SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET: 

PRIMARIES – Donald Trump decisively won the West Virginia and Nebraska Republican primaries today.  Ted Cruz had said during the day that he might get back into the race if he won Nebraska.  He did not, and should now gracefully withdraw, saving his dignity, and vowing to fight another year.  He's a young man, only 45, and if he runs at the same age Hillary is running, he'll be making the election of 2040.  Unless something truly weird happens, Trump will be the nominee.  Sales of etiquette books should rise, by necessity.

AND THE DEMS – In a further embarrassment for Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders won both the West Virginia and Nebraska primaries, winning Nebraska 57-43% and West Virginia 51-36%.  Because Democrats divide delegates in proportion to the vote, and neither state was assigned a huge number of delegates, Sanders's net gain will be only a handful of delegates.  There's really no statistical way for him to overcome Hillary, but his string of victories is embarrassing to the frontrunner.  It is a rebuke from her own party.  However, it's been pointed out that Bernie has really been fully vetted, as he was never given much of a chance to win.  If Hillary really started attacking him, his numbers would probably deteriorate somewhat.

STUNNER – A new Reuters poll provides evidence that Donald Trump, whether we like him or not, won't be any pushover in November.  Hillary gets 41.3%, Trump gets 40.0% and 18.7% are undecided or will refuse to vote.  The battle will probably be won or lost among the undecideds.  But the contest is much closer than pundits have imagined.  This is the second major poll in as many days to predict a tight race.  While it's still very early in the campaign, and polls are not necessarily predictive, we would have expected Hillary to be much further ahead.

May 10,  2016