Trump Trumps Tuesday
Trump wins most, but Cruz swipes three states. UPI: "Trump did not, however, win the night's single biggest prize: Texas. The Lone Star State chose Sen. Ted Cruz [as did] neighboring Oklahoma and in Alaska ... making Cruz the only candidate to win multiple states other than Trump."
Sen. Lindsey Graham suggests party rally behind Cruz. Time: "...just days after he joked about killing Cruz on the floor of the Senate [Graham said] 'we may be in a position where we have to rally around Ted Cruz as the only way to stop Donald Trump, and I’m not so sure that would work.'"
Rubio reeling. Politico: "Rubio won just a single state ... damning for Rubio’s argument that rivals Ben Carson and Ohio Gov. John Kasich should drop out so that center-right conservatives can consolidate behind him ... Rubio is trailing Trump in the polls in Florida, and his backers say they know he needs to have a large Miami-Dade turnout to have a shot at winning the state on March 15 ... Their strategy relies on picking off enough delegates to hold Trump below the 1,237 delegates needed to secure the nomination ..."
Republican Super PAC aims to stop Trump. W. Post: "...a new television advertisement ... portrays him as a predatory huckster who scammed working- and middle-class Americans ...
Negative ads had some impact against Trump. NYT: "The Club for Growth ... highlighted ads that it had run against Mr. Trump in Arkansas and Oklahoma leading up to the primaries. Mr. Trump won Arkansas and lost Oklahoma, but in both states, he received less than 35 percent of the vote."
Hillary Builds Solid Delegate Lead
Sanders pledges to fight on after tough Super Tuesday. NBC: "Hillary Clinton took a decisive step toward locking down the Democratic presidential nomination on Super Tuesday, winning seven of the 11 states ... Sanders made it clear he's going nowhere. 'At the end of tonight ... 35 states remain. And let me assure you, we are going to take our fight ... to every one of those states.'"
Bernie faces a daunting map. Mother Jones: "...Clinton's best states—basically, southern states with high African American populations—will all have voted by the middle of March. After Kansas, Nebraska, and Louisiana vote on Saturday (where the prospects are good, good, and very bad for Sanders, respectively), he'll hit a brutal two-week stretch in which 980 delegates will be awarded in Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Florida, Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina, and Ohio. Clinton is the clear favorite in almost all of those states."
But has reason to stay in. Politico: "...he wants to out-raise Clinton ... to prove Democrats can thrive financially by locking out the special interest donors ... [And he] has been telling people around him that he cannot bow out as long as continues to poll better than Clinton in some head-to-head match-ups ... Those close to Sanders said they expect he’ll use the next two weeks to decide on his path forward, while understanding that the calendar and the delegate math do not add up for him."
Can the Sanders revolution impact down-ballot races? Suzy Khimm in NYT oped: "Insurgent candidates can build up huge email lists and an army of eager volunteers, but if they’re operating independently from the party establishment there’s no obvious way for them to pass that knowledge on to the next breakout candidate ... [But] progressives are now trying to bridge the gap between movement activism and electoral politics.
Breakfast Sides
Obama and Biden endorse Rep. Patrick Murphy over Rep. Alan Grayson in FL Senate primary. The Hill: "The presidential endorsement is intended to be a shot in the arm for Murphy, who is running behind Grayson for a swing Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Marco Rubio (R) ... a Public Policy Polling survey showed Grayson leading Murphy 32 percent to 22 percent, though 45 percent of likely Democratic primary voters say they are undecided."
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac face new trouble. The Hill: "The government-controlled enterprises are hurtling toward a severe capital crunch that will leave no buffer for absorbing future losses, experts say, potentially putting taxpayers on the hook for another bailout ... Congress has yet to pass a plan that would wind them down, reduce the government’s mortgage footprint and create a new housing finance framework."
