Before considering what comes next — longtime experience in politics and government vs. a populist insurgency that defies all traditional political norms — look at what just happened as the arch-conservative Cruz exits stage right. Or stage far right.

Clinton lost to Bernie Sanders in Indiana Tuesday, but the delegate math suggests that really doesn't matter.

Ted Cruz abruptly abandoned his bid for the Republican presidential nomination Tuesday shortly after Donald Trump crushed him in the Indiana primary. That puts the boastful real estate developer within a handful of delegates of securing the nomination and facing likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

For weeks, Hillary Clinton has been turning her attention to Donald Trump as her likely foe, trying to draw stark contrasts between their values, policies and personalities, and emphasizing the comments he's made that objectify, marginalize and denigrate women.

Comedian-in-Chief Barack Obama even worked that into his White House Correspondents Dinner monologue: "I'm the foreigner?" he quipped.

His recent anointing of failed candidate Carly Fiorina as his "vice president" prompted much head scratching. As did his attempts to clasp hands with the erstwhile CEO, a conjoining of fingers which resembled a bout of thumb wrestling. But nothing raised as much mirth as the moment where Cruz called a basketball hoop a "ring."

The moment was perhaps emblematic of his Indiana primary efforts overall.

Cruz then attempted to embrace his wife but awkwardly chucked her in the face, then followed up with an elbow before finally getting his arm around her.

"And so with a heavy heart – but with boundless optimism, for the long-term future of our nation – we are suspending our campaign."

"I've said that I would continue on as long as there is a viable path to victory," Cruz said late Tuesday in Indianapolis. "Tonight, I'm sorry to say it appears that path has been foreclosed. We gave it everything we've got. But the voters chose another path.

Trump, in his Indiana victory speech, told his followers that he's winning with women. And Hispanics. And African Americans, too. Why? "You look at what's going on, they want jobs," he said. "And we're going to bring back our jobs and save our jobs, and people are going to have great jobs again."

Clinton recently said she's been pondering a role for her husband, former President Bill Clinton, should she win the White House. After all, she said, he presided over job creation and economic expansion. She's likely to ask him to work on how to resurrect American manufacturing.

"I've told my husband he's got to come out of retirement and be in charge of this, because you know, he's got more ideas a minute than anybody I know," Clinton said at an appearance in Kentucky recently. "Gotta put people back to work and make it happen. So we're going to give it all we've got, absolute full-in 100 percent effort, because I worry we won't recognize our country if we don't do this."

For a lot of Americans, making America great again means more jobs and better jobs. They believe a businessman such as Trump has a better chance of making that happen.

Matthew Bergbower, assistant professor of American Politics at Indiana State University in Terre Haute, said the argument that the Stop Trump forces suddenly got stronger and could actually stop Trump in Indiana was just not convincing. Bergbower said the "Anyone But Trump" movement has been around for a while and has not affected the way previous states have voted. Indiana was no different.

"Trump is ... sending a strong economic message," Bergbower told Patch. "In towns like Anderson, Gary and Evansville, with a blue collar history, someone like Trump really connects with people like that.

"They want to hear about jobs going to Mexico and China; they want to hear someone like Trump."

Clearly, jobs will be a key issue in the fall campaign.

Character, consistency and compassion will be up for judgment, too, in a Trump vs. Hillary contest.

Hours after calling Cruz "Lyin' Ted" and accusing his father of aiding in the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Trump thanked Cruz and commended him.

"What Ted did is really a brave thing to do. And a great thing to do," Trump said. "Because we want to bring unity to the Republican Party."

On Twitter earlier Tuesday, Trump called Cruz a "wacko."

In his victory speech, Trump tried to strike a more inclusive tone.

"This country, which is very, very divided in so many different ways, is going to become one beautiful, loving country, and we're going to love each other. We're going to cherish each other. We're going to take care of each other."

Could this be the same candidate who wants to build a wall to keep undocumented immigrants out of the country? The same guy who made nasty comments about Clinton's visit to the toilet? Who openly speculated about a Fox News anchor's time of the month because she asked him a pointed question?

Clinton's character, too, will come into question. The ongoing FBI investigation into her private secretary of state email server will never go away. Trump will hammer her with that, and the Republicans will continue to paint her as secretive, duplicitous and suspicious. Her relationship with Bill Clinton and his past transgressions also will be in play.

Clinton won't do herself any favors on the campaign trail, either, given her discomfort with campaigning, let alone opening up and being personal and human.

But her greatest opportunity could be in highlighting to Democrats and independents how mean-spirited and un-American, some even say "fascist," Trump's views are.

"Throughout his campaign, Donald Trump has demonstrated that he's too divisive and lacks the temperament to lead our nation and the free world," wrote Clinton campaign manager John Podesta in a campaign statement released late Tuesday night. "With so much at stake, Trump is simply too big of a risk."

Aside from widely divergent world views and visions for America, which will provide much fodder for debate, the campaign likely will feature a lot of personal mud-slinging. Both Trump and Clinton come with heavy, heavy baggage.

While Clinton has the Democratic establishment firmly behind her, the GOP establishment has been outright hostile to Trump. He's more disgusting to them than a smear of dog doo on the bottom of a shoe. Now, he's their "presumptive nominee."

Republican National Committee chair Reince Priebus, calling for party unity, made sure to call Trump the "presumptive nominee" immediately after his Indiana victory. His message to all Republicans: Get past your disgust and fall in line.

There isn't a lot of optimism about a Trump campaign, however. Politico convened a caucus of "top operatives, strategists and activists" from both parties in the battleground states and asked them to analyze a Clinton-Trump election.

Nearly 90 percent of them said Clinton would defeat Trump in their home states in a November matchup. More than three-quarters of GOP insiders expect Clinton to best the Republican front-runner in a general-election contest in their respective states. Among Democrats, the belief is nearly universal: 99 percent of surveyed said will Clinton will beat Trump.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich, banking on this sentiment and spoiling for a convention battle in Cleveland, is walking his own path.

Despite having even fewer delegates to his name than Cruz, Kasich plans to keep campaigning unless Trump secures the required 1,237 delegates to clinch victory before the party's national convention in July. Current polling and Cruz's departure suggest Trump will surpass that number. The Wall Street Journal notes that Trump will not be able to get the 1,237 delegates needed to win the nomination until the last day of primary voting on June 7

But there's an outside chance he'll fall a few delegates short. And then, the GOP convention could rock like nothing Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has ever seen.

Sanders also plans to stay in the race until the Democratic convention in Philadelphia. His longshot strategy hinges on his campaign persuading superdelegates to switch their allegiance to him.

Both Kasich and Sanders, however, face long odds of changing the dynamic that will lead us toward Trump vs. Clinton and what could be the most interesting presidential election in generations.

SEE ALSO

TUESDAY NIGHT, HOUR BY HOUR

See the play-by-play from Indiana below, updated by Patch reporter Alison Bauter:

Update: 10:15 p.m.

Clinton's campaign released a statement late Tuesday taking Trump to task in his newly party-sanctioned role as presumptive nominee.



"Throughout his campaign, Donald Trump has demonstrated that he's too divisive and lacks the temperament to lead our nation and the free world," wrote Clinton campaign manager John Podesta. "With so much at stake, Trump is simply too big of a risk."

Update: 10 p.m.

The Associated Press quotes Sanders as saying, "The Clinton campaign thinks this campaign is over. They're wrong."

It's somewhat ironic that after all the talk of a contested GOP convention, Democrats may now be the ones battling within their own party through to the bitter end.

Update: 9:30 p.m.

"Ted Cruz, I don't know if he likes me, or if he doesn't like me, but he is one hell of a competitor, one tough competitor," Trump told supporters in his victory speech. "He has got an amazing future."

Trump's took a relatively low-key, even-toned approach Tuesday, attacking Clinton on trade and recent comments made on the campaign trail.

Meanwhile, the Associated Press called Democrats' primary for Sanders at 9:23 p.m. It's a rebuke to pollsters' predictions in Indiana, but does little to close the delegate gap between Sanders and Clinton.

Update: 9:02 p.m.

Republican Party Chairman Reince Priebus makes it official: Trump is the party's presumptive nominee.

.@realDonaldTrump will be presumtive @GOP nominee, we all need to unite and focus on defeating @HillaryClinton #NeverClinton

Update: 8:58 p.m.

One last dose of embarrassment befell the Cruz campaign in its final seconds:

This is just so unfortunate. https://t.co/EKO5pcePV1 — Jessica Arp (@news3jessica) May 4, 2016

Liberals on social media are already having a field day with the clip, and with the state of the GOP in general.

Update: 8:45 p.m.

Voice growing hoarser by the minute, Cruz spoke of Ronald Reagan's "shining city on the hill," and ardently thanked supporters, saying they "left everything on the field," but Indiana voters "chose a different path."

Kasich, meanwhile, appears content to stay in the race. After issuing a detailed statement earlier in the night (below), he tweeted his condolences to Cruz shortly after the Texas Senator's speech:

"Sen. @tedcruz should be proud of his strong and disciplined campaign. Texas is lucky to have you. Best wishes going forward. -John"



No word yet from Trump who, earlier in the night, said Cruz "went wacko," among other insults.

Update: 7:50 p.m.



Bernie Sanders spoke to supporters in Louisville, KY, about 30 minutes after polls closed. The Vermont senator and self-identified democratic socialist delivered a fairly standard stump speech, even as pollsters tracked a Hoosier state primary race that has him within striking distance of frontrunner Hillary Clinton.



Regardless of the outcome in Indiana Tuesday, Sanders badly trails Clinton's delegate count, but has said he intends to remain in the race right up to the Democratic Convention this summer.

Update: 7:25 p.m.

Following Trump's decisive Indiana victory, Ohio Gov. John Kasich said in a statement Tuesday his campaign will continue "unless a candidate reaches 1,237 bound delegates before the convention."

That, of course, is precisely what Trump is poised to achieve after tonight. Nonetheless, the Kasich campaign wrote:

"Tonight's results are not going to alter Gov. Kasich's campaign plans. Our strategy has been and continues to be one that involves winning the nomination at an open convention. The comments from Trump, on the verge of winning in Indiana, heighten the differences between Governor Kasich and his positive, inclusive approach and the disrespectful ramblings from Donald Trump."

Update: 7:25 p.m.

Trump tweeted his thanks to Indiana at about 7:15 p.m. Although Democrats' race remains too close to call, the Associated Press is already crunching the numbers for Trump's win.

According to the AP, he will land at least 45 delegates in Indiana, pushing his total count up to 1,041. His margin of victory there tonight will decide whether Trump wins the remaining 12 Indiana delegates up for grabs. This puts Trump just 196 delegates shy of winning the GOP nomination outright, averting a contested convention entirely.



All this despite massive ad buys against Trump in Indiana, and a less-than-cohesive pact between Cruz and Kasich to rally the state's anti-Trump voters around Cruz.

Update: 7:11 p.m. Eastern

Trump doesn't appear to have noticed his own win. Roughly eight minutes after the Associated Press called Indiana for him, the business mogul tweeted this:

Lyin' Ted Cruz consistently said that he will, and must, win Indiana. If he doesn't he should drop out of the race-stop wasting time & money — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 3, 2016

Update: 7:08 p.m. Eastern

Soon after the first wave of polls closed, it became clear that Trump had assumed a commanding lead. Before the second wave of polls closed, some news outlets had already published autopsies exploring the "why" behind Cruz's loss. The Associated Press called his win at 7 p.m. exactly.

Update: 6:45 p.m. Eastern

Early polls show Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have both taken a commanding lead in their respective party primaries. Central Time polls close in 15 minutes.

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Image Credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr Creative Commons