Lindsey Graham’s withdrawal won’t prove terribly significant, but it may mark the beginning of the thinning of the GOP herd. With less than six weeks until Iowa, only a handful of candidates are polling above the level of statistical noise. If they start dropping out, it could allow voter — come the New Year — to focus on the real contenders.
Currently, Ted Cruz is the center of the race. He trails Donald Trump in national polls, but is leading big in Iowa. In the most recent debate, the Rubio-vs.-Cruz scuffles were the most interesting, and perhaps the most consequential.
Cruz’s travails in the aftermath of that debate may have been more telling. Cruz had long thought immigration would be his weapon of choice against Rubio, but the past week showed that flashing back to 2013 immigration debates can cut against Cruz as much as they can help him.
Cruz will now begin to experience the fruits of being — by some definitions — the front-runner. That primarily means more scrutiny — which isn’t always as fun as it sounds.
Timothy P. Carney, the Washington Examiner’s senior political columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]. His column appears Tuesday and Thursday nights on washingtonexaminer.com.
