[caption id=”attachment_149070″ align=”aligncenter” width=”1024″](John Byrum/The Spartanburg Herald-Journal via AP)
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Republican insiders in Iowa and New Hampshire predict that Bobby Jindal and George Pataki will be the next candidates to bow out of the presidential race.
That’s according to a survey from Politico of activists, operatives, and strategists throughout the two early-voting states.
The exit of Jindal and Pataki wouldn’t be a shock to a casual observer of the race for the Republican nomination. Both barely register 1 percent support in recent polls, and neither has garnered 2 percent in support since the beginning of August.
The next big name that’s expected to admit defeat is Rand Paul.
“Rand Paul’s campaign [reeks] of the same stench of death that surrounded the Perry and Walker efforts before their demise,” an anonymous New Hampshire Republican told Politco.
As his poll numbers decline and a lack of momentum drains him, Paul might punt on the presidency and focus on getting re-elected to the Senate.
Despite his father, Ron Paul, placing second in the 2012 New Hampshire GOP primary, Paul is in eighth place in the polls at 3.7 percent. Paul’s balancing act between libertarian-minded Republicans and more traditional conservatives hasn’t endeared him to either demographic.
