President Obama pushed last night’s primary results out of the headlines by nominating federal appeals court judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court. On that subject:
- Republicans are showing no sign of backing off from their logically questionable claim that “the American people” should decide the next Supreme Court nominee by voting in an election that’s not until November.
- This despite several Republicans having voted to confirm Garland to his previous position and even having praised him recently as a potential good-faith compromise candidate.
- The upshot is that Obama seems to have anticipated this and probably picked Garland specifically because he’s so moderate that the GOP will look ridiculous when they block him for the next eight months. Obama can then ultimately withdraw Garland’s nomination, this line of thinking goes, allowing Hypothetical President Hillary to nominate someone more liberal when she has the electoral wind at her back and the GOP has sunk even further in the public’s esteem because of its obstructionism.
And regarding those Tuesday primaries:
- Hillary did well enough that it’s fair to now call her the presumptive Democratic nominee.
- Trump also did well—then gave his victory speech while standing with a crew of offputting dopes including his sleazy campaign manager, who was accused of assault this week.
- Marco Rubio did not do well. In fact, he did so badly that he dropped out of the race. Good riddance, Marco! You were pretty dishonest and didn’t run a smart campaign.
- In Illinois’ primary, in which voters cast ballots for specific candidate-affiliated delegates, several Trump delegates with non-white-sounding names (Sadiq, Uribe) received fewer votes than comparable Trump delegates with names like Hartmann and Nordstrom.
Have a good night out there.
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