Monthly Archives: April 2016

Syrian ceasefire “barely alive”

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There has been a drastic escalation in violence in Syria, with “dozens” killed in an airstrike on a hospital run by Medicins Sans Frontiers in Aleppo. The attack is understood to have killed the city’s last remaining pediatrician.

The New York Times reports:

At least 27 people, including three children and six staff members, were reported killed in the strike on the hospital, which turned it into a smoking pile of rubble on Wednesday night, and 20 were reported killed in airstrikes on Thursday. At least 14 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the mortar attacks on government-controlled areas, said officials at a hospital where casualties were streaming in throughout the day on Thursday.

 

 

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Fast-tracking the Acela primaries

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Voters go to the polls Tuesday in Presidential primaries in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Connecticut and Rhode Island. The states, in the northeast corridor, have collectively become known as the “Acela” primaries, after Amtrak’s express rail service that serves the region.

(The Note will be traveling tonight, so no updates till tomorrow. You know where to go…)

Anti-Trump pact – desperate measures?

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As primary voters prepare for tomorrow’s five northeastern contests, which GOP frontrunner Donald Trump appears set to dominate, the campaigns of Ted Cruz and John Kasich announced that they would be co-operating in subsequent states in a bid to prevent Trump from sealing the required 1,237 delegates ahead of the Cleveland convention.

The pact is focused on the Indiana primary on May 3, with its 57 winner-take-all delegates. Early voting in the state, however, may already prove significant.

Trump, predictably, called the agreement “collusion” and it’s possible that any image of the system being “rigged” could play into his narrative of unfairness.

So is it too little too late, an act of obvious desperation, or could it succeed in making the Convention even more chaotic than it already looks?

One thing’s sure, though, tomorrow’s outcomes just became even more important.

A new Hillary Clinton ad, meanwhile, continued her pivot to the general election with an attack on Trump.

 

Trump and Clinton win NY, ready for pivot to general election

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KingDon

Update: 10.30pm ET: Donald Trump appeared set to pick up the vast majority of the 95 Republican delegates after a commanding victory in Tuesday night’s presidential primary.  John Kasich was projected to finish second and was reported to be polling ahead in Manhattan.

Trump now heads into a potentially friendly series of Northeastern states – the next five contests, in CT, DE, MD, PA, RI, are on April 26 – as the only Republican candidate who can mathematically win an outright majority of delegates ahead of the convention.

On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton defeated Bernie Sanders (the latest numbers showing a roughly 60-40 margin) and now looks likely to begin pressing a narrative that the contest on that side is now concluding and it’s time to turn their campaign to the general election.

On the Democratic side,

Finally,

 

 

 

The ‘imperfect messenger’

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The New York Post endorsed Donald Trump.

The last hurrah of its outgoing editor?

 

 

New York a crucial test for Sanders

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With the New York primary approaching on April 29, the contest is becoming increasingly important for the Bernie Sanders campaign. Even though he has raised a remarkable amount recently and will clearly be able to continue the fight, a heavy defeat in his birth state – he trails Hillary Clinton by double digits – would be a big setback.

Yet, tell that to the estimated 27,000 people who packed Washington Square Park last night for one of Sanders’ biggest rallies yet. It wasn’t without controversy, as Clinton surrogates used outrage to try to turn attention back to their candidate.

The candidates debate in Brooklyn this evening.

Meanwhile on the Republican side, the New York Daily News made an endorsement.