Why is everybody burying Rubio after a single debate performance?

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Rubio can't afford any gaffes right now. I get to listen to some inside politics chatter at Sunday dinner, and Cruz has by far the best ground game of any of the Republican candidates this year, both in general, and in South Carolina.  If ground game alone determined who wins in November, Cruz would be the most fearsome opponent for the Democrats.  It looks like his campaign is the one that best learned the lessons of 2012 and 2008. Fortunately for the Democrats, I don't think Cruz is the most appealing candidate, but if Cruz doesn't get the nomination and both he and the nominee can swallow their pride and allow his ground game to be folded into the November campaign of the nominee, the GOP has a decent chance of winning in November.

[Suburbia]

I see Rubio doing well in N.H., but he will be third place. Kasich/Christie will be second place. Rubio made a horrible gaffe, and he looked like Dan Quayle in 1988. If Rubio is the nominee of the party, or the VP candidate, he will have to practice and rehearse, because all eyes will be on him.

[Maxwell]

3rd place is not doing well.

[Orser67]

Rubio's performance showed that he isn't ready for the spotlight of being the "top dog." Rubio had a chance to solidify himself as the savior to the anti-Cruz/Trump crowd and he blew it. Still plenty of time for a recovery though, largely because Rubio's opponents are so flawed.

[hopper]

I don't think the gaffe is a big deal since Rubio looked fine the rest of the debate after Christie was finished being an attack dog. Just my opinion. Now had Rubio screwed up the rest of his debate performance after Christie's attacks than I would say the gaffe was a big deal.

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

I don't think the gaffe is a big deal since Rubio looked fine the rest of the debate after Christie was finished being an attack dog. Just my opinion. Now had Rubio screwed up the rest of his debate performance after Christie's attacks than I would say the gaffe was a big deal.

Is anyone actually talking about anything else from the debate?

[Slander and/or Libel]

I've thought for a long time that Rubio looked like a kid wearing dad's suit playing at politics. There's panic in his eyes every time discussion strays from his prepared talking points. This was just the most dramatic possible confirmation of what I'd perceived for a long time.

[Figueira]

3rd place is not doing well.

Yeah, I thought his Iowa result (compared to Bush, Christie, and Kasich) would help cement him as the establishment candidate, but that clearly hasn't happened. Ignoring that, third place is unimpressive.

[Torie]

Rubio can't afford any gaffes right now. I get to listen to some inside politics chatter at Sunday dinner, and Cruz has by far the best ground game of any of the Republican candidates this year, both in general, and in South Carolina.  If ground game alone determined who wins in November, Cruz would be the most fearsome opponent for the Democrats.  It looks like his campaign is the one that best learned the lessons of 2012 and 2008. Fortunately for the Democrats, I don't think Cruz is the most appealing candidate, but if Cruz doesn't get the nomination and both he and the nominee can swallow their pride and allow his ground game to be folded into the November campaign of the nominee, the GOP has a decent chance of winning in November.

John Stossel had a program last night examining Cruz's data operation. He has an app that knows each voter, what they buy, their lifestyle, when they voted, their party, their religion, and so forth. So for example, for guns, he knows if a voter was or is a hunter, and sends out material focused on that, or a single mom, worried about crime, in which event the gun message is focused on self protection rather than hunting. If evangelical, Christ is invoked, if not church going, Christ is jettisoned, and so forth. Kind of frightening really. I can see the app checking Torie, and they can see even if a registered Pub, that he's gay, lives with a man, and not church going, and a lawyer, and just skip my house. I guess that is a benefit for me, not having to be subjected to Cruz street walkers.

[Inmate Trump]

I think Trump was always going to win NH. The race there is really for second, and I think it'll still be Rubio.

Trump and Cruz would definitely lose against Hillary. Kasich has no chance to win the nomination. Nor does Christie or Bush or Carson, but if they did, they would all lose to Hillary as well.

Rubio is the only republican who might have a chance against Hillary,

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

Yea, it has everything to do with victimizing poor, innocent conservatives and nothing to do with his inability to gain traction as the challenger to Trump and his god-awful debate performance where he seemed like a petulant child.

Brilliant analysis, as always.

I was joking...

Why did you make the thread then and cite those as the reasons you think we are burying Rubio?

[Nichlemn]

The "oops" moment for Perry was just the last straw in a string of many poor debate performances.

[DS0816]

Marco Rubio's "strength" is that he has good enough looks that would make some people want to have sex with him. (And if not taking it that far, they would like to see naked.)

Will the 2012 New Hampshire Republican presidential primaries voters support Marco Rubio (apparently based on that strength)?

[Nyvin]

Oh look...he did it again....can we bury him now?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/marco-rubio-repeated-line_us_56b94ea2e4b01d80b2479c18

[Fuzzy Bear]

Yea, it has everything to do with victimizing poor, innocent conservatives and nothing to do with his inability to gain traction as the challenger to Trump and his god-awful debate performance where he seemed like a petulant child.

Brilliant analysis, as always.

I think Boomer Sooner Bushie wanted Rubio to do well and realizes that if he doesn't, a Republican not to his liking stands a better chance of being nominated.  If I felt that way, I'd probably post the same stuff.  I'm a bit biased toward Trump, in that I'd love to see him stick it to the GOP Establishment, but in my heart, I suspect that, one way or another, Donald Trump will be denied the nomination.

That being said, I would point out that lots of prominent candidacies are ruined by one bad performance.  George Romney's "brainwash" statement in 1967 destroyed him as a frontrunner.  Gerald Ford's assertion that "There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe." ended his chance for election in 1976.  Sarah Palin's performance with Katie Couric probably ensured McCain's defeat.  Rick Perry has been covered.  Oops.

Rubio's performance has the quality of these events.  It wasn't so much what he said as the way he was attacked and the way he responded.  Christie manhandled him, and in doing so, made Rubio look weak and unprepared.  He came off as a guy who didn't get it, and if he, and he alone got it, the voters didn't get that message.  In the CNN/WMUR tracking poll, Rubio WAS surging, but he dropped in the tracking poll on Sunday, the day after the most recent debate.  People didn't like what they saw.  It won't knock him out of the race, but he's damaged goods.  For Rubio to win the nomination, another Republican will have to be damaged as well.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Because this debate is so crucial - because it is the place where Rubio had to prove he was the definitive establishment candidate.

Atlas is not the judge of that, though, and neither is the MSM.  The voters on Tuesday will be the judge whether he failed at his job.

He failed.

He f[inks]ing FAILED.

MARCO RUBIO IS A COMPLETE FAILURE AND JOKE.

[Mike Thick]

Well, now you know why we buried him after a single debate performance.