After Donald Trump dominated the Republican field in South Carolina—the second state in a row he won by a wide margin—his competitors are mostly competing to take one another out, each by convincing the world that he is the only one with a chance to beat Trump. Get your popcorn:
“Last night was truly the beginning of the real Republican primary,” Mr. Rubio said on CNN.
I finally got second place, so ignore all previous results. Rubimentum!
“If you want to beat Donald Trump, you’ve got to go with the only campaign that has demonstrated that they can beat Donald Trump,” [Cruz] said on ABC News.
And I followed up that initial win with two third-place finishes. Cruzmentum!
“John Kasich has no path to the nomination,” Mr. Rubio’s advisers wrote, asserting that there was no way for Mr. Kasich to accrue the needed delegates.
Chris Schrimpf, a spokesman for Mr. Kasich, responded in kind. “Rubio has consistently underperformed throughout this nominating process. He has the same number of second-place finishes as Governor Kasich despite spending at least $45 million more,” Mr. Schrimpf said. “His candidacy has not lived up to its promise despite all the hype. Rubio can’t beat Trump in Florida, while we will beat him in Ohio.”
Okay … that’s one state. Any others?
Fair point about Rubio, though. He has definitely not lived up to the hype, not that that’s stopping the hype now that he finally has that second-place finish with all zero delegates it brings him. And he hasn’t even faced serious Trump attacks yet. No, for now at least, there’s no question who’s on top of this race.