Donald Trump’s easy win Saturday in South Carolina’s Republican presidential primary left the billionaire businessman the odds-on favorite to capture the GOP nomination, a reality that forced former Trump skeptics to get serious about the prospect.
Trump defied GOP orthodoxy on Obamacare, Planned Parenthood and the Iraq War. He challenged the Bush family’s lingering popularity on the right. He changed his views and was caught fibbing.
None of it appears to have burst his bubble or rabid support. Trump looks set to win in Nevada this week. If there is a way opponents can stop his momentum before Super Tuesday on March 1, when he could lock up the nomination, no one knows what it is.
Trump rivals struggle:
Trounced again by Trump, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush quit the presidential race. His exit boosts fellow Floridian, Sen. Marco Rubio.
Rubio edged out Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, to take second in South Carolina. Bush’s exit and the second-place showing helped Rubio recover from his New Hampshire stumble and move closer to consolidating the mainstream GOP support he’ll need to catch Trump.
But Rubio, as evidenced by the quick refutation Sunday of a report that 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney would endorse the Floridan, isn’t there yet, and he’s short on time.
With a disappointing third place in South Carolina, Cruz, despite winning the Feb. 1 Iowa caucuses, has no clear path to the nomination.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich and neurosurgeon Ben Carson probably can’t capture the nomination, but they can still play spoiler in the race while they remain in.
Hillary gains:
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton still has problems, but Trump’s rise and the GOP’s division is part of a recent boon of good news for Clinton.
The former first lady and New York senator’s win Saturday in Nevada’s caucuses denied her Democratic rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders, a chance to show he can beat in a state that isn’t lily-white. Clinton has a big polling lead headed into South Carolina’s Democratic primary Saturday.
Sanders has failed to make inroads into Clinton’s big lead among African-American voters. The shortfall leaves him likely unable to catch Clinton in enough key primary states to seriously contest her road to the nomination.
Sunday moves:
Dirt, and accusations of dirty tactics, flew Sunday among remaining GOP hopefuls.
Trump said Sunday that he was not sure if Rubio is eligible to be president, meaning Trump now questions the natural citizenship of 50 percent of his GOP rivals.
Trump accused Cruz of hitting him with misleading robocalls ahead of the South Carolina vote.
“This is a tough business,” Trump said on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. “These people are worse than Manhattan real estate developers. This is rough stuff, politics.
Rubio on Sunday released a memo accusing Cruz of “running the nastiest campaign South Carolina has ever seen.” That was before Cruz backers touted a video, with false captions, that suggested Rubio had mocked a Cruz aide for reading the Bible.
Meanwhile, Cruz claimed his two main rivals are concentrating their attacks on him. That is not, Cruz argued, because they dislike him so strongly, but because they consider him their main threat.
