The evening of March 15, 2016 saw the rubber meet the road to use an old bromide, in that Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump became for all intents and purposes the nominees of their respective parties.

Hillary Clinton won decisively in Ohio, North Carolina and Florida. In Illinois she had a narrow victory and in Missouri they are still counting the last ballots in a very close election. Her victories came in delegate rich states.

From a mathematical standpoint, there is no way that Bernie Sanders can come from behind and win. Senator Sanders has run a remarkable campaign with many highlights. He has brought many important issues to the forefront. His issues have become the heart and soul of the Democratic Party and of this he can be proud. His campaign will go on, rightly so, as he will by his efforts be a driving force in putting his name in nomination and continue his revolution. It is very rare to find a maverick or a revolutionary candidate win a race, but what is important is that his message goes on. His victory is that his message will go on, but that his candidacy will not.

Hillary Clinton’s focus will now turn towards her ultimate opponent Donald Trump. At some point Hillary and Bernie will unite in this effort as each candidate has too much in common to do otherwise.

Like many other campaigns once the first blush of defeat passes, the supporters of Bernie’s campaign will realize that the task at hand is far more important and join in the campaign of Hillary Clinton’s to defeat their common foe, Donald Trump. For some of his supporters who are independent voters and libertarians this will not be the case, as their support will go to her opponent.

For Donald Trump’s campaign the road became clearer but not without it’s roadblocks. He had a great evening, as he won nearly all of the primaries. The one important loss was in Ohio, where the favorite son candidate John Kasich won.

The task of defeating Donald Trump became a daunting task. The only hope and it is a long shot is that they can deny him a 50 per cent majority of delegates. With many of the forthcoming primaries being winner take all, the idea that they can deny him a victory is a forlorn hope but not impossible. Their hope is to go to the convention in Cleveland where no one has the votes for a first ballot victory. In theory this is possible, that somehow the remaining candidates, Ted Cruz and or John Kasich will do something amazing and that is run the table of the remaining primaries and caucuses. A contested convention is still possible but highly unlikely. It is the establishment’s last best hope of denying Mr. Trump the nomination. This effort would be fraught with danger, as any effort will only serve to totally anger his supporters who if the effort was successful would never support any other candidate.

The future of the Republican Party is on the line. A desperate effort may be made to deny Donald Trump his place as the nominee of the Party. The party establishment believes that the brand of the party will forever be tarnished if Trump is the nominee. Stay tuned, we shall see if the roadblocks that the party establishment has in mind will be consequential or just a nuisance for Mr. Trump.