Survival Tuesday
Voters are going to the polls today in five states: Florida, Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio. For Democrats, 691 delegates are at stake. For Republicans, 358 delegates are up for grabs.
Some pundits have taken to calling today's round of voting "Survival Tuesday" because Republicans are entering the first round of "winner-take-all" contests, and the stakes are so high for Florida Senator Marco Rubio and Ohio Governor John Kasich.
Donald Trump is hoping for a clean sweep of all five states, which would cement his status at the clear GOP front-runner. He appears poised to win all of Florida's 99 delegates, where he enjoys significant double-digit leads in the most recent polls.
But the race is much closer in the other states. Recent polls show Senator Ted Cruz within striking distance in Illinois and Missouri, and he is likely to split delegates with Trump in North Carolina, which awards its delegates proportionally. Meanwhile, Governor John Kasich is leading in the winner-take-all state of Ohio.
While it is possible Trump will score a decisive victory tonight, a split decision seems more likely, with the campaign grinding on into the spring.
On the Democrat side, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to win Florida and North Carolina, while Senator Bernie Sanders could score victories in Illinois, Missouri and Ohio.
House Dares To Use The "G-Word"
The House of Representatives unanimously approved a resolution last night condemning ISIS for its genocide against Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East.
The unanimous vote is the result of months of hard work by the resolution's sponsor, Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE), and a broad coalition of faith-based organizations, including my public policy organization American Values.
The resolution states: "the atrocities perpetrated by [ISIS] against Christians, Yezidis, and other religious and ethnic minorities in Iraq and Syria constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide."
That may seem obvious enough, but the Obama Administration has been hesitant to label the Islamic State's persecution as "genocide," even though the European Parliament and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom have done so.
The State Department is facing a congressionally mandated deadline of March 17th to make a formal determination, but it is unlikely to meet that deadline. According to the Associated Press, the administration is fretting about particular legal standards and what obligations it may have if there is a formal determination that genocide is taking place.
One such obligation could involve changing our refugee policy to better accommodate the Christian victims of the Islamic State's brutal persecution.
You may recall that President Obama bizarrely insisted that having a "religious test" for helping refugees was "shameful" and "not who we are." In fact, it is exactly who we are by law and tradition.