| Is Donald Trump's campaign faltering, Zoe Daniel asks | Are we seeing the beginning of the end of Donald Trump?
It's the question dominating the conversation inside the beltway in DC after a painful loss in the Wisconsin primary followed a series of stumbles by The Donald last week.
Not usually prone to backpedalling, he frantically tried to extricate himself from his statement that women who had abortions should be punished.
At the same time, his campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, was charged with battery for manhandling a female reporter while Mr Trump refuted the woman's claims regardless of video evidence.
Did any of this play into the result in Wisconsin where Mr Trump was soundly beaten by Ted Cruz?
Debatable, however there's certainly rising glee in the intelligentsia that his inevitability as the GOP nominee is now mere possibility.
Political luminary E.J. Dionne writes: "Donald Trump will lose the Republican presidential nomination."
He's bold, but not alone.
Other pointed quotes from this week include:
"It has become clear that Trump is ultimately doomed." - Dana Milbank, The Washington Post
"Like American Idol, Donald Trump is fading into irrelevance." - LA Times
So, is the brash businessman from New York destined to slide off the edge of this slippery spring presidential path only to be overtaken by, say, Ted Cruz?
We're sitting on the fence taking in the sporadic sunshine at the moment, but while we're here, let's take a look.
VICTORS
Ted Cruz
Cruz not only won Wisconsin, he won it by a better-than-expected margin, taking 36 delegates to Donald Trump's six.
Wisconsin has some tricky delegate allocation rules with 18 allocated to the winner of the state and the rest allocated in groups of three according to who wins each congressional district, but frankly, you don't really need to know that.
The point is Ted Cruz exceeded expectations winning his biggest share of any primary so far.
Let's be clear, Wisconsin, which is largely educated, religious and traditional, always looked like one of Donald Trump's worst states as the excellent Nate Cohn explains here, but the question now will be whether Cruz's gains there translate to other states ahead - and they may not due to different voter demographics.
If they do, Donald Trump will struggle to reach 1,237 before the conventions.
Just on delegates, it's worth keeping in mind that if we get to a contested convention which leads to more than one vote for the GOP nominee, those who are tied to particular candidates will be progressively unbound.
Stay with me, this could prove pivotal to the outcome of the GOP convention. Most delegates elected at state level to attend the convention are not actual supporters of the candidate they're tied to, so while they (mostly) have to vote according to the Primary results in the first convention vote, after that they're released from that responsibility and can vote for who they like.
There are also unbound delegates who can vote for whoever they like right from the start.
This is crucial because, unlike Trump (and John Kasich), Ted Cruz has had an organised campaign in place for some time to get his supporters elected as delegates.
What does that mean? You guessed right.
As delegates are progressively released after the first convention vote it's likely they will favour Big Ted from Texas.
Bernie Sanders
He doesn't give up easily, that's clear. He's won six of the last seven primaries against Hillary Clinton, including Wisconsin (48 to 38 delegates for the record).
Although she's still miles ahead on the overall delegate count, he continues on her heels to the point that she's appeared downright annoyed this week, casting aspersions on his recently acquired Democratic credentials.
VANQUISHED
Donald Trump
See above. The New Yorker must take New York on April 19 decisively and has little room for any more stumbles if he wants to avoid a contested convention. Enough said.
Hillary Clinton
Ditto. She just can't seem to shake off the doubters. She must win her adopted home of New York and has already been showing off her NY credentials by getting onboard the Subway earlier this week.
And on Hillary ...
Quote of the week:
"She is our very own quinoa and kale salad, nutritious but bland." - Joe Klein, TIME.
BY THE NUMBERS
67 per cent - that's Donald Trump's "unfavourability rating" according to a WAPO-ABC News poll.
Oh, and by the way, Hillary Clinton's was 52 per cent.
GUYS, REMEMBER ME?
While the rest of the POTUS wannabes fight it out, the craziness of this campaign is making one man look pretty good: Barack Obama. For the first time since May 2013, his job approval numbers are higher than his disapproval ratings.
HEY, FEMALE RAPPER
Your celebrity-politician spat of the week is rapper Azealia Banks versus former VP running mate of John McCain, Sarah Palin.
Essentially, Banks said some very inappropriate things on Twitter and Palin is now threatening to sue.
CELEBRITY SPATS
Turns out celebrities getting into political spats over the election are the thing this season. Susan Sarandon, an avid Bernie Sanders supporter, whom I saw on the stump for Bernie in Iowa, came out this week saying that if not Bernie, then a Trump presidency "will bring the revolution immediately".
Well, Debra Messing was having none of it. They went back and forth on Twitter about it with Sarandon eventually making clear that she would never vote for Trump, but she wants radical political change.
Twitter? Facebook? Tumblr? What is this, Election 2016?!
I FEEL IT IN MY TOES
We've heard a lot about Trump empire products over the past few weeks - steaks, hotels, universities - but this latest one (not affiliated with the Trump campaign in any way) is a real winner: Trump socks. Seriously, where do I get a pair of those?
MEET JOHN MILLER
Haven't heard of him? You'd be forgiven. In 1991, Donald Trump broke up with girlfriend Marla Maples.
According to People magazine (from the same year), a reporter called Trump's office to ask if the reports were true.
What happened next? Well, a man by the name of John Miller called back and said, "It doesn't matter to [Donald] if Marla talks; he truly doesn't care".
The call was recorded and then played back to numerous parties familiar with Trump, who all unequivocally declared that John Miller was, in fact, Donald Trump posing as a fictitious PR man.
When the reporter followed up the claim she was told Miller had gone home and Donald Trump would have no comment.
Ladies and gentlemen, possibly your next POTUS (and press secretary). Two for the price of one?
Apparently, it's not the first time he's pulled the trick either. I wonder if he'll try it on other world leaders if he reaches the Oval Office?
OK, SO WHAT'S NEXT?
#NewYorkValues
The New York primary is on April 19, which is important. There's also really good coffee in NYC, so from my perspective, that's a win. |  | | | About this email You received this email because you are subscribed to ABC News email alerts. This message was sent to you at starnewsposting@gmail.com. Please add newslists@your.abc.net.au to your email address book to see images by default and stop the email being treated as spam. This email address is not monitored - Please don't reply to this email. This service may include material from Agence France-Presse (AFP), APTN, Reuters, AAP, CNN and the BBC World Service which is copyright and cannot be reproduced. Add or remove topics | Unsubscribe | Contact Us |
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