Herewith, three media narratives you’ll hear tomorrow, depending on how Marco Rubio does tonight:

Scenario #1: Rubio finishes in second place, far ahead of Bush and Christie. Story #1: “Rubio Wins!” In this case, Saturday’s mistakes will be forgiven and normal service will be resumed. A second-place finish — coupled with poor showings from Bush and Christie — will permit the media to re-annoint Rubio as the “establishment” savior, and to put subtle pressure on the other “moderate lane” contenders to drop out. (Even if Kasich were to do well in concert with Rubio, he is unlikely to do much in South Carolina — and everybody knows it.) Should this happen, Rubio’s poor debate will be deemed not to have mattered a great deal — at least, not enough to convince the convincibles to back someone else — and the “robot” meme will be dealt a blow until the general.

Scenario #2: Rubio finishes behind — or extremely close to — Bush and Kasich. Story #2: “Anybody’s Game!” If this happens, the race will held to be “wide open,” and the “this-is-now-a-three-way-race” stories that have been pre-written for days will have to be shelved. Rubio will be said to have hurt himself in the debate, although not fatally. Bush will be the “comeback kid,” and left of center journalists will start talking about him as the possible nominee again. Strategically, Bush’s decision to spend millions of dollars hitting Rubio will look smart rather than desperate, and we’ll begin to hear talk of George W.’s enduring popularity in South Carolina . . .

Scenario #3: Rubio finishes fourth or fifth, perhaps even behind Cruz. Story #3: “Rubio’s Done!” Although a recovery would still be feasible (South Carolina will still likely come down to Trump, Cruz, and Rubio), it would be hard to see this result doing anything other than cementing the narrative that has been building over the last few days: Namely, that Rubio has never really had the momentum that the press has presumed he would, and that his poor debate performance destroyed any chance he had to change that. Because politics is a dynamic game, the endless “Rubio is finished” pieces would probably start to bleed into South Carolina, at which point they might becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. If Bush and Kasich do well at Rubio’s expense, we’ll also see headlines proclaiming “The Return of the Moderates.”