What Went Down At The ABC Republican Debate

Am I overreacting in thinking that was a really bad exchange for Rubio?

I think Chris Christie listened to some Springsteen before this debate tonight — he is pumped up! He opened a screed against Rubio, bringing up the Florida Senator’s much-talked-about supposed absenteeism in the Senate: ”That’s not leadership, that’s truancy,” Christie said. Rubio fired back, talking about New Jersey’s downgraded credit rating under Christie, and then Christie comes back with: “I want the people at home to think about this. This is what Washington, D.C., does—the drive-by shot at the beginning with incorrect and incomplete information and then the memorized 25-second speech that is exactly what his advisers gave him.” Wooh!

What will happen if Bush doesn’t have a strong showing? First, it doesn’t look terribly likely that Bush will come in third or better in New Hampshire. If that’s the case, can he stay in the race? In some ways it’s kind of surprising that he’s stayed in this long, given the lack of promise in polls, debates, etc. Something, perhaps the donors, perhaps other party pressures, perhaps family pressures that are beyond my qualifications to analyze, seems to be keeping him in. For Rubio, the stakes are high as well. He’s my vote for the candidate with the most to prove in the next couple of contests. This week, Rubio picked up a bunch of endorsements, pulling ahead by that measure. He’s running second — pretty distantly it looks like — to Trump in New Hampshire and got third in Iowa. He needs to show he could be a legitimate candidate with voters, too.