Posted on 02/04/2016 1:44:29 PM PST by Hojczyk
For John Kasich, Jeb Bush and Chris Christie, it’s live free and place high — or die.
The results of the Iowa caucuses finished the presidential campaigns of three Republicans.
Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary is almost guaranteed to claim the scalps of even more.
With Donald Trump sitting atop a 20-point lead in the Granite State, the race for second place has become the prized possession and a ticket to fight on in the narrowing GOP race. Five candidates are in varying ranges of contention for the slot, but some have more riding on it than others.
Having clinched a victory in the kick-off caucuses, a second place finish in New Hampshire would be icing on the cake for Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. But running as the most ideologically pure conservative candidate with a heavy appeal among Christian evangelicals, Cruz will march on to the next round of southern primaries regardless of his performance in New Hampshire.
Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who over performed public polling to take a strong third place in Iowa just behind Trump, would also like that runner-up slot, but hasn’t placed the overwhelming emphasis on the state that his competing class of governors has.
The latest tracking poll, conducted by the University of Massachusetts Lowell and taken between Monday and Wednesday, shows Rubio slipping into second place, still far behind Trump but just ahead of Cruz.
Trump takes 36 percent to Rubio’s 15 percent and Cruz’s 14 percent, among likely voters. Bush, Kasich and Christie trail at 8 percent, 7 percent and 5 percent respectively.
(Excerpt) Read more at usnews.com ...
Honestly, there is little to gain for anyone, and Trump has the most to lose. If he falls under polled expectations a second time in a row, confidence outside of his core believers will be rattled, and the media will go in for the attack. He HAS to top 37 pct, or else he has issues he didn't need.
Okay, I just found the latest UMass poll... with the several drop-outs, the changes are interesting... Bush, Kasich, and Christie all FELL a few points. Carson up only one pt from 3 to 4... and the Big Three all jumped up about five pts each from the CNN poll last week... now Trump 36, Rubio 16, Cruz 15
Delegate counts are immaterial at this point. What we are dealing with is an overcrowded field and a lot of jockeying for position.
It’s an endurance run right now for Trump, Cruz, and Rubio. They bought their tickets to South Carolina with their finishes in Iowa. New Hampshire is just avoiding the tackles as the lower tier throws themselves at the leaders.
If they can avoid any trouble, the crowd thins further still, and South Carolina becomes a battle that will leave another few bodies on the ground.
Then the remaining two or three move to Super Tuesday and we will see if there is a clear winner by early March.
What? St. Cruz isn’t going to make 2nd place, or 3rd,,or maybe 4th?
Cue the Cruzers talking bad about their fellow Americans in NH now.
Considering delegate totals ARE important, every delegate counts.
Yep... and I think Cruz has more money to spend than the other two...
“Cue the Cruzers talking bad about their fellow Americans in NH now.”
Unlike Trump, we’re not going to go out there and call em stupid or ungrateful. Then post endless Tweets about how it wasn’t fair in NH and the results should be cancelled. then threaten to sue.
Sure every delegate counts... just way down on the list of how the first several contests actually affect the race.
Delegate counts will start coming into focus when we get down to two or three candidates.
Thought the Buffoon was supposed to win Iowa. Oh, wait, that got STOLEN, didn’t it? Why don’t you wait until your boy actually wins something before you brag? I would not be surprised if Trump loses NH.
I thought that it was a goal to finish third,then you are declared the winner
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