Presidential primaries: With today’s Supreme Court ruling (unsigned, but apparently unanimous) that state-level Democratic officials cannot simply throw Donald Trump off the ballots in their states, we finally arrive tomorrow at the Super Tuesday presidential primaries. And no one even cares, because the outcome is a foregone conclusion. The nominations for both major parties are essentially settled. Usually, at this point, at least one of the parties still has a serious nomination contest on its hands, but not this year. The U.S. political scene hasn’t seen anything like this double-coronation since 2000. And that’s not quite accurate, because even in that dull primary year, John McCain (R) showed a bit of life by defeating George W. Bush in New Hampshire, and Bill Bradley at least made life challenging for Al Gore (D). Barring his resignation, a Democratic Party internal coup d’etat, or a revolt by his own delegates at this summer’s convention in Chicago, Joe Biden is locked in as the Democrats’ candidate. Although his replacement on the ballot is technically possible, we do not view it as a likely scenario. As we have put it repeatedly, they are stuck with him. Continue Reading >> |