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Trump
claims he has been a victim of bad press. The Republican candidate seems
to have conveniently overlooked the fact that political elections are
perhaps the only time when the expression “all publicity is good
publicity” actually holds true.
Polls have a feedback loop. When a
candidate is ahead in the polls, they are more likely to stay ahead in
the polls. And simple name recognition can help them to get that early
lead. As a household name, Trump already had that recognizability which
undoubtedly worked in his favor early on but the media emphasized that
by relentlessly covering every word and every move of the billionaire.
As the New York Times showed
earlier on today, Trump was essentially given free publicity. He spent
far less on presidential ads than other candidates ($10m compared to Jeb
Bush’s $82m) but earned $1,898 in media exposure from free coverage of
his campaign. No other candidate comes close to that.
In his rambling victory speech, Trump mentioned the Australian pro golfer Adam Scott winning a tournament at his Florida golf course.
And the Parks and Recreation actor by the same name is forced to Twitter to beg for mentions mercy:
Hours before Hillary Clinton
took the stage in West Palm Beach – even before polls in the state
closed - her election night party pulsed to the Latin rhythms blaring
over the loudspeakers. The cheered and chanted “Hillary” and “I’m with
Her”, growing louder as the night unfolded.
Then came Clinton’s first big win of the night: Florida. The crowd erupted into deafening applause. Wins in North Carolina and Ohio, where the race between her and opponent Bernie Sanders was expected to be close, followed.
Then
the crowd erupted in wild cheers and chants as Clinton emerged on
stage. She smiled brightly, turned and waved to the crowd that encircled
the podium.
“This is another Super Tuesday for the campaign,” Clinton says. “Thank for Florida, thank you North Carolina, than you Ohio.”
The
crowd went wild again. By the end of the night, Clinton said, her
campaign expected to expand its lead over Sanders to more than 300
pledged delegates – nearly enough to block his path to the nomination.
With
Tuesday night’s wins, her campaign can confidently say it swept the
south while rebutting the argument that she is a regional candidate
whose wins are concentrated in states that Democrats don’t win in a
general election. At this stage, she’s won the battleground states of
Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, Virginia and Nevada.
The
backdrop of the event – from the Latin music to the Spanish signage –
worked as a reminder of the diverse coalition that has so far powered
her biggest wins yet. Latinos and especially black voters have been at
the heart of her string of major victories. While Sanders has made
marginal gains among Latino and black communities, he has been unable to
draw these voters away from Clinton in large enough numbers to make a
difference.
During Clinton’s victory speech, she trained her fire on Donald Trump, who after big wins on Tuesday is increasingly likely to be the Republican nominee.
“This
may be one of the most consequential campaigns of our lifetimes,” she
said. “The next president will walk into the Oval Office next January…”
“YES SHE WILL,” someone in the crowd shouted.
Clinton
continued: “... sit down at that desk and start making decisions that
will affect the livelihoods of everyone in this country, indeed everyone
on this planet.”
In the past week, Clinton has attempted to
distinguish herself from Trump on an international stage, noting in the
CNN debate earlier this week that she had world leaders reaching out to
her about the tone and tenor of the election.
“Our commander in
chief has to be able to defend our country, not embarrass,” Clinton
declared in her remarks on Tuesday night. Clinton railed against Trump’s
most controversial proposals, including his calls for mass deportations
of all undocumented immigrants and barring Muslims from entering the
US, as well as his embrace of torture.
“That doesn’t make him strong, that makes him wrong,” she declared.
Though
results were still pending in two states by the time her speech ended,
Tuesday night clarified and all but cleared Clinton’s path to the
nomination, pushing her campaign into a new and unpredictable stage of
the race.
Hillary Clinton greets people in the audience and takes photos during
her election night event at the Palm Beach County Convention Center.
Photograph: Carolyn Kaster/AP
Trump “I want to congratulate Marco Rubio on running a really tough campaign... he’s got a great future.”
He says he has received more negative advertising than anyone in the history of politics.
“Mostly false. I wouldn’t say 100% but 90%.”
“You explain it to me, because I can’t. My numbers went up. I don’t understand it. Nobody understands it.”
Trump is rambling about how nobody expected him to run. “There is great anger, believe me, there is great anger.”
We believe him.
Where are the steaks? Instead of steaks and wine this time we get Corey and Eric.
“They’re
not angry people, but they want to see the country properly run. They
want to see borders. They want to see good health care. They want our
military rebuilt. And they want the second amendment by the way
protected and protected strongly.”
“Our veterans are treated so badly.”
“Something happened called Paris... Paris was a disaster. .. and it just goes on and on and on.”
Trump says if he’s elected president, Apple won’t make anything in China.
“I
want to pay my respects by the way to Todd Palin... He was in a very
bad accident. He’s tough as nails, he’ll be fine. I just want to pay my
respects to Todd.
“Yeah, sit down, everybody, please!”
Trump thanks his 9-year-old son for never seeing him:
“I want to thank Barron for the fact that I never see him anymore. And it’s his birthday on Sunday.”
Trump is flanked onstage by campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and son Eric. The Trumps are in pink ties. Lewandowski’s yellow. Very Florida.
Trump thanks his family after some poll talk.
Donald Trump has won the Republican primary in North Carolina, the Associated Press projects.
Note
that the state awards its 72 Republican delegates proportionally, and
so margin matters – and it appears to have been a close race.
As we’re waiting for the Missouri results to come in, it’s worth remembering this was tonight’s least predictable primary. Only two Democratic polls have been conducted there this year, and only one
poll has asked Republican voters who they prefer – those surveys
suggested that Sanders and Clinton would be neck-and-neck and that Trump
would be ahead of the Republican field (which so far appears true - but
only by a whisker).
With 52 Republican delegates (distributed on a winner takes all basis) and 84 Democratic delegates available in Missouri, this will be an interesting primary.
What’s happening in Missouri, Illinois, and the North Carolina Republican race?
Our live results page is chugging along here.
With 30% reporting in the Illinois Democrats race, Clinton is up 53-47.
With 30% reporting in the Illinois GOP race, Trump is up 40-26 over Cruz (Kasich is at 23).
With 15% reporting in the Missouri Democrats race, Sanders is up 50-48.
With 15% reporting in the Missouri GOP race, Trump is up 43-41 over Cruz.
With 47% reporting in the North Carolina GOP race, Trump is up 41-36 over Cruz.
Cheers
went up from the crowd gathered for John Kasich’s victory party in the
field house at the small liberal arts college Baldwin Wallace University
in Berea, Ohio (a suburb of Cleveland), as CNN announced that they were
calling the Ohio Republican primary for their candidate.
Beth
Ehrbar, a Berea resident who works at the university and used to be a
constituent of Kasich’s during his time as a Columbus-area Congressman,
declared herself “very excited!”
“I see John Kasich as a compassionate conservative,” she added, “and I’m very drawn to that.”
Compassionate
conservativism – once used by George W Bush to describe his mixture of
personal empathy and conservative policy prescriptions – has been key to
Kasich’s campaign the last few months, as he’s tried to separate
himself from the politics represented by Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and, more recently, Marco Rubio.
A
few feet a way, a group of Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity members from
Baldwin Wallace were celebrating the win. Patrick Hoang said that he
voted for Kasich in Tuesday’s primary because “I believe John Kasich is
the best candidate – and I wanted to be part of the effort to stop
Donald Trump.”
“I’m really looking forward to a brokered
convention,” he added. “I believe neither of them [Cruz or Trump} would
be a good fit for the presidency.”
Austin Hermann, said, “I’m from Pennsylvania, so he has my vote there” on 26 April.
Ryan
Ginley was even more enthusiastic. “He supports the red, white and
blue, the constitution and our country, so I support John Kasich” – who,
it should be noted, was himself an Alpha Sigma Phi brother, according
to the Baldwin students.
John Kasich celebrating his win. Photograph: Aaron Josefczyk/Reuters
Pressure
is building for a royal commission into the financial industry after a
cross-parliamentary group backed a full investigation into life
insurance, forestry managed investment schemes and financial planning.
Valeant Reports Loss and Cuts Forecast in Preliminary Financial StatementThe company,
which is facing inquiries over its drug-pricing policies, had previously
delayed the release of its earnings. Its shares dropped sharply.
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a former Boston
resident with operating a $10 million Ponzi scheme that claimed to
generate profits from “bridge loans” to businesses in Jamaica.
U.S. stocks closed mostly lower Tuesday as a decline in health care
stocks weighed and investors awaited the Wednesday afternoon conclusion
of the Federal Reserve meeting.
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Kansas-based
Central States Capital Markets, its CEO, and two employees for breaching
their fiduciary duty by failing to disclose a conflict of interest to a
municipal client. The case is the SEC’s first to enforce the fiduciary
duty for municipal advisors created by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, which
requires these advisors to put their municipal clients’ interests ahead
of their own.
January 2016 business inventories were
$1,812.3 billion, up 0.1 percent from December and up 1.8 percent from
January 2015. Sales were $1,296.2 billion, down 0.4 percent from the
previous month and down 1.1 percent from one year earlier.
Promotions Were Part of the Company’s March 2015 Design Lab Collection Launch
National retailer Lord & Taylor has agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges
that it deceived consumers by paying for native advertisements,
including a seemingly objective article in the online publication Nylon and a Nylon
Instagram post, without disclosing that the posts actually were paid
promotions for the company’s 2015 Design Lab clothing collection.
The Commission’s complaint
also charges that as part of the Design Lab rollout, Lord & Taylor
paid 50 online fashion “influencers” to post Instagram pictures of
themselves wearing the same paisley dress from the new collection, but
failed to disclose they had given each influencer the dress, as well as
thousands of dollars, in exchange for their endorsement.
In settling the charges, Lord & Taylor is prohibited from
misrepresenting that paid ads are from an independent source, and is
required to ensure that its influencers clearly disclose when they have
been compensated in exchange for their endorsements.
“Lord & Taylor needs to be straight with consumers in its online
marketing campaigns,” said Jessica Rich, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of
Consumer Protection. “Consumers have the right to know when they’re
looking at paid advertising.”
According to the FTC, over a weekend in late March 2015, Lord &
Taylor launched a comprehensive social media campaign to promote its new
Design Lab collection, a private-label clothing line targeted to women
between 18 and 35 years old. The marketing plan included branded blog
posts, photos, video uploads, native advertising editorials in online
fashion magazines, and online endorsements by a team of specially
selected “fashion influencers.” The complaint alleges that Lord & Taylor placed a Lord & Taylor-edited paid article in Nylon,
a pop culture and fashion publication. Nylon also posted a photo of the
retailer’s Design Lab Paisley Asymmetrical Dress on Nylon’s Instagram
site, along with a caption that Lord & Taylor had reviewed and
approved. The Instagram post and article gave no indication to consumers
that they were paid advertising placed by Lord & Taylor.
Over the same weekend in March 2015, Lord & Taylor gave 50 select
fashion influencers a free Paisley Asymmetrical Dress and paid them
between $1,000 and $4,000 each to post a photo of themselves wearing it on Instagram or another social media site.
While the influencers could style the dress any way they chose, Lord
& Taylor contractually obligated them to use the “@lordandtaylor”
Instagram user designation and the hashtag “#DesignLab” in the caption
of the photo they posted. The company also pre-approved each proposed
post.
In addition, the FTC’s complaint charges that Lord & Taylor did
not require the influencers to disclose that the company had compensated
them to post the photo, and none of the posts included such a
disclosure. In total, the influencers’ posts reached 11.4 million
individual Instagram users over just two days, led to 328,000 brand
engagements with Lord & Taylor’s own Instagram handle, and the dress
quickly sold out.
The proposed consent order settling the FTC’s complaint prohibits
Lord & Taylor from misrepresenting that paid commercial advertising
is from an independent or objective source. It also prohibits the
company from misrepresenting that any endorser is an independent or
ordinary consumer, and requires the company to disclose any unexpected
material connection between itself and any influencer or endorser.
Finally, it establishes a monitoring and review program for the
company’s endorsement campaigns.
The FTC recently issued an enforcement policy statement that businesses can use to ensure they make required disclosures in native advertisements.
The Commission vote to issue the administrative complaint and to
accept the proposed consent agreement was 4-0. The FTC will publish a
description of the consent agreement package in the Federal Register
shortly.
The agreement will be subject to public comment for 30 days, beginning today and continuing through April 14, 2016, after which the Commission will decide whether to make the proposed consent order final. Interested parties can submit comments electronically by following the instructions in the “Invitation To Comment” part of the “Supplementary Information” section. NOTE: The Commission issues an administrative
complaint when it has “reason to believe” that the law has been or is
being violated, and it appears to the Commission that a proceeding is in
the public interest. When the Commission issues a consent order on a
final basis, it carries the force of law with respect to future actions.
Each violation of such an order may result in a civil penalty of up to
$16,000.
UNPACKING A CHINESE COMPANY'S SPREE ON U.S. HOTELSMarriott
International's deal to buy Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide may
be derailed by a Chinese insurer expanding its hotel empire,
Chad Bray and Leslie Picker report in DealBook.
The Producer Price Index for final demand
fell 0.2 percent in February. Final demand prices advanced 0.1 percent
in January and declined 0.2 percent in December. In February, prices for
final demand goods declined 0.6 percent and the index for final demand
services was unchanged.
Stock
futures extended losses Tuesday, after a flurry of economic data
offered a mixed picture of the U.S. economy a day ahead of the Federal
Open Market Committee’s decision on interest rates.
Continued pressure on oil prices pulled down the shares of energy companies, weighing on the main benchmarks.
Most Asian stock markets closed lower Tuesday amid weaker oil and commodities prices.
Investors
were watching the Bank of Japan, which in the afternoon announced it
was keeping the reserves deposit rate at minus 0.1%. Japan’s Nikkei
Stock Average
NIK, -0.68%
fell sharply after the announcement and closed 0.7% lower.