[jjsheridan5]

Trump made mistakes by calling Iowa voters stupid and not showing up for the debate. Because of that he lost votes to Cruz and Rubio.

You don't know that. Iowa was always going to be difficult for Trump, and we will never know what would have happened had he made different choices. It is quite possible that he would have finished in third.

Look at the numbers. Cruz, Trump and Carson got 62% of the vote.

That's not the point. What matters to the establishment is that the Cruz-Trump battle is going to continue on, and that Cruz now has some momentum. That is all that the DC establishment needed out of tonight. But, for them, it gets even better, since Rubio did quite well. Make no mistake: the DC establishment can get their candidate nominated, even if the outsiders are getting most of the vote. There are plenty of people in DC whose profession it is to make sure that these kinds of things happen.

[TigerClaws]

I think skipping the debate hurt him a couple points.

But Cruz had visited all 99 counties and had a tremendous ground game.

[jwalsh07]

They can’t do squat if conservatives coalesce around the conservative. And that is Cruz.