♦ The various 2016 Presidential Candidate Campaigns are meeting today in Alexandria Virginia to discuss their perspectives on debate formats, moving forward. The RNC is not participating in tonight’s meeting.
[…] The meeting, which will take place at 6 p.m. at the Hilton Old Town in Alexandria, Virginia, comes amid campaigns’ frustration with CNBC’s handling of last week’s debate, which they say lacked substance and was too focused on pitting candidates against one another. (link)
♦ Showcasing further evidence of his intent and support, the buried lead from yesterday’s Donald Trump rally was that Team Trump has qualified for the Virginia ballot placement garnering 15,000 signatures. The requirement is 5,000 signatures total, with 200 from each of the 11 congressional districts.
According to VA ground reports only Team Bush and Team Cruz also have active groups working on the challenging qualification process. The other candidates may have groups working, however they are less visible than Trump, Bush and Cruz – and time is running out.
♦ It does not go unnoticed that MSM are not pushing post-debate polling through Sunday. Following the previous polling patterns this would indicate polling results unfavorable to the general narrative leading into the debate.
♦ Despite the lackluster performance of Jeb Bush, no-one should anticipate anything remotely close to a withdrawal from the race. Bush will never drop out, ever. Team Bush, including the RNC/GOPe apparatus, have pre-paid for primary election race activity through April 1st. In essence they have put their electoral strategy and electoral vote purchases on layaway – they will not walk away from that plan.
Think of it this way, if you put your Christmas gift items on layaway – would you just leave them at the store? Of course not, the same applies to Team Bush and their pre-purchased road map plans. They will not drop out of the race; they can be defeated, but they will never drop out.
As mentioned yesterday the second tier Bush supporters, and the corporate media influenced by the entities associated with the second tier millionaires/billionaires, will shift focus toward the anti-vulgarian option of Marco Rubio.
The top tier may also opine favorably toward Rubio, however that approach is more about removing Trump (Op-Hummingbird approach), and supporting their investments in Jeb, than actually supporting Rubio. Therefore you can expect to see a BIG push on behalf of Rubio amid all of the corporate media groups.
♦ It is also important to note Rubio’s South Carolina strategy is collapsing as Team Trump has a virtual lock on the most strident Palmetto state activists. Team Rubio had previously centered their road map on winning South Carolina, Team Trump has eliminated that strategy with the support of state conservatives:
[…] His staying power here [South Carolina] hurts no one more so than Rubio, who has devoted disproportionate resources to the state where his top campaign brass cut their teeth and that is considered his best chance at winning one of the first three contests on the primary calendar.
Now, said state Republican Party Chairman Matt Moore — who clashed with the businessman’s campaign last month over a party loyalty pledge — the race in South Carolina is “Trump’s to lose.”
“His campaign is getting sharper every day,” said Moore. “What’s happening in Iowa isn’t necessarily what’s happening in South Carolina.”
Meanwhile, after a steady drip of stories in recent months about Rubio’s South Carolina strategy, the Florida senator’s campaign is now instead touting its ability to conserve resources for a long primary fight — with reminders on Instagram that the candidate flies coach and talk of the “fiscal discipline” of a campaign with a lower burn rate than Jeb Bush’s.
“If Rubio doesn’t win South Carolina, I’m not going to be crushed,” said Nathan Ballantine, state co-chair of Rubio’s campaign, pointing out that Mitt Romney lost the South Carolina primary before winning the nomination, the only Republican to do so since its 1980 inception. (read more)
♦ Ben Carson supporters remain an enigma for many. It will be interesting to see if Carson’s change in position -outlined in the last debate- where he no longer favors corn subsidies, will have any impact on his Iowa polling.
♦ In further evidence of the “Globalists VS Nationalists” division that has become a centerpiece of this election cycle the following topic bears attention: Statehood for Puerto Rico ?
Puerto Rico’s Republican Party is selecting new leaders while calling on GOP presidential candidates to support statehood for the U.S. territory.
Jeb Bush, Jr., son of the former Florida governor and presidential candidate, attended the Sunday assembly and addressed the forum for his father.
Presidential hopefuls Marco Rubio and George Pataki sent written statements. All three back statehood for Puerto Rico (read more)
This has all the earmarks of a “test flag” being run up the electoral pole by Democrats who are effective at wind-testing issues by putting their opposition into a place of response – to discover the mood of the overall national electorate before they themselves take a position.
