2016 is the fight we’ve been waiting for…

The debate moderator is CBS News political director John Dickerson.  He will be joined by CBS News White House correspondent Major Garrett, and to provide the Rupert Murdoch influence, The Wall Street Journal’s Kimberley Strassel.  The debate will air live on CBS from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. EST tonight.

Fox News has already positioned their optics and narrative front-man John Roberts on the ground in/around Greenville.  The Roberts production team is one of the key follows for anyone interested in discovering where Fox News executives are directing the public’s attention.

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South Carolina has been hosting the evangelical-dominated Faith and Values conference in advance of the debate tonight.  The audience has been carefully selected from conference attendees and professional republican party insiders.

Given the absolute need for young Marco Rubio to regain his viable candidate footing, every possible lean and party indulgence will be apportioned to provide maximum benefit.  Knowing also that Roberts production staff is on the ground at the venue, The Peace Center, we can remain confident Murdoch is leveraging furiously on behalf of his preferred candidate, Rubio.

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Governor Jeb Bush can be easily be expected to continue trying to make his attack approach personal upon the GOP frontrunner Donald Trump.  Acutely rehearsed and poll-tested sound bites aimed at defining Donald Trump’s temperament, gruff persona, and generally vulgarian nature.

Jeb will be well aware of the audience, any arrows thrown in the direction of Rubio will be nerf darts to avoid the rehearsed, quick-worded and lane clearing retort.  Bush doesn’t have Christie to defend his honor in Greenville.

Rubio will attempt to leverage his freshman senatorial studies, and continue advancing the proposition only he possesses foreign policy experience.   Trump would be wise to remind the audience that a weakened America makes concerns of a Syrian invasion force several notches ‘less than’ on the scale of importance.

After all, either we have a country, or we don’t – and nation building in Libya is inconsequential in the grand scheme of things if more Boeing’s move to China.

Rubio will most certainly be advised to go on offense against Trump, because, as unbelievably as it might seem to most, young Marco needs to remove the optic of Jeb as *cough* strongman against the Donald.

Important to note the polling angle here.  A successful forward pathway for Rubio goes through Trump, not Cruz.   However, the pathway for Cruz gets harder if Rubio falls, because it makes Trump stronger.  So don’t expect to see Cruz go after Rubio, that job will have to be left to Jeb Bush and Donald Trump.

Ted Cruz is at his maximum support threshold, and the current polling internals show that Rubio is #1 if you remove Donald Trump.  It benefits Ted Cruz to keep Marco Rubio in his current place.

south carolina poll Fox5

Hopefully, there will be an opportunity for Trump to leverage the missing Chris Christie and emphasize the remaining memory of Rubio’s 25 second DC talking-point rehearsal which plays well for the Sunday talks but does little to solve any significant crisis.  Despite the Nikki Haley pearl-clutching annoyance conveyed within the truth – it still remains truthful to point it out.

Governor John Kasich has quadrupled down on the nice-uncle John strategy, and continued throughout the week to say his heart will lead his building tender-sensibilities coalition.  Prior banker status and angry-man role not withstanding.  Dear John has assured a national audience of his intent to listen more to the suffering masses and internalize their anxieties.  A new era of ‘super-duper-participation-trophies-for-all’ a possible platform plank, no splinters of course.

Of course senator Baal Cruz will evoke passages of the constitution, decry a borderless country he previously supported, generally reverse all of his prior positions, and challenge Marco Rubio to a contest of who can bomb North Korea or Syria the fastest.

Sitting on the edge of the stage playing with the kids is a great optic during commercials, and helps avoid the fact none of his ‘My Dear Friends’ on the stage wants to be anywhere near the guy.  Juan is the loneliest number….  

The attacks on candidate Trump are transparent:  “Heartless Eminent Domain” and mean businessman stuff from Bush.  “Abortion and other constitutionally important social issues” from Cruz.  Claims of “Single-Payer” healthcare advocacy from both.

All of which can be swatted away with a blend of policy and linguistic kill-shots.

Only one person can arrive at the White House without any IOU’s waiting on the oval office desk.   Only one candidate can claim their Super-PAC is the American people.  Only one candidate can point out the Crony-Capitalism of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the flaws with Trans-Pacific Trade, shipping jobs and manufacturing overseas etc.

Only one candidate can successfully talk about the border wall being paid by Mexico who are now, more than ever, dependent on U.S. dollar remittances ($25B) than their entire energy sector including oil development ($23.5B).  Yeah, Mexico will pay for the wall, those recently released statistics provide just the leverage Trump was talking about.

Only one candidate can talk about saving Social Security and Medicare through expansive domestic economic growth, and a change in the U.S. economic model to take advantage of our keen innovation, entrepreneurship and domestic resource development.

Only one remaining candidate has actually created anything, built anything, or even employed anyone.  Only one candidate has put his own money, created wealth, on the line to succeed or fail, and not spent his life dependent on exploiting the money of the U.S. taxpayer.

There are many endorsements entirely dependent on this debate outcome.  Either supporting Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio – who gets them depends on who does best.

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