed except for Rhode Island, so the results were entirely predictable: Bernie does well in open primaries, and Hillary beats him in closed primaries—this is not new or news. So, the results were exactly what I expected.

Hillary Clinton is now a little over 200 delegates away from the nomination, which means she is now the presumptive nominee: It’s mathematically impossible for Bernie Sanders to win enough delegates to get the Democratic nomination—that’s not partisan, or whatever, it's math.

If you look at the rest of the primaries, they're mostly closed, which favours Clinton. All she has to do is pick up is the most delegates in the remaining primaries and she could very possibly have the nomination locked up before California.

This is why Clinton has been saying such conciliatory things toward Sanders and his supporters: The contest is winding down and it’s time to unite the party. Sanders indicated that he’ll be continuing in an effort to make the Democratic platform more progressive, which is a worthy goal, even though no one pays any attention to either party’s platform, except to get annoyed/angry. Or, so it seems.

So, the results of Tuesday were no surprise whatsoever, and we now have the presumptive nominees for both parties. What happens next will say a lot about the character of both parties.