For anyone who didn't slog through the Super Tuesday coverage, here's the lowdown:

On the Democratic side: Hillary Clinton won 7 states: Georgia, Virginia, Alabama, Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas, and (in the narrowest victory on the Dem side all night) Massachusetts. Bernie Sanders won 4 states: Oklahoma, Colorado, Minnesota, and his home state of Vermont. None of these states are winner-take-all though, so each candidate took a percentage of delegates from each state despite who won what. That said, Clinton now has a commanding lead in delegates with 800+ earned from primaries, caucuses, and already pledged super-delegates, compared to 200+ for Bernie from the same sources.

On the Republican side: Donald Trump won 7 states: Georgia, Virginia, Vermont, Massachusetts, Alabama, Tennessee, and Arkansas. Ted Cruz won 2 states: Oklahoma and his home state of Texas. Marco Rubio won the state of Minnesota. John Kasich put on a good showing in Vermont and Massachusetts but only came in second and won no states while Ben Carson won no states nor did he come in the top 3 in any state voting on Super Tuesday. As of my typing the vote counting is still ongoing in Alaska, where it is currently too close to call between Cruz and Trump. These states are generally spreading their delegates out as well though the rules are a bit odder in that some states require a certain percentage of votes in order to earn any delegates, so in some cases a third place finisher may not wind up with any delegates if they came in under a certain threshold, which did occur in some cases. That said, Trump currently leads in delegates, followed by Cruz, Rubio, Kasich, and Carson respectively.

It should be noted that several prominent Republicans have spoken out lately regarding Trump, namely indicating they are going to try to do everything in their power to stop Trump from winning the nomination, but at this rate, they may be hard-pressed to do so, especially if he manages to continue to rack up delegates and garners the amount required to earn the nomination outright. There's still a lot of campaign left to go with many more states/delegates yet to earn, but the more states Trump takes in this race, the more likely he is to be the GOP nominee, whether the establishment likes it or not.

Ben Carson officially suspended his campaign for the GOP nomination on Friday. The Republican filed is now down to 4 candidates - Trump, Cruz, Rubio, and Kasich. At this time, Trump leads in total delegates and has won the most states, followed in both delegates and state wins by Cruz and Rubio. Kasich has earned delegates in some states but has yet to come in first in any state.

Another batch of states voted in primaries and caucuses yesterday and the results went as follows:

On the Republican side, four states voted - Donald Trump won the Louisiana primary and the Kentucky caucus; Ted Cruz won caucuses in Maine and Kansas. Marco Rubio and John Kasich did not win any states though both picked up a handful of delegates in certain states (though not necessarily all 4 states that voted for the GOP nom on Saturday).

On the Democratic side, three states voted - Bernie Sanders won caucuses in Kansas and Nebraska; Hillary Clinton won the Louisiana primary.

Just to update on the ongoing primary and caucus voting:

Yesterday, Michigan and Mississippi voted in both party primaries while Idaho and Hawaii held just Republican caucuses. Here are the results -

For the Democrats: Hillary Clinton won Mississippi by a wide margin while Bernie Sanders won the narrowest of victories in Michigan. Sanders' win in Michigan is considered a surprise because Clinton was leading in polls there prior to the vote. Despite Sanders' win, Michigan's delegates are proportionally divided so Sanders will likely only pick up about 10 more delegates there than Clinton. On the day, Clinton picked up more delegates due to her overwhelming win in Mississippi. On Sunday, Sanders won the Maine caucus.

For the Republicans: Donald Trump continues his onslaught, winning in Mississippi, Michigan, and Hawaii. Ted Cruz picked up a win in Idaho. Trump picked up the most delegates and Cruz the second most; John Kasich also picked up a handful of delegates due to decent showings in Michigan and Hawaii (both of which he got over 20% of the vote). Marco Rubio had what amounts to the worst primary day ever, picking up no delegates (Rubio's best showing was in Idaho where he came in third, but missed the threshold needed to earn any delegates there; in the other three states that voted, Rubio came in fourth place). Rubio did get some delegates over the weekend though, when he won the vote in Puerto Rico.

IF you scroll down far enough on this link there is a very interesting post on Bernie Sanders !!
jesus christ savior by beliefnet
Hope it takes! I so suck at this android copy/paste !!
Thank you TESS for your up to date reporting - YOU ARE A GEM !! Love you, Gurl Friend, Lil Sis - Don't agree with your All Too Free ideas but Love You VERY much all the same!!
LOVE +HUGS
NDY

Well, NDY, my ideas may be "all too free" but I would contend it's better to be free to be yourself and live your life as you see fit than to allow others to decide what's right for you, wouldn't you say? For what it's worth, I'd be willing to bet I'm a far more moral person than any of the people running for President who you would still consider voting for based on your main criteria. Because, I may well be willing to allow all women the right to decide what is right for their bodies and their lives by saying all women should have the right to a safe abortion if they so decide they need one, but I am not a liar, cheater, or hate-mongerer. I don't drink or do drugs of any kind. I take full responsibility for myself. I have manners and respect for myself and others. Those guys on the Republican side (let's face it, those are the only ones you're truly going to look at, based on your criteria, because Dems are always pro-choice) - not one of them can say they are good, clean, moral individuals who haven't done something that would make you cringe at some point in their lives.

Sorry to say that link you were referencing NDY didn't post... given what you did write, I'm going to assume it has something to do with Sanders being Jewish...?

As you know, "reporting" as you say about this stuff is just my thing. I actually watch the primary and caucus coverage; I find it both interesting and baffling at the same time (like, how are people so fooled into thinking Donald Trump is some sort of savior rather than see him as the megalomaniac he is?), so I may as well give the basic lay man analysis here for anyone who isn't following it as closely as I do. Sort of like providing a public service...

Anyway, thanks for the love NDY!

You are a very intelligent lady Tes, wish you were running for office, we need more people like you. Thank you for all you do to keep us informed, I appreciate all your work. Sending you love and blessings your way.

Thanks Leeann, much love back at ya!

This illustrates what's truly wrong with politics though - the people who should be in the government are too smart to get involved in that mess! Plus, it has become a money and name thing - if no one knows you, you're going to go nowhere fast. This is why Trump has fared better than say John Kasich, because he had name recognition on his side and his own money to borrow from until he amassed a campaign chest. Lay people like ourselves here we don't have the resources to suddenly just say we want to run for President and actually get any traction to be considered a legitimate candidate.

I imagine campaigning is exhausting for even the healthiest of individuals too, plus I could never handle the red tape of partisan politics; I couldn't handle dealing with red tape when I was working at a not-for-profit either. When your job is to help people and you can't because someone else wants to tie your hands just because they can, it's infuriating. And that's government in a nutshell these days. I wouldn't last there, not because I couldn't do the job so much as I couldn't handle other people not doing theirs.

As for those who are running... Today is Super Tuesday 3.0 - some big states up for grabs tonight, namely Florida and Ohio which are both "winner take all" delegate states. If Trump wins both he's all but assured the party nomination; if he loses either or both it makes a brokered convention a little more of a possibility. The stakes are high tonight and the outcomes could be quite interesting on both sides... I'll be sure to post the results once they've got all the totals for all the states voting today for anyone who doesn't want to sit through hours of political punditry and exit poll numbers to find out how the candidates fared...

Some big developments after primaries in Florida, Ohio, Missouri, North Carolina, and Illinois on Tuesday... here's the breakdown for anyone who missed it all:

For the Democrats - Hillary Clinton made it a clean sweep, winning all 5 state primaries noted above. Clinton's wins in Florida, North Carolina, and Ohio were by big enough margins that they were called in her favor fairly early (her Ohio win was particularly noteworthy given Bernie Sanders' assertions he'd win there after his surprise win in Michigan, which is considered a similar state demographically and industry-wise). Illinois and Missouri were called for Clinton very late in the night as "apparent wins" because the vote totals were very close throughout the night (in fact, for much of the night, Bernie Sanders had a minor lead in Missouri and it wasn't until they were on the last 1% of precinct votes coming in that the tide turned in her favor) and ended with the candidates within 2% of each other, which means even though she won those states their delegates will be split almost evenly. All that said, Clinton's delegate total has taken a commanding lead even without the inclusion of super delegates (most of whom have already pledged they will support her at the convention). Bernie Sanders isn't out of the running yet, but he has a much harder road ahead of him at this point.

For the Republicans - It was also nearly a clean sweep for Donald Trump. Trump took 4 out of 5 contests on Tuesday, only failing to win the winner-take-all state of Ohio. Ohio instead decided to support their own, giving their current Governor John Kasich his first win of this primary season. One of Trump's wins - Missouri - was also listed as an "apparent win" in that Trump and Ted Cruz were neck and neck in votes there for much of the night and after all votes were counted he appeared to have the lead. This and the two apparent wins for Clinton in Missouri and Illinois will likely lead to recounts due to the closeness of the vote totals. Recounts for the Democratic side probably won't matter much due to the way they will split the delegates, but it will matter for the GOP since Missouri's rules for the GOP side state it is a winner-take-all state if someone receives more than 50% of the vote and if not, then delegates are awarded based on district wins. Trump did not win the state with the required percentage to get all the delegates and it is possible Ted Cruz may have won more districts even though Trump had the higher overall vote total, so Cruz may still wind up with more delegates from Missouri than Trump does even though he won. It remains to be seen at this point though how the breakdown will go.

One specific thing to note - Marco Rubio had noted prior to Tuesday's primaries that Florida, his home state, was a must win for him. He came in second to Trump there and not long after Trump was projected to win Florida Rubio announced he was suspending his campaign, shrinking the GOP field to just 3. It should be noted that Rubio is the first in the GOP field of candidates that has suspended his campaign that had a significant number of pledged delegates - these delegates are now "unbound delegates". The number of unbound delegates heading to the convention may be significant when the time comes because if Donald Trump heads to the convention in July without the required number of delegates to secure the nomination outright, those unbound delegates could be his answer to keep from a brokered convention, which is at this point the only hope anyone in the GOP has of keeping Trump from being the nominee.

I guess the question worth asking now is, if you are a Republican, do you prefer Trump to win the nomination or would you prefer a brokered convention where it would be possible for anyone to finagle the nomination, including maybe someone who didn't run this year?

This week's primary/caucus update comes to us courtesy of the people of Arizona, Utah, and Idaho, all of whom voted on Tuesday. Here's how things shook out:

For the Republicans - Trump won the Arizona primary, which is a "winner take all" state for the Republicans, so he took all the delegates for the state helping march him a little closer to the necessary number of delegates to clinch the nomination. Cruz won the Utah caucus - Utah has a rule where they are a winner take all state ONLY if the winner earned more than half the total votes, which by all accounts Cruz did do there, so he will receive all the delegates for Utah. Kasich picked up no delegates from these contests.(Idaho did not vote for the GOP side yet; only the Democratic side)

For the Democrats - Clinton won the Arizona primary but unlike the GOP side, Arizona is not a winner take all state for the Dems (no state is winner take all for the Dems as far as I am aware) so she earned the majority of the delegates though Sanders did also win some there. Sanders was the winner of both the Utah and Idaho caucuses so he will get the majority of the delegates from those states though a handful from each state will go to Clinton as well. Sanders won more states on Tuesday but he did not earn more delegates than Clinton because Arizona was the biggest delegate prize of the three Tuesday voting states (if I'm not mistaken they said Clinton picked up a total of 56 delegates from the three states while Sanders earned 44).

Aside from that update... This week there was yet another terror attack on a European city and each of the candidates weighed in on the situation with regard to how they'd deal with terrorism. Both Trump and Cruz are trying to outdo each other on their escalations of verbal threats towards Muslims in this country while Kasich seemed to join Clinton in suggesting keeping a certain level-headedness about the matter to keep calm rather than incite fear and possibly alienate whole groups of people via incendiary talk. Sanders has also commented on the terrorism issue though I'll be honest I'm hard pressed to find words to describe his stance since I've only seen a brief mention of him saying something on twitter about it (he said very little on the subject on Tuesday night as votes were still being counted in Utah and Idaho). How do you feel about the candidates' approaches to terrorism in light of this most recent tragedy? Is anything they have said or not said on the matter something that might sway you to vote for someone or not vote for someone?

There were 3 caucuses on the Democratic side this weekend (no contests held for the GOP for another week or two) in Alaska, Washington, and Hawaii. All three caucuses went in favor of Bernie Sanders by a fairly large margin, though of course with the Dems not having any winner-take-all states, it means Bernie only picked up about 30 some odd more delegates than Hillary did out of the three states that voted this weekend, which is hardly a dent in her lead on him.

It's interesting on the Dem side how of like 9 states that have held caucuses rather than primaries, all but 2 have chosen Bernie (one of the two that chose Hillary was the very narrowest of victories that was Iowa; the other was the very population diverse Nevada - Bernie tends to struggle with more diverse electorate states), while all but one primary state so far have gone for Hillary (Bernie's one primary state win was the surprise win in Michigan). It stands to reason though; generally caucuses require more commitment of time and effort on the part of a voter to be a part of it, so only real political die-hards would care to get involved in most cases (which is why the turnouts for caucuses are often much lower than primaries). I would imagine in the case of a Democratic caucus, the people going to it are likely more liberal than the average primary voter, while on the GOP side caucus goers are probably far more conservative than the average primary voter - which also explains why Ted Cruz has fared better in caucus states as well....

Speaking of Ted Cruz - what's your take on the recent spat between him and Trump over their wives? And do you have more or less respect for someone who stands against a bully only to pull back and eventually support that bully or indicate they may support that bully? Because many a Republican says they refuse to support Trump and yet also say they will if he's the nominee; Cruz is trying hard to not answer that question now that he's fighting back at Trump for saying disparaging things about his wife and their marriage, but Cruz is skirting the issue about whether he'd support Trump if he becomes the eventual nominee - a pledge all the GOP candidates running this year signed saying they would do (support the eventual nominee, that is). Which option is worse - stand against the party but for your wife or back down and give in and stand by your original agreement even if it means supporting a bully who has said horrible things about you and your family?

I wasn't able to get over here last week when it happened (not that it seemed to matter, what with the lack of traffic flow to OTF again...) but Wisconsin did hold their primary last Tuesday with Ted Cruz besting Donald Trump for the GOP side and Bernie Sanders beating out Hillary Clinton on the Democratic side. I don't know the delegate breakdown for the GOP for Wisconsin, but I do know that despite Sanders' win, he and Clinton essentially split the delegates evenly so he gained no ground on her delegate lead.

Meanwhile, for the GOP, some states including Colorado, they have held their closed door meetings to determine who to send as delegates and Trump is crying foul since it appears many states are working around any wins he's had anywhere to try to send anti-Trump delegates so that, assuming they do have a brokered convention, those people will only vote for Trump on the first ballot and then won't be beholden to him upon further convention ballots, allowing them to manipulate the nomination to be for any choice other than Trump. Whether that plan has any legs remains to be seen, but it is just one of many ways the GOP is looking to try to stop Trump from getting the nomination and possibly keep them from retaining their Congressional leads should people defect from the party as a result of his nomination.

The New York primary was held yesterday:

On the GOP side, native New Yorker Donald Trump trounced his competition by a pretty wide margin, with John Kasich coming in second thanks to moderate Republicans in the state (as well as Ted Cruz' previous statement about "New York values" coming back to bite him in the butt). Trump's overall percentage in the state was well over 50% which guarantees him automatically 14 delegates for the win, plus, he won numerous congressional districts by over 50% thus taking all the delegates allotted in those districts. There appear to be a handful of districts in which Trump did not win by over 50% though, and in that case the delegates for the district get split among any candidates that polled over 20% so in some places Kasich may have managed to earn a delegate or two, though probably not enough to help curb Trump's big lead. At this point, all those hoping to keep Trump from securing the nomination by keeping him from getting to the required delegate number have to really take a good look in the mirror and understand that the math is very much in his favor right now based on his current delegate total and the states left to vote (many of which he has double-digit leads in the polls in).

On the Democratic side, current New York resident (and former NY Senator) Hillary Clinton had a double-digit victory over former New Yorker Bernie Sanders. The Sanders camp is complaining about New York's voting rules - it's a closed primary state so Independents cannot vote in primaries nor is party jumping allowed, voters here who wanted to change their party affiliation had to do so before last November and new voters had to be signed up for the primary by the end of March so many people who tend to support Sanders and may have been showing up for his rallies may not have been able to cast a ballot here. Sanders' complaints seem similar to Trump's complaints about delegate allocations in states not holding primaries or caucuses - they may not like the rules but the rules were in place before the election cycle started. All that said, Clinton has all but secured the nomination at this point; her delegate lead even without counting super delegates is getting to be a bit too large a lead for Sanders to overcome considering the proportional system of delegate allocation the Democrats use.

Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Connecticut, and Rhode Island voted in primaries last night for both sides, the results were as follows:

Donald Trump swept all five states in the GOP primaries, in many cases by over 50%. Trump has reportedly called himself the presumptive nominee and is on pace to clench the nomination before the convention unless Ted Cruz and John Kasich can manage a better showing in the rest of the remaining contests.

Hillary Clinton won 4 of the 5 states (Bernie Sanders won Rhode Island) for the Democratic side. Sanders' chances of keeping Clinton from clenching the nomination before the convention are at this point slim to none (basically, Clinton could lose the rest of the remaining contests and still get enough delegates to clinch the nomination at this point). Sanders says he's staying the race all the way to the convention even though he has basically no chance of being the nominee because he feels everyone should have a chance to have their say at the polls and he also wants to be able to push a progressive agenda at the convention (basically he wants to force Clinton to go more liberal in the general election, which may appease some Bernie supporters but could also alienate moderates and independents who might be willing to see her as a saner choice than Trump).

I finally got on here, connection so slow.. you are the best reporter. Thank you Tes.

Sorry to hear about your connection, Leeann, but happy to be able to help keep you updated on all things Presidential election related!