Ted Cruz won 34 delegates in Colorado on Saturday. The state GOP awarded him 13 delegates on the convention floor, which he then added to the 21 delegates from congressional districts which he won on Friday.
Sometime on Sunday evening, Donald Trump decided that this was totally unfair. And because this is Trump we’re talking about, he went a-tweeting.
How is it possible that the people of the great State of Colorado never got to vote in the Republican Primary? Great anger – totally unfair!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 11, 2016
The people of Colorado had their vote taken away from them by the phony politicians. Biggest story in politics. This will not be allowed!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 11, 2016
And even Matt Drudge flipped out, putting Trump’s concerns in all in red on his website.
And he tweeted about it as well.
https://twitter.com/DRUDGE/status/719337730673676288
Apparently, neither Drudge nor Trump bothered to do any research and note the fact that the Colorado Republican party decided to completely change their delegate selection process… in August of LAST YEAR.
Colorado will not vote for a Republican candidate for president at its 2016 caucus after party leaders approved a little-noticed shift that may diminish the state’s clout in the most open nomination contest in the modern era.
The GOP executive committee has voted to cancel the traditional presidential preference poll after the national party changed its rules to require a state’s delegates to support the candidate who wins the caucus vote.
The move makes Colorado the only state so far to forfeit a role in the early nomination process, according to political experts, but other caucus states are still considering how to adapt to the new rule.
I know Donald Trump believes that everything is all about him, but no, the Colorado GOP did not change its rules last August just to spite him.
@realDonaldTrump Which chapter of "Art of the Deal" is on whining about the rules after you lose. There's no index.
— pourmecoffee (@pourmecoffee) April 10, 2016
And because the Cruz campaign has a better ground game, they won. This is not cheating. This is actually reading up on the current rules and then playing to win.
… Cruz supporters worked quietly behind the scenes to build an organization to get like-minded Republicans to the March 1 precinct caucuses and capitalized on the Trump campaign’s failure to adapt to the system.
Trump’s campaign didn’t put a visible paid staffer on the ground in Colorado until last week, when it hired Patrick Davis, a Colorado Springs political consultant, to organize national delegate candidates at the 7th Congressional District convention in Arvada. By then, Cruz had won the first six delegates.
Even then, the energy behind Trump’s campaign didn’t materialize in support. He managed to win only seven alternate delegates.
The Trump campaign’s list of preferred national delegates distributed at the state convention on Saturday was riddled with errors and misspellings that only further hurt its chances.
The problems with Trump’s ballots — and the candidate’s comments — raise questions about whether Colorado will figure prominently into a challenge at the national convention about the state’s delegates.
Ahead of the state convention, a Trump campaign strategist said it made the strategic decision not to compete in Colorado because the caucus system favored party insiders.
Trump skipped the state party convention, where Cruz gave a rousing speech that galvanized his supporters.
So no, this is not some grand conspiracy to deprive Colorado voters of their vote. This was a decision made by the Colorado GOP to pick their delegates in a manner of their own choosing.
When you don't understand that parties are private organizations https://t.co/rIJGxWuaok
— John Holtz (@presidentjlh) April 11, 2016
When you don’t read the rules, and you lose out, don’t go whining about how unfair the game was. It makes you look weak. Apparently, no one has ever had the guts to tell that to Donald Trump – or Matt Drudge.
Heh, this morning Drudge has the August 2015 stuff up on his page – labeling it as “CO Republicans Cancel Elections” or some such.
Drudge is totally in the tank for Trump. (As well as other agendas.)
I will reiterate: It’s their party and they can do what they wish to determine their party’s nominee.
If we want something different, then we have to change things locally, first (like CO did), or we have to set up our own party that works the way we wish!
Yep, Drudge is definitely in the tank. Headlines he has up are super deceptive.
Fact of the matter is, Trump KNEW the process in CO was changed in August. As I recall, all the candidates were so informed. He has only himself to blame for not putting a strong viable ground game in place until 10 days ago… which also meant that his people totally missed out on the local caucuses in early March.
The distinction between simply being anti-Trump (and probably pro-establishment) and being anti-establishment and not pro-Trump is whether you understand that this is why we have Trump, or not.
(h/t PowerLine)
You’d do well to read this
http://americandigest.org/mt-archives/american_studies/the_burning_issue_goodbye.php
A smug, snarky attitude is not only a sure sign of a dying Party and a losing Campaign…but also an provocation/invitation to rebellion.
Copied and pasted two minutes later to Stuart Schneiderman’s “Had Enough Therapy” blog, commenting as anonymous. How many other spots did you post this nonsense to? Under how many names? http://stuartschneiderman.blogspot.ca/2016/04/is-ted-cruz-electable.html
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