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DONALD TRUMP NOTCHED a pair of easy victories yesterday in the Republican presidential nomination race, as Democrat Hillary Clinton suffered a surprise loss to Bernie Sanders in one of the two major states at stake.
Trump shrugged off a barrage of negative advertising and intense efforts by the party establishment to derail his White House campaign to win primaries in Michigan and Mississippi, signalling to his rivals he can survive anything they throw at him.
“I don’t think I’ve had so many horrible, horrible things said about me in one week, $38 million worth of horrible lies,” Trump told a crowd in Florida as he celebrated his victories.
I think we ought to use that money to fight Hillary Clinton and the Democrats.
It was not a clean sweep for Trump, however. He came second to Senator Ted Cruz, his nearest Republican competitor, in Idaho.
He went on to win the fourth Republican vote in Hawaii.
Clinton, the former secretary of state, defeated Sanders in the southern Gulf state of Mississippi, thanks to a strong turnout by African-Americans who comprised a majority of Democratic voters there.
But she slumped to defeat in the industrial rust belt state of Michigan, where Sanders was ahead by two percentage points with 93% of precincts reporting.
“This has been a fantastic night in Michigan,” Sanders said shortly before the race was called in his favour.
Despite the upset, Clinton received a psychological boost by passing the halfway point in the all-important race to reach the 2,382 delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination.
But even with the delegate math in Clinton’s favor, Sanders’s strong showing will re-energise his campaign, and raise questions about her ability to win key industrial states in the general election, such as Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Poor Rubio showing
Clinton has now won 13 out of 22 nomination contests, with Trump prevailing in 14 out of 23 races as the two inch closer to the tipping point in their respective races.
Rubio, the senator whom mainstream Republicans rallied behind as the man to topple Trump, suffered another poor showing, facing the prospect of receiving zero delegates from either Michigan or Mississippi, the two main prizes of the night.
Trump has already called on Rubio to drop out of the race, but the senator has vowed to stay in at least until his home state of Florida — which with 99 delegates at stake is a major prize on the primary calendar — votes on March 15.
“They didn’t do so well tonight, folks,” Trump said in a victory speech in Florida, referring to his Republican rivals.
Only one person did well tonight: Donald Trump.
“We’ll take many, many people away from the Democrats,” he said. “We’re seeing that. We had people come over here who have never voted Republican.”
In a bizarre scene, Trump spent several minutes hawking some of his companies’ odder products — water, steaks, wine, Trump vodka, even his Trump University — which establishment critics had berated as examples of his failed enterprises.
With his latest big wins — claiming 47.3% in Mississippi and 36.5% in Michigan based on near-final results — Trump solidifies his claim to have the broadest appeal among the Republican electorate as he marches toward the nomination.
But a new Washington Post poll of Republican-leaning registered voters shows Trump with 34% support nationwide, compared with 25% for Cruz, 18% for Rubio and 13% for Kasich.
That is a tighter race than in January, when the Post showed Trump up 16 points against Cruz and 26 against Rubio.
Cruz, the 45-year-old champion of the religious right, has done well in delegate-rich Texas and nearby states and is nipping at the billionaire real estate mogul’s heels.
A total of 150 Republican delegates were up for grabs yesterday out of 1,237 needed to win the party’s nomination.
I don’t really see why this furniture can’t be moved to their new premises about a mile down the road. Maybe it doesn’t match the new carpets.
@Niall O D: why didn’t they keep the old building as well if your going down that route
@Niall O D: Most of it looks old enough to not really be worth much anyhow, seems to be why they chose an antiques dealer.
@Donal Proctor:The new building has doors that left handed people can use,Money well spent I think.
Wonder if they reformatted the hard drives in those photocopiers. Could make for some interesting reading otherwise.
@Séa Graham: hmmmm… worth a punt or even a Euro! Secret compartments and all perhaps? Personally I’d be afraid I’d catch something off them.
@Normal Josephine: they’ve probably barely been used. The shredders on the other hand…
@Séa Graham: Reformatted? I’d say those things were microwaved and burned. I couldn’t see them just leaving evidence of the largest fraud in history just laying about the place.
@The Guru: it would be funny if it hadn’t cost us all so much!
@The Guru: no shredders are available for sale as all have been burnt out due to excess usagw
Any printing press and plates going? €50 notes preferably.
@Brian Ward: don’t be greedy. I’ll settle for 5 or 10s
@Brian Ward: A press for Printing get out of jail free cards as well lol.
The Microsoft Solitaire burn-in on the computer monitors should see them available at a steep discount at auction.
@alphanautica: Can you imagine using software to undelete what was on those hard drives lol.
I have no doubt considering he knew he was the only one tendering there was a maximum return for the state. State of balance for whoever awarded the tender knowing this country
Should give the money to charity
@Donal Proctor: sure you wouldn’t know where the money was going there either
@Alan Curran: sad but true
@Donal Proctor: Should put the money back into the state pension pot that was raided to prop the banks up…
@Jane Alford: perhaps was more thinking the homeless
Why didn’t they offer all this stuff to the European Central Bank as part payment-in-kind of interest on the Bailout?
@Garreth Byrne:
All was offered to the ECB!
However, since the gas regulators used in the barista bar at the old CB building are a different fitting to that allowed in Germany, the offer was declined.
It was obviously an all or nothing type of deal on those 5,000 items in question. You know yourself…
@Rory J Leonard: Then what about the stockpile of paperclips? Surely the Germans use an international size for them.
Must have been some interesting conversations at those water coolers
The Bank asked Niall Mullen to buy all the contents. Who else did they ask? Was it on etenders?
He agrees and its now going to auction.
You can be sure he bought the contents for a song.
Why didnt the Bank send it straight to auction themselves?
Doesn’t sound right to me.
Excessive amounts of brown manila envelopes are up too
Either the motors on the shredders are burned out or they’re keeping them.
Where can they be viewed?
@Peter McGlynn:
Sean Eacrett Auctions
Ballyshaneduff
Ballybrittas
Co. Laois
Ireland
R32D932
Ireland
For years I’ve overheard Dublin Walking Tour Guides describe the former Central Bank edifice as the most hideous building in Dublin City. One would wonder why it would merit “listed status”. Not the only example of tasteless 70′s design by Mr Stephenson who’s architectural style is officially classified as “Brutalist” in architectural circles or just plain “brutal” in Dublin colloquial speak.
I’d say there was some sneacta snorted from that boardroom table
The creation of double speak employment.
Should it not be free to take away since we own it all ready
Most of the stuff is rubbish
have your say