Nope, still on Trump. The point is that if its obvoius that Rubio is just copying Trump, then Trump and Trump’s antics still dominate the story.
The opposite case wouldn’t be Trump insulting Rubio, but Trump trying to get ahead by adopting Rubio (or at least, establishment-friendly) tactics. This actually happened for a few weeks during the primary. Trump evidently felt it was in his interest to be accepted by the establishment. He went through a debate without insulting anyone. He released a “serious” tax plan (which is to say, insane, but insane in the same Jeb and Rubio’s tax plan is insane). He walked back a few of the more xenophobic lines he’d used.
And then his dominance in the press coverage dropped, his poll numbers fell, and he quickly went back to his previous nuttiness.
The moral of the story is that once campaigns have established an identity, trying to follow the other guy just makes the other guy look better. People that want an establishment friendly candidate are going to vote for Rubio. People that want a xenophobic insult-comic are going to vote for Turmp. Trying to mimic the other guy in an attempt to peel off some of his voters just reminds those voters of why they like the other guy.
Apparently, at a rally tonight, a man in the audience yelled “Donald Trump has small hands!” and Rubio responded with “I’m not talking about that tonight, I want this to be a serious election.”
Seems a little late after rolling in the mud with the pig but I guess the narrative wasn’t going Rubio’s way. Less about Rubio being the new alpha and more about him being as bad as Trump (without the benefit of alpha status).
Yeah, Rubio seemed like a desperate boy trying to get the crowd on his side via childish insults. I’m just surprised he didn’t devolve the final bit into, “Donald Trump’s mother is so fat…”.
Well, he finally won his first state. Unfortunately for him, the Minnesota GOP is strictly proportional in the way it assigns delegates, so it won’t amount to much at all (I saw one estimate that he’d get just one more delegate than Ted Cruz), and certainly won’t make up for him possibly getting a goose egg in some more important southern states.
I think Rubio suspends his campaign tonight if he’s badly beaten in Michigan. I think there’s enough smoke from yesterday’s rumor and Rubio really doesn’t want to get beaten in Florida. Plus, there’s another debate Thursday. Does he really want another two hours of taking insults from Trump?
He’s looking to come in 4th in Michigan and Mississippi, and win zero (0) delegates from either state. At one point he was behind non-candidate Ben Carson in Mississippi, although that was with very little of the vote in.
Things changed quickly for him. Not long ago he was thrilled to win Minnesota. His parents were so happy, they let him stay up to watch the returns. But descending to Trump’s level in the last debate was the beginning of the end, coupled with Christie’s brutal exposure of him as Marcobot. All that remains is the final docking at Lakehurst, NJ followed by the final crash and burn.
Even if Rubio somehow manages to pull off a win in Florida, I don’t see how that does more for him than stave off the inevitable. He’s running third or fourth pretty much everywhere now.
If he loses Florida, I presume he’s out. If he wins, there are fewer delegates being decided in the next month after Florida than were decided in the past five days, so he’d be in the race for a good while longer, since there wouldn’t really be anything happening to force him out.
Rubio’s strategy should now be to try and get himself the VP spot. Traditionally, the VP is someone who shores up the presidential candidate’s weaknesses and/or someone who can bring home an important state.
Florida’s probably the most important swing state. So perhaps Marco is staying in to try to win Florida, to prove that he can bring it home in the general? On the other hand, if he loses Florida he just lost a good chunk of the reason for picking him as VP. So the stakes for him there could be very high.
If Rubio loses Florida, his political future is done - at least for an election cycle or two. If he can’t bring in his home state, he’s useless as a VP pick, and it bodes poorly for a future run at the governorship. He’s going to be out of the Senate, and he doesn’t seem to be cabinet material, so he may wind up completely out of politics. That would be a bad result for him, since he doesn’t have any other marketable skills I know of, and I don’t think he’s a wealthy guy. So the stakes for Rubio are really high in Florida.
Rubio’s toast, yes. But even if Kasich wins Ohio he’s not in much better position. It’s the last state he’ll finish in the top 3, seeing as how he couldn’t beat Cruz in Michigan.
It’s between Cruz and Trump at this point, which surprises me even as I type it.
