Friends of mine in SC tell me the local buzz is Rubio surge to a strong second...
If that’s true I’m going to be ill.
Ugh
Yup.
Trump #1.
Strong Rubio 2nd.
It’s a Trump-Rubio race now, IMO. Yeb will be done soon and that leaves the establishment lane to Rubio. Only question is if Cruz will peel enough conservative votes away from Trump to give the nom to Rubio.
“Friends of mine in SC tell me the local buzz is Rubio surge to a strong second...”
An actual Rubio surge should probably not be confused with a media promotion of a Rubio surge.
Some of the polls show that but many of the polls show otherwise, so some (or many) pollsters are going to have egg on their face tonight.
As far as Rubio coming in second, that might not be such a bad thing for Trump, especially going into Super Tuesday where many of the states are in the South. Ted Cruz is thought to do very well in the South and if he comes in third in SC, that will certainly hurt him. But if Rubio makes a strong second, the media will fawn over him again. I sure hope Trump wins big - in the double digits if possible.
If that is true I am going to be ill.
You'll get over it, the only place where Rubio is less conservative than Cruz is on illegal immigration, and he has been migrated rightward for some time.
You know that when Bush and Kasich drop, none of their support will go to Donald, some will go to Cruz, most will go to Rubio. Carson's support will probably split 50-50 between Cruz and Rubio, none for Trump.
So if you are in Las Vegas today, put your money on Marco for the long hall, ---though Trump will beat him today in SC by 5-7 points.
The polls, so adored and revered by the Trump Camp, actually show Rubio and Cruz doing much better against the Democrats than Trump. In that (very critical) metric, Donald is just not cutting it. He'll have to step up his game.
As for Cruz-Rubio, there is a portion of the evangelical vote that was dismayed to learn that Cruz, despite a mighty fine family income, has not been contributing materially to his church. For some people, including in my own family, that is a red flag. If he couldn't reach 10%, that's forgivable, but not even trying is not. We want the churches and private charities to take the lead in social issues, and thus we are obligated to voluntarily fund them, that's Conservative Citizenship 101. In my opinion, this is the main reason Ted seems to be fading a bit. He presents himself as "Mr Consistency." We ridiculed Biden for being cheap on generosity, now the chickens have come home to lay their eggs.