GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham, supposedly a Jeb! surrogate, delivered the news that most establishment Republicans are surely hoping for.
“If Rubio beats him badly in New Hampshire, Jeb is toast,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, a Bush backer who spent most of Tuesday traveling the state with him. Mr. Graham added that Mr. Bush must either “tie Rubio or beat him” in this state.
From his lips to God's ear—the last thing establishment Republicans want is for Jeb! Bush and Marco Rubio to continue tearing each other to shreds with a little Kasich and Christie on the side. They need to coalesce against the enemy—Crump! (Yes, that's a hybrid insurgency name for Cruz/Trump and, I must say, it feels rather apropos.)
In any case, there's one problem, the establishment built a hideous financial beast that they might not be able to control: FrankenBush.
Asked Tuesday evening by reporters how well he felt he needed to do in New Hampshire to justify continuing his campaign, Mr. Bush struck a defiant note.
“Oh, I’m continuing on,” he said. “I’m continuing on, yeah.” [...]
While Mr. Bush had $7.6 million in the bank and the “super PAC” supporting him had an additional $58.6 million as of Jan. 1, Mr. Kasich had just $2.5 million and Mr. Christie a paltry $1.1 million.
Which means FrankenBush might persist well after New Hampshire, regardless of how well he does, thus providing the second moral of the 2016 election tale: If you have the money to try to play God in politics, you might very well pay mightily for that sin.
The first moral of the FrankenBush story was: All the money in the world won’t necessarily buy you an election these days.