Marco Rubio heads to New Hampshire on the rise (all the way to third place in Iowa!) and with a lot of establishment and media figures cheering him on. So what’s his plan to move from fourth place in current New Hampshire polling to another victorious third?
According to a source close to the campaign, Rubioworld is now arming itself for an assault on Trump. "They’ve done a lot of oppo research. Personal stuff," the source said. "It’s going to be personal to Trump because they know Trump will be personal to Marco.”
Um. Really? Personal stuff about Donald Trump that’s going to somehow be more devastating than all the stuff we already know about his corporate bankruptcies and his three marriages and adultery and willingness to advertise that he’d date his daughter if he could? You know, the stuff that voters haven’t seemed to care about?
Trump doubtless will get personal against Rubio if he’s feeling threatened—Trump’s gonna Trump—but Trump’s appeal to voters lies precisely in his bully personality. Rubio’s appeal seems to lie in his performance of wide-eyed optimism. In other words, personal attacks are on-brand for one of these candidates and wildly off-brand for the other. If this reporting is accurate, it seems like a bad move for Rubio. But then, one of the big questions about Rubio’s candidacy has always been whether he can really stand up to the full presidential front-runner magnifying glass. I guess we’ll start finding out soon … especially if he goes personal on Trump.