The full results.
Clinton will be the Democratic nominee, which we knew after her landslide victory in South Carolina and her respectable victory in Nevada. The problem facing Bernie Sanders is pretty simple: African-Americans are not voting for him in meaningful numbers. Clinton won by lopsided margins in all the Southern states (Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas, Arkansas, Virginia), and also squeaked out a victory in Massachussetts. Sanders carried his home state, Vermont, by a landslide, but much more interestingly won by sizeable margins in Minnesota, Oklahoma, and Colorado; neither Colorado nor Minnesota has a large African-American population, but Colorado has many Hispanics, who, as Nevada showed, are more receptive to Sanders (I don't know the demographic on Oklahoma, but I believe it is also a fairly white state). I expect him to carry on perhaps through the convention, thus pushing Clinton to the left.
Meanwhile, in Mordor: despite being the frontrunner since forever now, Trump still can't get Republican primary voters to rally to him. Although he won seven states (Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Massachussetts, Virginia, Vermont), in all but Alabama and Massachussetts (!), the next two highest vote getters got more votes than he did; indeed, Trump won three states by slender margins: Arkansas (Cruz was a close second), Virginia (Rubio), and Vermont (Kasich). In no state did he command a majority. Cruz won Texas, Oklahoma, and Alaska, and Rubio won Minnesota. Kasich and Carson continue to siphon Republican votes away for no discernible purpose.
I think all Democratic and civilized voters should throw their support behind Ted Cruz at this point: unlike Trump, he has no prospect of appealing to so-called "moderate" or "independent" voters in a general election, and will be much easier for Clinton to defeat. And if he and Rubio stay in this, they may yet deprive Trump of a clear win in the delegate count come the convention, at which point the "Establishment" will block Trump (though doing so will also cost them the general election happily, as mad Trump voters either stay home or vote for him a third party candidate).
Comments are open for any thoughts from readers on this on-going circus.
ADDENDUM: This is a pretty useful analysis of how Trump under-performed expectations on Super Tuesday, and also why he will still be destroyed, if not in the nomination fight, then in the general election.
