From the midweek edition of the Morning Jolt:
Stupor Tuesday
Super Tuesday was a bad night for the anti-Trump forces and a bad night for Rubio. It’s not the end, but it’s a disappointing setback.
The worst news for Trump foes: Trump has won 10 states. Cruz has won four; Rubio, one.
The best news for Trump foes: For all of his state wins, Donald Trump has 34.2 percent of the overall votes cast in the primary so far. Cruz and Rubio combined have 49.7 percent.
In the past week, Trump’s rivals and a critical press have spotlighted the collapse and victims of Trump University, his past use of illegal immigrants on Trump Tower, his massive use of legal immigrant temporary workers in his Florida resorts, the collapse of Trump Mortgage, his strange reluctance to passionately denounce David Duke and the KKK, and the fact that only $650,000 of the $6 million Trump raised for veterans can be accounted for, and they made fun of his orange spray tan and short fingers.
And Trump still won seven out of 11 states Tuesday. He underperformed his polls in some states, but in far too many places, GOP primary voters either didn’t hear the criticism or didn’t care. “Give us the con artist! He makes the offer sound really good! We’ll sign on the dotted line, no need to read the fine print!”
Now the thinking is that the best way to beat Trump might not be for the field to narrow to a two-man race. Maybe if Cruz or Rubio and John Kasich quit, not enough of their supporters will unite behind the remaining non-Trump option. Some might prefer Trump. Some might stay home. Maybe the most likely way to keep Donald Trump from winning the 1,237 delegates needed for the convention is to keep everybody in, and fight it out at the convention, probably resulting in a Cruz-Rubio or Rubio-Cruz unity ticket.
I don’t know who on the Rubio team made this comment to Bloomberg . . .
But in the final hours before polls close on Super Tuesday — the single biggest day of voting in the Republican primary — Rubio’s team is telling potential supporters that they have significant momentum in at least four states and could even win outright in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Virginia and Minnesota.
. . . but it was disastrous expectations-setting. In Arkansas, Rubio finished third with 25 percent. In Oklahoma, Rubio finished third with 26 percent. In Virginia, he was second with just under 32 percent (2.8 percentage points behind Trump). In Minnesota, he won with 36.8 percent.
At least with the Minnesota win, the “when is Rubio going to win a state?” line will retire. And Kasich’s campaign spin is insufferable:
Senator Rubio has been more hyped than Crystal Pepsi, but he has flopped even worse. Even a well-conceived, high-financed marketing campaign won’t work if people don’t want to buy the product. That’s the Rubio campaign’s problem. Behind the nice packaging, voters are discovering there is little substance. A candidate isn’t going to out-talk Donald Trump to the nomination. It’s going to take a candidate who has produced results. Only John Kasich can consolidate the Republican Party and win in November.
Governor Kasich, let’s put aside the fact that you haven’t won a state. You’ve won 6.6 percent of the vote in the primary. You finished in fourth place in a five-man race in Texas and Virginia. You finished in fifth place in a five-man race in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Minnesota, Oklahoma, and Tennessee.