Ted Cruz is the last hope of the anti-Donald camp: Cruz was able to claim a victory of sorts. He has now beaten the Donald in three states. But he lost much of the South and is out on the conservative, evangelical wing of the party, making it difficult for him to unite the establishment - or to win a general election.
Bernie Sanders is going to go down swinging: The nomination will go to Hillary Clinton but there are still plenty of people feeling the Bern. Sanders' aim now seems to be to keep the revolution/campaign going for as long as he can.
Marco Rubio's campaign is on life support:
Maybe it was the attacks on Donald Trump in the past few days, including a joke about his small hands (or something), or his savaging of the frontrunner during the last debate, that turned voters against him. But his campaign looks to be over.
Ben Carson is on the longest book tour in history:
The former neurosurgeon is still on the ballot, trundling around the voting states and occasionally popping home for a change of clothes. His laconic interjections in debates, begging for a question, always raise a laugh, but he is a candidate with little purpose.
Donald Trump can win anywhere:
He picked up southern states, with their conservative, evangelical electorates, and he picked up northeastern states such as Virginia and Vermont, with their educated elites. In his victory speech, he even tried to present himself as the great unifier of a broken Republican Party. "I would love to see the Republican Party and everybody get together and unify," he said. "And there is no one who is going to beat us." He has his eye now on a race against Hillary Clinton. Donald Trump is in it to win it.
Chris Christie looks an unhappy man:
As Trump delivered his victory speech at his luxury Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, one man looked distinctly ill at ease. Christie, the New Jersey Governor who dropped out of the race and endorsed the frontrunner, displayed all the enthusiasm of a man waking from a coma to find himself in the middle of the zombie apocalypse. Maybe it had something to do with six New Jersey newspapers calling for his resignation.
Hillary Clinton should be worried: No one can be in denial any more. Donald Trump has exceeded all expectations, rewriting the political rulebook as he goes. A crass, loud-mouthed rabblerouser should not be able to win over Republican voters by announcing his admiration for a pro-abortion group and offering a vision of bigger government. But he has. What damage can he do in a general election?