Can we get back to politics, please?

So after a two-week hiatus, we had another primary last night.  In Wisconsin.  On the GOP side, this happened:

and on the Dem side, this:

Let’s start with Sanders and the Dem side.

Yes, he “won” in that he got more delegates.  But who cares about a win when you’re so far behind?

Required reading at this point, if you’re a Democrat or care about the Dem primaries, is this from Nate Silver: It’s Really Hard To Get Bernie Sanders 988 More Delegates.  The title of the piece says it all.  Silver bent over backward to conjure what Bernie needed and his most likely path to actually getting a majority.  Check this out:

Now, be assured…. this is not a prediction.  This is merely looking at the states and saying that if Bernie needs to get to 988, then what happens in the right hand column must happen from now on.  And if he falls short, he has to make it up somewhere else.

Last night Bernie won Wisconsin by +13.  Silver said he needed to win by +16.  So, pretty close.  At best, Bernie is on track to beat Hillary….  provided he keeps this up everywhere.  Including a win of +48 in Oregon.

Don’t hold your breath.

Also, you’ve likely heard that Bernie Sanders’ interview with the New York Daily News editorial board did not go well. You can read it for yourself here.  That was a crash-and-burn.

On the GOP side, I think there’s a lot of hype and breathlessness about Cruz’s win.  Yes, it does make an open convention more likely, but I’m not convinced there isn’t some “wishful thinking” in the media, who would obviously love an open convention. The next primaries, mostly in the Northeast, are Trump-friendly.  He needs to average about 60% of the remaining delegates.  That’s still do-able.