Donald Trump: Come Kiss the Ring

The "Morning Joe" crew was very high on Chris Christie this morning. Apparently he dominated the undercard debate, and has some surging support in early states. He looks like a real strong potential dark horse at this point. Keith Olbermann's girlfriend and others who were there suggested that the debate fields should be determined by Iowa and New Hampshire polls, not national polls.

 

Joe and Mika like Christie personally, and he's been a frequent guest.

Christie is capable of flashes of likability, but he's not going anywhere. He has no natural constituency. He's nowhere in the polls, and it's not clear to me from which candidates supporters he would gain ground.

 

So let me get this straight. The guys leading in the polls at 20-plus percent in a 15 (or so)-candidate field have no chance (according to many on this board), but a guy polling in the 2 percent range -- so low he was kicked off the main stage for last night's debate -- is a "real strong potential dark horse."

OK, Got it.

Good thing you're the voice of logic and reason around here now that you've decided not to vote.

 

You're mashing everyone's posts together and attributing them to one person. Christie is strong in New Hampshire polling, and had a good night last night. There's going to be an establishment candidate emerge at some point. I personally think that it will be Rubio. But if you're looking for a true dark horse - and I think that not being on the main stage qualifies him as a dark horse - Christie might be worth a look.

 

He's in 8th place, at 5% in the RCP average:

RealClearPolitics - Election 2016 - New Hampshire Republican Presidential Primary

There will be three, maybe four, tickets out of New Hampshire. I don't see Christie getting one of them.

 

I will say that Christie had maybe the best moment of either debate when he made the case against the Party of Free Stuff:

Edit: "Hillary Clinton is coming for your wallet" was pretty good, too.

 

Carson's response:

 

Oh yeah, a 400-pound lardass is the perfect guy to deliver the laundry list of government services they are going to take away from you so they can shovel the money up to the billionaires.

It'd be like going into McDonald's for lunch and having Charlie Weis grab the Big Mac out of your hands and tell you it's bad for you.

 

The intellectual depth of your arguments is staggering.

 

Optics.
That's why the teabag party would rather have Ryan, a cadaverous malnourished-looking guy, be the main messenger to deliver the news of all the stuff they're gonna take away from us. At least he doesn't look like he's eating the entire trillion-dollar budget deficit up himself in triple cheeseburgers.
Optics.

 

Katy Tur ‏@KatyTurNBC 7h7 hours ago

Trump likened Carson's "pathological temper" to child molestation on CNN just now. "You don't cure these people."