SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:52 P.M. ET: 

CRUZ TAKES WYOMING – From the New York Post:  CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Taking time to campaign off the beaten path helped Ted Cruz dominate Republican county conventions in Wyoming, where he won nine of 12 national delegates at stake Saturday.  Good for Ted.  But the major contests are Tuesday, and may determine the rest of this race.  Ohio and Florida vote.  There is no way to determine what impact the drama surrounding the Trump rallies this weekend will have on the vote.  Some Trump people are suggesting that Trump will gain public sympathy and thus support.  Other analysts are saying that many voters may be repelled by the atmosphere at Trump events.

GOOD MOVE, OR NOT? – Both Marco Rubio and John Kasich are now suggesting that they may not back Donald Trump if he becomes the GOP candidate because of the atmosphere of tension, anger and occasional small-scale violence that has marked his campaign.  And Cruz has come down hard on Trump as well.  As we've noted, Trump can be seriously faulted for lapses in taste and language, and voters have a responsibility to weigh these matters when they decide.  However, I wish more emphasis would be placed on the real culprits – the violent leftists, anarchists, and "revolutionaries" who come to Trump rallies and provoke most of the trouble.  The coverage I've seen since yesterday, especially on CNN, has been militantly anti-Trump.  He's doing all this!  Not much probing into the motives and ideologies of the clowns who suddenly show up.  We've learned in earlier election cycles that, as the season moves along, the mainstream journalists fall into familiar patterns, and most go left.

RUBIO TAKES D.C. – Marco Rubio has won the District of Columbia caucuses, which voted today.  Trump came in third in D.C., as he did in Wyoming.  If truth be told, however, he didn't put much emphasis on either location.   Trump had no bragging rights at all today.  And this, from The Politico:   Hillary Clinton has won the Northern Mariana Islands Democratic caucus, winning 54 percent of the vote to Bernie Sanders 34 percent.  Clinton's win is worth 4 pledged delegates, according to the Associated Press vote data. Sanders collected 2 pledged delegates.  Actually, it was the Marines who won the Northern Marianas, but in the name of cultural harmony, we'll let it pass.

March 12, 2016