The GOP Faces Destiny In Florida and Ohio

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Breitbart:

In 2000, Florida settled the presidential election with dangling chads. Now we’ve got a dangling Marco, as Senator Rubio looks destiny in the eye across the great GOP electoral shuffleboard court of the Sunshine State.

 

Meanwhile, Governor John Kasich stacks his chips on a safer-looking bet in Ohio, and the GOP Establishment struggles with the possibility that the only serious alternative to Donald Trump is someone they dislike even more: Senator Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)97%

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Everyone except Donald Trump is making elaborate calculations about whether it’s better for Rubio to win or lose in Florida. Trump just wants to win, evidently having no great interest in elaborate theories about how keeping Rubio in the race splits the anti-Trump vote. Trump gets a lot of political mileage out of winning, and declaring his opponents losers. He can drive a long way by pouring 99 delegates from winner-take-all Florida into his gas tank.

 

Ted Cruz is supposedly making a big play for Florida not because he has much hope of winning, but because he wants Rubio out of the race, to consolidate the anti-Trump vote behind him. (Also, as Politico points out, forcing Rubio to defend Florida keeps him from fighting Cruz effectively in other states.) His problem is that Florida locked in a substantial early vote for Rubio, plus a smaller but still significant early vote for Trump. No matter what happens next, critics of extended early voting have a new talking point.

 

Rubio’s campaign was outraged by CNN’s story about nameless advisers urging Rubio to drop out of the race before the Florida primary because, even as they strongly challenge its veracity, they have to admit it sounds plausible. The effect of losing Florida on Rubio’s once-glittering political future would be devastating, especially if his campaign folds up soon afterward… and it’s rather difficult to envision a Cinderella-story ending where Rubio comes back from a Florida loss to triumph at a brokered convention and emerge as the 2016 presidential nominee.

 

What does it say about Rubio that his constituents know Florida could be his last stand, and only by voting for him can they keep those 99 delegates away from Trump, who they’ve been told is the ruin of the Republican Party, the front-runner who loses so many late-deciding voters… but they still aren’t lining up behind their native son en masse?

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Moment of truth.

[clearvision]

Looks like Rubio's only purpose is to win Florida at this point. If he can't he better give it up to Cruz quickly. Rubio is being destroyed tonite. 9% in Michigan and 4% in Miss. Down to Cruz or Trump as far as majority delegates go. I still don't see how Cruz can beat a non-indicted Hillary but if you don't want Trump then there it is...