Is it Trump vs Clinton for US Elections?

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump stayed on course to a November Presidential Election Day show down, winning four states each of the five that held party polls on what was described as ‘Smackdown Tuesday’ because it demolished the also-rans.

Trump’s massive win in the Republican primaries in Florida, where he polled 46 per cent votes, took local Senator Marco Rubio, who polled only 27 per cent, out of the Presidential race. Rubio announced he was ”suspending” his campaign, a euphemism for conceding defeat while he considers his next political move after the humiliation of losing in his own home state against the man the party sees as a blustering interloper.

Trump also won Illinois and North Carolina against his nearest rival Ted Cruz, but lost the key state of Ohio to the state’s governor John Kasich, who notched up his first victory to provide a glimmer of hope to the Republican establishment hoping to stop the billionaire frontrunner from clinching the GOP nomination.

The young and suave Rubio was the establishment favorite against Trump and Cruz, both seen as political renegades with extremist views. Kasich’s win in a key state with 66 winner-take-all delegates brings whiff of moderate hope to the deeply fractured party – “the only non-appalling option the Republicans have,” according to one editorialist.

Still, Trump’s win in Florida, which also offered a winner-take-all 99 delegates, put him far ahead of his rivals with 621 delegates in the race towards 1237 needed to clinch the Republican nomination. Cruz’s second place in Illinois, North Carolina, and possibly Missouri where he was locked 41-41 with Trump, gives him a clutch of delegates to keep him in second place with 395 delegates.

Rubio is in third place with 168 delegates, but now that he has dropped out of the race, the delegates he has won in some states can become ”free agents” depending on the state law. If they back John Kasich, as it seems likely, then the Ohio governor, who currently has 138 delegates, becomes competitive, although Trump is still way ahead in the race and seems to have a lock on the nomination.

On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton staunched the loss of Michigan last week to Bernie Sanders to win Ohio and regain her momentum in the Rust Belt. She also comfortably won Florida and North Carolina, and appeared to have edged out Sanders in Illinois and Missouri to effectively end his quest for the Democratic nomination, although Sanders has said he would hang in.

Clinton leads 1094 to 774 in the race to the 2383 delegates needed to clinch the party nomination, but she has backing of a large number of ”super-delegates” in a system that has earned the moniker ”UnDemocratic Party” for her organization.

Having made a rousing challenge, Sanders’ slim hope rests on snagging enough delegates in Illinois and Missouri, two states where he was competitive but lost narrowly. Considering the party machinery seems to back Clinton, he would appear to stand almost no chance.

In fact, both Trump (against Cruz) and Clinton (against Sanders) won Missouri by less than 2000 votes each, and state’s recount law allows a second-place finisher to request a recount if the margin of victory is less than half a percentage point, which is the case in both instances.