j reacts to the cruz-kasich agreement (it's idiotic, tactically)

also: i think that, in indiana, kasich voters are going to be more likely to back trump than cruz. the reason is that it's a socially conservative state anyways, so cruz has kasich dominated. if you're voting for kasich, it's because you consider yourself a moderate. trump is more moderate than cruz, so you'd think they'd rank him as their second choice.

it's kind of the flip of the northeast overall, but the same logic as it applies to kasich voters. cruz finished in third place in four out of five states tonight. kasich voters clearly didn't see the prospect of rallying behind cruz to be very appealing. and, it's not some collapse in logic - it's simply that they (broadly) ranked cruz behind trump in terms of preference. so, they're not going to vote for cruz to stop trump if they prefer trump to cruz. they're just going to shrug and vote for kasich.

in indiana, cruz should probably want kasich to pull those voters away from trump. so, removing kasich is actually probably going to hurt him. if they were going to vote for cruz (to stop trump or some other reason), they would have voted for him in the first place.

it's just more evidence that cruz and his team are just absolute fucking idiots. it's this ultra-competitive mindset that blinds them to any kind of co-operative strategy. they're utility monsters. it's the consequence of unrestrained egoism, selfishness as a virtue - predictable, really. yes: he should have pulled back in the northeast to give kasich a better chance [and don't say that was unpredictable. it was absolutely obvious, from weeks out.]. but, he doesn't want kasich to drop out of the midwest, as he's splitting the "moderates" and actually helping him.

http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-04-28/in-indiana-the-deal-to-stop-trump-may-be-backfiring