It's over for Ted Cruz.

Cruz drops out of presidential race following major defeat by Trump in Indiana:

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz on Tuesday suspended his presidential bid for the Republican nomination following a crushing defeat by Donald Trump in the Indiana primary.
Cruz told dismayed supporters the path to victory had been closed.

Now watch the Media Party and its candidate Hillary really come after Trump.  And vice versa.  This will be fun to watch!

The great and not-so-great debates

The not-so-great debate
Last night's Macleans/Rogers leaders' debate was painful to watch. It was a heavily sloped (one against four) playing field with a lone Stephen Harper facing off against three opposition party leaders and a Media Party Trudeau cheerleader, Paul Wells, who "moderated".

Predictably, the Media Party's National Post front page opinion column by another Trudeau cheer leader was headlined: "Billed as a gaffe-prone bumbler, Trudeau surprises with solid performance".
 
Well, at least the "gaffe prone bumbler" part of that sentence is accurate.  Justin has no record to defend, except for his ultra-thin resume, his bumbling, his gaffes, his broken promises, his shameless collection of speaking fees from charities and schools while still an MP.  However, none of that was challenged last night.  If this had been a debate run by, say, Fox News professionals he would have had to answer for all of it.  But, like the NP and Michael Den Tandt, Paul Wells has been a Trudeau cheerleader from day one.  Neither Den Tandt nor Wells has ever exposed any of Trudeau's bumbling and contradictions to daylight for the public to see and assess.  They have instead, to their discredit, consciously covered for him and they continue to do so.

In spite of having to deal with four opponents, Stephen Harper still came out ahead.

"Mad Tom" Mulcair
Oh, and one thing about Tom Mulcair - his smile looked like it had been botox'd in place (though it faded towards the end of the evening).  Together with his wide-eyed stare this gave him a bit of a crazed appearance.  So, he's managed to change his demeanor from "angry Tom" to "mad Tom".

The great debate
After getting tired of wincing during the Canadian leaders' debate, I switched to the Fox News hosted Republican top-ten candidates' debate in Cleveland, Ohio.  Now that was something to behold.  Ten contenders for the Republican nomination on one stage in a two-hour debate, tightly moderated by three exceptionally talented TV journalists.  The moderators pulled no punches in grilling the candidates who in turn gave frank, concise and sometimes funny answers.  Unlike the Canadian debate, there was suspense, there was drama, there was action and there was comedy - it was absolutely fabulous.

The morning after

Mary Matalin - Mendacity and Malice Won:

What happened? A political narcissistic sociopath leveraged fear and ignorance with a campaign marked by mendacity and malice rather than a mandate for resurgence and reform.  Instead of using his high office to articulate a vision for our future, Obama used it as a vehicle for character assassination, replete with unrelenting and destructive distortion, derision, and division.

... Unfortunately and unfortuitously, forces of nature bookended the general election: Our convention was compromised by one weather disaster and our momentum stalled by another. Two human hurricanes also radically altered the political atmosphere: Bill Clinton’s unique windbaggery constituted a campaign updraft, while Chris Christie’s deplorable and gratuitous gas-baggery infused the campaign with a toxic political pollution.

John O'Sullivan - Barack Obama’s new ethnic majority:

... it was misleading [of Obama] to describe his 2012 election campaign as a continuation of his earlier ‘movement for change’. In reality, it has been a smoothly ruthless operation to distract attention from a record that has been disappointingly bereft of change. He triumphed over himself as much as over the hapless Mitt Romney.

... The coming majority implies a different set of political priorities for the US government. A younger, poorer, less self-reliant electorate, rooted mainly in minority communities, is likely to demand a larger welfare state, greater regulation, more unionisation, higher government spending and higher taxes, initially ‘on the rich’.

Victor Davis Hanson -Three Ways of Explaining Defeat

Conservatives are divided, acrimoniously so, over three schools of explaining The Defeat.

1. The Near Fatalists. ...
2. The Should’ve, Could’ve, Would’ve What If-ers. ...
3. The Big Tenters. ...

Dow Jones Industrials


















Conservatives have their work cut out.

Clint rocks!

Michael Higgins has a good take on Clint Eastwood's performance Thursday night:

... Critics, not for the first time, panned him. Social media excoriated him, and liberals labelled him “weird” and “strange” because — shock! — he talked to an empty chair.

Which just goes to show how these people have lost their sense of humour and the ability to link actors to props. ...

It was a hilarious send-up of Obama.  Liberals hated it - so much the better. 

Mark Steyn - Play Clinty For Me :

... Clint is a brilliant actor, and a superb director of other actors (...In the last five years, he’s directed eight films) ... . He’s also ... a terrific jazz improviser at the piano — and, in film and music documentaries, an extremely articulate interviewee. So I wouldn’t assume that the general tenor of his performance wasn’t exactly as he intended. The hair was a clue: No Hollywood icon goes out on stage like that unless he means to.

Oh, and next time ’round, he should sing.

Update [via sda] "Monday - Empty Chair Day":

The sign next to the chair says:
“We own this country . . . Politicians are employees of ours . . .
 And when somebody does not do the job, we’ve got to let them go.”
– Clint Eastwood

America, "Home of the Wimp"

Dennis Prager on the cancellation of day one of the GOP Convention:

Whoever decided to cancel one-fourth of the convention two days before it started should appear publicly and offer a rational defense of this decision. But I doubt they will. Because there is no rational explanation.

This is no Monday-morning quarterbacking. I said this decision was indefensible when it was first taken.

It is part of the undoing of the American claim to be the Home of the Brave. We are becoming the Home of the Wimp. ...

Seconded by Mark Steyn:  Rain of Terror

... The symbolism is wretched: Digging America out of its multi-trillion-dollar hole requires boldness and bravery, not a compliant safety-first mentality that shuts down the town on the first drop of rain. ...

EVERYBODY knows that Republicans are EVIL!