The Bhutanese Leading the way.
A political earthquake, with its epicenter in Indiana shook the USA on 3rd May when Republican candidate Ted Cruz dropped out leaving the way clear for Donald Trump to be the Republican Presidential nominee. A day later, this path was made even more firm when John Kasich, the last competitor to Donald Trump also read the writing on the wall and dropped out.
The Republican National Committee (RNC) also declared Donald Trump as the presumptive nominee of the party on the same evening and called for party unity asking its members to rally around Trump.
This happened after Ted Cruz lost by a huge margin getting only 36.7 percent of the votes compared to Trump’s 53.3 percent in the Indiana primary race. The major margin meant that most of the 57 Republican delegates of Indiana went to Trump.
Ted Cruz said that he had promised to stay in the race as long as there was a viable path to victory.
“Tonight I am sorry to say that path has been foreclosed. Together we left all on the field in Indiana and we gave everything we got, but the voters chose another path. With a heavy heart but boundless optimism for the future of the nation I am suspending the campaign,” said Cruz.
Indiana was always considered to be the one last stand against Trump for the Cruz campaign and also many in the RNC who wanted to stop Trump. A few months ago Cruz was also leading in opinion polls here. However, everything changed with the Trump momentum that swept across the state.
Trump already has 1,053 delegates and needs a total of only 1,237 to become the nominee. This is just a formality now with Ted Cruz and Kasich not in the race.
On the other hand, despite a spirited campaign by Bernie Sanders the Democratic race for all purposes and intent is over as Clinton enjoys a huge lead. Though Bernie is yet to give up his campaign and has had an important impact the numbers does not add up for him.
Trump in his speech struck a conciliatory tone saying that Ted Cruz was ‘one hell of a competitor’ and a ‘tough and smart guy’ with an ‘incredible future’. Trump also praised his other past competitors. He called for party unity and stated that he would win the Presidency in November.
In around a 20 minute speech Trump relisted his familiar themes on ‘winning’ with the military, generating jobs, renegotiating trade and putting an America first foreign policy.
He threatened consequences for American companies firing American workers and leaving for foreign shores to set up factories.
One fall out of Trumps highly divisive and personalized campaigned that attacked even Ted Cruz’s wife and father is that Ted Cruz did not endorse Trump as is normally the tradition to do so.
Meanwhile, in the same evening, the Chairman of Hillary’s campaign John Podesta issued a statement against Donald Trump.
The statement said “Fundamentally, our next president will need to do two things: keep our nation safe in a dangerous world and help working families get ahead here at home. Donald Trump is not prepared to do either.”
The statement said that throughout the campaign, Donald Trump has demonstrated that he is too divisive and lacks the temperament to lead USA and the free world. It said that with so much at stake, Donald Trump is simply too big of a risk.
The statement said that Hillary Clinton has proven that she has the strength to keep USA safe in an uncertain world along with a lifelong record of fighting to break down the barriers–economic and social–that hold working families back.
“While Donald Trump seeks to bully and divide Americans, Hillary Clinton will unite us to create an economy that works for everyone,” the statement said.
Hillary a day later called Trump a loose cannon and her campaign launched some advertisements against him.
However, at the same time Bernie Sander’s refusal to call it quits will mean that Hillary Clinton will not be able to fully focus on Trump and will also mean that the Democratic Party will take a longer time to finalize its candidate before uniting to take on Trump.
