Super Tuesday takeaways: Biden and Trump momentum can’t be slowed, Haley’s hopes get even dimmer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The picture of the presidential race has hardly been cloudy for some time, even if it is one that most voters say they don’t want to see.

On not-so-Super Tuesday, there were few surprises. It became ever clearer President Joe Biden was on a glidepath to the Democratic nomination that only some kind of personal catastrophe could alter. And his predecessor, Donald Trump — if he can navigate the 91 criminal charges against him and avoid any other calamity — is headed to a third Republican nomination, and a rematch against the president.

Enthusiasm for Biden was not the story of the day, with some Democrats even voting “uncommitted” rather than for the incumbent. For Trump, there were cautionary signs even with his string of victories over his principal challenger, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.

Here are some key takeaways from Super Tuesday:

HALEY’S VANISHING RATIONALE

Haley won her first state of the primary season, Vermont, but that was no cause to talk about momentum. She continued her long streak of losing big to Trump in Republican primaries in every region of the country. Her lone other victory had come in last week’s Washington, D.C., primary.

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