“Have you noticed that anybody who attacks Donald Trump goes down in the polls?” asked one adviser to a primetime debate candidate outside Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland Thursday afternoon. The adviser went on to list Rick Perry (who called Trump a “cancer on conservatism”), Lindsey Graham (who called Trump a “jackass”), and even Jeb Bush (who criticized Trump’s immigration statements and on the day of the debate was quoted privately calling Trump a “clown,” “buffoon” and “a–hole”) as among those on the losing end of confrontations with Trump. While the adviser conceded that Graham was never a presence in the polls anyway, the point was made.