Clinton, Trump Look To Carry Momentum Into Super Tuesday
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- With today's Super Tuesday primaries, political observers believe Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will add to their delegate counts in marches to claim their nominations at summer conventions. But it comes with more complications on the GOP side.
Up until mid-March, all primaries have proportional delegate allocations; after that, they're winner take all states.
The summer convention rules stipulate that a candidate must have a majority of delegates in at least eight states. Right now, Donald Trump has won three of four early nominating states. Ted Cruz has won only Iowa. Marco Rubio has yet to win.
Terry Madonna of Franklin & Marshall College, says Rubio, whom the Republican party establishment is rallying around, could make a bold move to appease the party for remaining primaries.
"Rubio literally picks a running mate," Madonna says, "someone like (John) Kasich."
Kasich wants to hold out for Midwestern primaries in Michigan next week (March 8) and Ohio the following week (March 15).
If Trump has a majority of delegates at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, could the GOP establishment work toward a "brokered convention" to deny Trump the nod?
"If they do anything that the Trump people could perceive as unethical or untoward," Madonna says, "Trump could conceivably bolt, and run as an independent."
Madonna says it may lead to the Republican party rallying around him and hoping for the best.
"We have not had a candidate like this in modern history," he says.
On the Democratic side, Madonna says Hillary Clinton's lead over Bernie Sanders appears insurmountable.
"The only thing that could probably derail her is something from outside the election process itself," he says, "like the FBI investigation into the email, and the other investigation into the Clinton Foundation."
Clinton is hoping to use the momentum of her big win in South Carolina to put more separation between herself and Sanders.
"It won't knock Bernie Sanders out," says St. Joseph's University professor Randall Miller, "but it will damage him, and create for Clinton a kind of invincibility that she has lacked heretofore."
Miller says the emphasis is on demographics for Clinton.
"The African-American vote is very important," he says, "and she's also expected to do well among the older white voters."
Miller says Sanders is expected to win home state Vermont and do well in nearby Massachusetts.
"His money raising has been astounding, and different from others," he says. "He's not relying on big donors, he's relying on small amounts, not quite dollar for dollar, but he's staying organized in many states."
Super Tuesday states include Texas, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and Virginia. After today, the race spreads out across a handful of states at a time.