Relief, sort-of, at the Wisconsin primary results

Last updated on: April 5, 2016 at 9:25 pm by Jane the Actuary

Relief, sort-of, at the Wisconsin primary results 2016-04-05T21:25:32-06:00 Jane the Actuary

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So I’m here at the computer, looking at the screen refresh at Real Clear Politics, telling me that Cruz has resoundingly trounced Trump, with nearly a 20 point margin, while I procrastinate on washing up the dishes in the kitchen.

(I made a batter-fried chicken recipe, in another of my series of experiments with the new deep-fat fryer, since Valli Produce had skinned chicken drumsticks on sale last weekend. It came out OK, but the batter stuck to the basket, and only afterwards did I check online and find recommendations to not set it in the basket but lower the chicken pieces into the oil directly and let them cook for a few seconds before letting go. It was also a cornmeal batter, so it had a certain corndog taste to it that the kids liked. But now I’ve got a lot of cleaning up in the kitchen.)

On the one hand, really, it’s a relief, to see that tonight’s results further reduce the likelihood of Trump getting an outright majority come the conclusion of the primary/caucus process. Presuming that, indeed, no one has a majority, what happens at the convention is anyone’s guess (and we’ll be just returning from our trip to Europe when it starts, so I’ll even miss a lot of the debate and discussion and punditry just beforehand), but it seems highly unlikely that Trump will succeed in luring other delegates onto his side, which means that at least the nightmarish scenario of Trump vs. Clinton wouldn’t come to pass.

But Cruz? It’s a crazy world in which it’s a relief to see him coming out on top. Sure, I cringe when I hear people criticizing the smirky quality to his smile — partly because I come from a long line of bad smilers and think it has nothing to do with one’s sincerity and a lot more to do with whether your face cooperates. But it’s still an upside-down world in which you’re pleased to see Cruz — supporter of the flat tax, of carpet-bombing ISIS-held territory, of returning to the Gold Standard, who kicked off his campaign at Liberty University, whose debate answers about the hard times many people are experiencing always turn to his tax plan as the solution to all ills, who claims he’ll eliminate the IRS (and sheepishly admits that some agency will have to administer tax collection), as well as the Departments of Energy, Education, Commerce, and HUD, who has no healthcare plan to speak of other than to “open insurance markets across state lines, expand Health Savings Accounts, and delink health insurance from employment” (really, that’s all his website says, and apparently there isn’t any detailed plan behind that list of items, no tax credits, for instance, or changes in tax treatment of employer-sponsored plans, for instance, to implement the delinkage), oh, c***, this is depressing, suck it up, if Carly can support him, you can too — when you’re pleased to see Cruz win a primary.

But, beyond that, it’s always fun to see Sanders win a Democratic primary. Does he have a chance of winning the majority of electorally-determined votes and leaving the nomination in the hands of the party-insider superdelegates? Probably not much of one, but wouldn’t that be a entertaining outcome, to watch a battle over whether The People or The Establishment have their way?

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