Today is one of those days when political junkies realize why CTH is such a desperate threat to the professional political class because tripwires are being triggered in all directions exactly as predicted.  HERE – HERE – HERE

We will get to the NBC nonsense in another discussion thread.

Today, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley is endorsing GOPe Marco Rubio, oh, now there’s a shock fail… and the narratives the apoplectic political class are using to accompany the endorsement are so transparent all we can do is laugh at their effort.

Earlier […]  ♦  Now to the endorsements.  Again, go back to the original road-map and cut through the media fog surrounding South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley.

Haley has done the bidding of the GOPe DC Machine (Ryan, McConnell, etc.) with the SOU response to knock down Donald Trump.   Republican party leadership approved the script.  Governor Haley also spoke highly of Marco Rubio in the 36 hours that followed the controversy.

Absent of GOPe intervention, a Rubio endorsement from her was/is all but certain. (link)

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Virginia is one of those sneakily important states that doesn’t get enough attention unless something dramatic is going on (example: Cantor’s rebuke).  One of the reasons it holds additional merit, is because most of the DC insiders live there.

Virginia is truly unique, because it’s one of those places where the national anxiety between the GOP grassroots and the pontitificting establishment class can be witnessed in the local supermarket.  Seeing a key Mitch McConnell staffer in the same vicinity as an easily accessed dozen eggs, is the stuff vulgarian dreams are made of.  I digress…

The latest poll from Virginia (full pdf below) reflects an increasingly obvious reality – The more Senator Ted Cruz has to rely on bible-thumping, the behinder he gets.

The fight between the professional political class and the ordinary common sense patriots has been happening in Virginia for more than six years now.  Some victories and some defeats on both sides as the political war rages on.

Donald Trump has increased his lead in Virginia to 33%.  Marco Rubio comes in second with 19%, and John Kasich arrives third with 14%. (more…)

The latest CNN/ORC Poll (full pdf below) of South Carolina voters has been released.  Donald Trump remains at the front of the group with a significant lead (38% support), followed by Senator Ted Cruz (22%) and Senator Marco Rubio (14%).

In addition to the top-line results, candidate Trump leads on all the key current event issues amid the South Carolina electorate – with dominating leads in: • the economy, • ISIS, • Immigration and • the best chance to win the general election.

(Via CNN) Donald Trump holds a broad 16-point lead among those likely to vote in South Carolina’s Republican primary this Saturday, according to a new CNN/ORC Poll. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton tops Bernie Sanders by 18 points in the state’s Democratic primary, which will be held a week later. (more…)

Tip from Captain Obvious: In an election year when voters identify all the “go-along-to-get-along” politicians as part of the problem, chasing their endorsements is just, well, silly… but feel free to carry on.

The latest post-debate poll from South Carolina, conducted by PPPolling, shows Ted Cruz slipping backward to catch Marco Rubio; and a candidate field, behind Trump, mired in the mud.

Put another way –  The same inept politicians who ran for three election cycles promising change, yet did nothing except make things worse, are now standing next to even more inept presidential candidates and touting them as the solution for their own ineptitude.

The political gaslighting is no longer effective against an engaged electorate.

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Donald Trump discusses the state of the presidential race and current issues with candidate Ted Cruz lying.

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The 2016 election is the fight we’ve been waiting for…

A new CBS battleground tracking poll (full pdf below) released today shows the top three candidates continue to be Trump, Cruz and Rubio.  Jeb Bush and Dr. Ben Carson are far behind.

Jeb is hoping that bringing his brother, George W. Bush, into the state of South Carolina will provide him more benefit than bringing Mom, Barbara, into New Hampshire.  Although many voters in South Carolina are now asking “why can’t Jeb compete for the nomination on his own merits“?

It does seem oddly weak, and profoundly poor advice, for a presidential candidate to be unable to achieve support – and decide the best option is to rely on Mom, Dad and his brother as a crutch.  (more…)

No intellectually honest person can deny the Greenville South Carolina debate was constructed to provide maximum benefit for Marco Rubio.  The structure was so brutally transparent even the customarily obtuse punditry are having a hard time obfuscating.

We have been pointing to the GOPe road-map for over two years.  As each tripwire is crossed, the ridiculous justifications of those in denial necessarily increase; but that doesn’t mean we will stop pointing out the strings on the presidential marionette show.  Cue yet another audio visual demonstration.

Do you see anything odd with this screen shot from the live CBS debate?

Perhaps you’ll note – that in order for the CBS production staff to put a Marco Rubio “immigration position” graphic on the screen, at the exact moment when he was questioned about it – there had to be a particular pre-planned intent.

And no other candidate had ANY similar graphic used, at any individual moment, on any individual topic, other than this one.  This was the only time CBS put out a candidate position graphic during a candidate response.   Are you more curious now?

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The South Carolina debate moderator is CBS News political director John Dickerson.  He will be joined by CBS News White House correspondent Major Garrett, and The Wall Street Journal’s Kimberley Strassel.

The debate will air live on CBS from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. EST tonight. – Live Stream HERE

For those watching at home – feel free to join in with your thoughts on the debate below.

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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.

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. (more…)

A Southern Political Poll released today (full pdf below) conducted for the Augusta Chronicle and Fox5 is exceptionally interesting.  The poll data itself is deep, extensive, succinct and well presented.  Good sample size, low MOE and few assumptions.

The top line results, show remarkable consistency with the previous NBC/WSJ and Maris polls conducted in January.  With the exception of a modest bump for John Kasich, the latest polling shows almost no change – and most of the SC electorate have not only made up their mind, but their decision has been settled for quite a while:

A close review of the poll internals, shows some remarkable and consistent insights when contrast against ground reports, alternate polling and field data.  What many political junkies might find remarkable is the dominance of the Trump coalition.

After reviewing the poll data, the current decisions of the Trump campaign’s approach in South Carolina make VERY good sense.

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