As predicted, New York voters granted Trump, its “native son,” and Hillary, the state’s adoptee, electoral victories by wide margin.

The takeaway?

Trump confirmed that he is indeed a “winner.”  And Hillary, who has the loyalty of New York Democrats, sent a strong message to her iconoclastic contender, Senator Bernie Sanders.

The presidential ticket seems set for both parties, even if Trump is likely to arrive at the GOP convention without the necessary majority of delegates. The #StopTrump movement isn’t going away, but “The Donald’s” popularity may mean outraged establishment Republicans won’t be able to do much about it.

Nomentum in the GOP Race

John McCormack – The Weekly Standard

Trump didn’t suffer any negative consequences in New York because of his failure in Wisconsin. He won his home state on Tuesday night with 60 percent of the vote. John Kasich came in second at 25 percent, and Ted Cruz came in third at 15 percent.

At this point in the GOP race, the absence of momentum shouldn’t be surprising. Trump unexpectedly lost the Iowa caucuses on February 1. The next week, he paid no price in New Hampshire and won the state by 20 points. Trump went on to capture South Carolina, but he won the first-in-the-South primary with a smaller share of the vote than he had been getting in the polls on the day of his big New Hampshire victory.

And on it went. Republicans in Utah didn’t care how Republicans in Florida voted. Republicans in New York didn’t care how Republicans in Wisconsin voted. Ted Cruz must now hope that voters in Indiana won’t care how Republicans on the East Coast voted.

Resign Yourself to the Depressing Reality It’s Going to Be Trump Vs. Clinton

John Podhoretz – The New York Post

We New Yorkers were excited by the fact that for the first time in 24 years (on the Democratic side) or the first time ever (on the Republican side), our votes were going to make a difference in the nomination of a presidential candidate.

And did they ever.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton celebrates on stage with her family, from left, Chelsea Clinton, Mark Mezvinsky, and husband and former president Bill Clinton, right, at her victory party after winning the New York state primary election on April 19, 2016 in New York. (AP)

Here in New York, reality bit the Bernie bandwagon. He may deliver endless lectures about how money is everything in politics, but he outspent her in New York by 2-to-1 and she still romped. So give a listen in old Brooklyn-speak: Sometimes, money means bupkis.

Meanwhile, the state’s Republicans just did something for Donald Trump no other state’s GOP electorate has done for him: It gave him an outright majority of the votes in the single largest primary victory any candidate has scored thus far.

It May Be Too Late for the GOP to Stop Trump

Eugene Robinson – The Washington Post

I believe that if Trump comes anywhere close to a delegate majority, the party leadership caves and he gets the nomination.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump fills out his ballot for the New York primary election on April 19, 2016. (Reuters)

Trump would have to be deaf, dumb and blind not to see what’s coming. In recent speeches, he has staked out the position that the candidate who comes to the convention with the biggest number of delegates should be the nominee, period. Polls show that a majority of Republicans agree with the helmet-haired billionaire. It turns out that once you tell people they get to choose their standard-bearer, they don’t take kindly to being patted on the head and told to go sit in the corner.

Trump’s newly hired convention manager, GOP veteran Paul Manafort, accused the Cruz campaign of using “Gestapo tactics” to steal delegates. Trump said Sunday that, gee, he sure hopes there’s no violence in Cleveland if the party establishment tries to take the nomination away from him. Not that he would ever suggest such a thing, of course.

Clinton waged a battle in the Empire State using all the weapons in her arsenal. She convened campaign events throughout her adopted home state, reminding New Yorkers of her record as their senator from 2001-2009. She dissected progressive policy prescriptions and argued for skillful collaboration with Congress to enact laws to benefit the middle class, if she is elected president. And she courted New York’s famously fickle news media in a style she honed more than 15 years ago while first running for elective office….

Sanders has struggled this year to turn his youthful fan base and his online fund-raising prowess into votes to overtake his rival, who has been able to appeal to blacks and Latinos, as well as progressive women, especially those older than 45.

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders greets pedestrians in Times Square in Manhattan, New York on April 19, 2016. (Reuters)

Will Bernie’s People Back Hillary in November?

Robert Kuttner – Huffington Post

Cruz’s Path to the Nomination Narrows After New York Walloping

Sahil Kapur – Bloomberg View

Cruz’s task now is to starve Trump of a majority of delegates and challenge him after the first ballot. Critical to that is grinding out small victories at state conventions and delegate battles, using the maze of arcane primary rules to his advantage. On this front, the Cruz campaign has proven vastly superior to Trump’s….

The nominee is unlikely to become clear until California and four other primaries wrap up the primary process on June 7, awarding a total of 303 delegates. Trump, for his part, slammed those who want to deny him the nomination even if he leads in votes and delegates—“the people aren’t going to stand for it,” he said at Trump Tower in Manhattan.

Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz speaks during a campaign stop in Windham, N.H. on Feb. 2, 2016, (AP)