Sen. Lindsey Graham stands at 0.5 percent in the RealClearPolitics average of national polls in the Republican presidential race. He’s infinitesimally better — 0.7 percent — in the Iowa race, and 0.5 percent in New Hampshire. Even in his native South Carolina, where he might be assumed to have favorite-son status, Graham in languishing with 2.0 percent, in a three-way tie for seventh place.

It’s not exactly a position of strength, but in a half-comic, half-bitter performance Thursday before the Republican Jewish Coalition meeting in Washington, Graham presented himself as the candidate who, virtually alone in the race, knows the secret of winning the presidency.