Courtesy of ZeroHedge. View original post here.
Update: Clinton wins Virginia, Sanders wins Vermont (obvioulsy), and Trump wins Georgia.
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The polls are closing on Super Tuesday with Donald Trump and Hilllary Clinton expected to lock up the GOP and Democratic nominations, respectively. Here's the up-to-date delegate breakdown:
Stay tuned for live coverage.
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Super Tuesday is upon us and we’re about to find out whether Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton will run the table on rivals and lock up their respective party nominations.
“About half of the delegates needed for a Republican candidate to win the nomination are at stake, plus about a third for Democrats,” Bloomberg notes. “In roughly a dozen state races, Republican front-runner Donald Trump and Democratic leader Hillary Clinton seem poised to win in landslides that could render them nearly inevitable.”
In other words, this is it for Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, and the incomparable Bernie Sanders. Either they pull off a miracle today or we’re about to witness a billionaire reality TV host square off against a former Secretary of State who is being investigated by the FBI with the keys to The White House on the line.
It’s not winner-take-all, delegate wise, on the GOP side, so conceivably, Rubio and Cruz could "win" even if they lose (so to speak), but the outlook isn’t good on the Republican side if your name isn’t Donald Trump.
Bloomberg is out with a preview of six separate predictions for today’s polls. You can read the full breakdown here, but the following two tables do a nice job of summarizing the outlook:
Meanwhile, a new CNN/ORC poll suggests that both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders would beat Trump handily in the national election. "In the scenario that appears most likely to emerge from the primary contests, Clinton tops Trump 52% to 44% among registered voters," CNN says. "That result has tilted in Clinton's favor since the last CNN/ORC Poll on the match-up in January."
According to the poll, Clinton faces a tougher battle against Cruz or Rubio. In fact, in a head-to-head battle, Rubio or Cruz would win, according to the same poll.
Frankly, we're incredulous. The idea that Clinton would lose to Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio but would beat Trump handily seems dubious at best given what we've seen in New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina. Cruz is flagging and Rubio, although polished, comes across as nervous and inexperienced under fire. Trump is.. well.. just Trump. Nothing sticks in the way of criticism.
"Nearly 600 delegates are up for grabs on Super Tuesday — the most for any day of the 2016 primary season," WaPo notes. "The bulk of them come from seven Southern contests, including the day’s biggest prize: Texas." Here's the visual breakdown:
And here's a look ahead:
"Voters' choices broken out by party provide an interesting window into areas where Trump might hold cross-party appeal," CNN says. "Though the share of leaned Republicans choosing Clinton on any of the tested issues tops out at 8% on health care, Trump is the most trusted for 15% of leaned Democrats on terrorism, 14% on the economy and 13% on immigration."
Still, there's significant push back against the GOP frontrunner. Indeed, some say many Republicans would vote for Hillary rather than watch Trump steamroll his way into the White House. But according to some polls, it's far too close to call:
Of course after Tuesday, the argument will no longer be relegated to the realm of the hypothetical.
If things go as planned today, we're going to get to watch the Hillary versus Trump battle play out in real life, which will inevitably provide all types of entertainment value. And if that's not a good enough reason to root for the billionaire and the former First Lady on Super Tuesday, we don't know what is.
