Democratic math

Yesterday we showed you how far the overwhelming leader in the Republican presidential race, Donald Trump, had come. After the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, he has 17 (seventeen!) of the 1237 delegates he needs to win the nomination. He is 1.4 per cent of the way there!

Today, we’ll highlight the Democratic race for delegates in which* Hillary Clinton has garnered approximately 180,578 votes in the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary (combined) and Bernie Sanders has amassed 236,394 votes. (That is, of the approximately 417,000 votes cast for the two leading candidates, Sanders has 56.7% and Clinton 43.3%.) This translates into 42 delegates for Sanders (of the 2,382 he needs to win the nomination) and 394 for Clinton (and we’re assuming she needs the same number).

As promised, we’ll highlight . . . not explain.

______________

* This assumes 171,000 voted in Democratic Iowa caucuses; the exact figures have not been released that we know of.

Counting

Lest we get carried away – or since we’ve gotten carried away . . . . First the numbers: Donald Trump has 17 of the 1237 delegates he needs for the Republican nomination for President; Ted Cruz has 10 of the 1237 delegates he needs for the Republican nomination for President; Marco Rubio has 7 of the 1237 delegates he needs for the Republican nomination for President; John Kasich has 4 of the 1237 delegates he needs for the Republican nomination for President; Jeb Bush has 3 of the 1237 delegates he needs for the Republican nomination for President (the same number as Ben Carson); Chris Christie has 0 of the 1237 delegates he needs for the Republican nomination for President (or one fewer than Carly Fiorina). So, Iowa and New Hampshire, here’s what you’ve done. (A visual for the numerically impaired. Scroll down slowly.):

Republican code cracked

Cover up engineered by m ball.

Line of the week – and it’s only Monday. Dan Balz in the The Washington Post on line:

 LONDONDERRY, N.H. — This was supposed to be the
strongest Republican presidential field in memory, but
with two days remaining before the New Hampshire primary, cracks are showing.

White lies, black lies, and math lies

from Democratic candidates exhibit a new ferocity in last debate before N.H. vote by Anne Gearan and Karen Tumulty in The Washington Post online:

“But Sanders kept bringing the argument back to her ties to Wall Street. Through the end of December, the financial industry had given at least $21.4 million to support Clinton’s 2016 presidential run — more than 10 percent of the $157.8 million amassed to back her bid, according to an analysis of Federal Election Commission filings by The Washington Post.”

Actually 136 percent more than 10 percent! Here’s how to do the math.

If you’re a Post subscriber, you may want to check your bill, though the mathletes in billing are surely isolated from the takeastabatitaletes (and don't round up 3.56 to 5, because that would be a more accurate approximation, if you're going to approximate) on the reporting side. (The math was repeated in Tom Hamburger’s “Clinton blasts Wall Street.”)

middle-of-the-rubio

“After months of turmoil and jaw-dropping polls, media coverage and
debates, the race could now settle into a predictable pattern — the far
right insurgent Cruz against the middle-of-the-road Rubio . . .”
                                             – Jennifer Rubin in the Washington Post