The implosion of Senator Ted Cruz’s candidacy is, at this point, a self-fulfilling prophecy.  This is the danger phase; the phase we have warned about for the past several weeks.
In the past month, in an attempt to protect his viability, Senator Cruz has ducked all requests from media he has defined as ‘unfavorable’ to his campaign.  However, the last several weeks have created a situation where he’s now beyond desperate.  The Hail Carly didn’t help.
The downward slope is now too steep – his running desperate.  His physical ability to keep his feet under him is exhausted,…. and he just noticed the sloped gradient is worsening…. he’s about to fall:

NBC/WSJ has released a new poll (full pdf below) of Indiana republicans.  Donald Trump holds a significant 15 point lead over Senator Ted Cruz, and a 36 point lead over Ohio Governor John Kasich.
When Kasich is removed from the polled equation, to allow for a head-to-head comparison, Donald Trump beats Ted Cruz 53 / 42.

[…] “In Indiana, Trump is positioned to corral all the [state’s 57] delegates, which will be a big prize toward winning the nomination outright,” says Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion. “Clinton and Sanders are more likely to divide the delegate pool, which will do little to change the narrative on the Democratic side.” (link)

Via NBC – […] The NBC/WSJ/Marist poll was conducted April 26-28 — so mostly after Trump’s six-consecutive primary victories in Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states, as well as after Cruz and Kasich announced an alliance/truce, whereby Kasich wouldn’t campaign in Indiana to help Cruz (in exchange for Cruz not campaigning in Oregon and New Mexico).
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The second Trump rally of the day is taking place in Fort Wayne, IN at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum. The event is scheduled to begin at 4:00pm Eastern time.
Live Stream Link – Alternate Live Stream #1 – Alternate Live Stream #2

Donald Trump is holding two campaign rallies today in Indiana.  The first is in Terre Haute, IN at the Indiana Theater.  The event is to begin at 1:00pm Eastern:
Live Stream Link – Alternate Live Stream #1 – Alternate Live Stream #2

Indiana – On the heels of several campaign rallies where Ted Cruz failed to attract more than a few hundred die-hard supporters, some new data-sets show even more evidence to a continuing trend that began four weeks ago.

Ted Cruz has a net non-favorable rating amid Republican voters (Per Gallup) and the addition of Carly Fiorina has only worsened the condition of the Ted Cruz campaign.
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CNN has the strongest surge in ratings in the past 14 years and now beats Fox News in the all important category of 25-54 year old viewership.  That age category drives the ad revenue determinations for the industry.
Fox News can’t say they were not warned this would be an outcome of their insufferable decision to continue promoting a media narrative in opposition to Donald Trump. The same thing happened to Macys Department Store after they dropped Trump.

(Via CNN) CNN ranked #1 in cable news in prime time in April. CNN beat Fox News for the fifth time in the last eight months in M-Su prime time (four of the past eight in M-F prime) among adults 25-54.  The last time CNN had this many prime time wins in an eight-month period versus Fox News was over 14 years ago (Nov. 2001). (more…)

In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “2016 Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the Presidential Race and/or any of the candidates therein.

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.
For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

…and it appears they have good reason to be concerned.  Reminder of the election results. Arizona Primary Election:

• Donald Trump 286,743 votes

• Ted Cruz 172,294 votes

Arizona – Upset that Donald Trump received just a handful of statewide delegates during an electronic vote, his Arizona campaign manager is threatening to sue the Arizona Republican Party.

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In 2009 the popular conservative opinion was to declare the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision a win for “our side”.   Of course, the decision ultimately opened the floodgates for unlimited corporate spending in elections via the new Super-PAC approach.
In 2016 90% of all American’s polled believe there is too much special interest money in politics, and both political parties no longer need the financial support of the electorate.  Corporate lobbyists were always problematic, but now in a post CU world they control almost every aspect of electoral politics – including who wins elections.  Citizens United wasn’t a win, its consequence was a major fail.

Within that reality you find one of the synergies between candidate Donald Trump and candidate Bernie Sanders.  The popular insurgencies supporting each candidate rail against the corrupting corporate financial influence. Party leadership? Meh, not-so-much.
Of course it would only take RNC and DNC rules changes, ie. self-regulation, to stop the problem of unlimited corporate funding; but when the political party leadership has that much access to money, well, they have no interest in regulating it away.  Ergo, legislation becomes the only option and the legislators would be writing law against their own financial interests…. Yeah, FUBAR.
To wit, one of the shifts amid the “common sense” electorate is the general perception that Citizens United is no longer viewed as a win.  However, with all the discussions on bad Trade Deals there’s also another shift coming into focus, the Import/Export bank.
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