Luckily for Tennessee GOP voters, the undecided Republicans here and in much of the country will have a couple more weeks to study the GOP contenders after Saturday’s flattening debate and today’s New Hampshire primary.
As Rubio stumbled badly under the debate assault from Chris Christie and others Saturday, voters must wonder what would happen if he were to win the nomination.
What if he had to debate Hillary Clinton – or Bernie Sanders, for that matter – in the run-up to the general election?
Can his scripted stump speeches stand up if they must answer the kinds of attacks that Christie and Cruz dished out on Saturday?
The general assertion among most pundits of all political stripes is: Well, maybe not.
Fox News panel guest Brit Hume said Rubio’s performance reminded him of Dan Quayle. Ouch!
And on Monday morning, Chuck Todd, political director for NBC News, said private pollsters are saying the only GOP candidates moving up now are John Kasich and Jeb Bush.
“Christie, although he did the damage, he didn’t get the benefit,” Todd said Monday on MSNBC.
Perhaps that’s because Christie and Rubio did a marvelous job of devolving into cannibalization.
For all of Christie’s attempts to compare Rubio’s “amateur” hours with those of another “junior senator” of yesteryear – Barack Obama – Rubio also scored a savage hit or two on Christie over his performance as New Jersey governor last month in the aftermath of a harsh blizzard that left Jersey in a state of emergency.
“They had to shame you into going back,” Rubio said. “You stayed there for 36 hours. And then he left and came back to campaign. Those are the facts.”
Boys, boys – put the weapons down.
Or not. These guys are making the Democratic ballot look better every day.