In retrospect it seems obvious that he wasn't going to overcome his last name no matter how good of a campaign he ran.

now it's 49.9 - 49.6

That's pretty much it, yeah. He acted like he was annoyed that he had to go through the process and not just be handed the nomination. I think getting his mom out there to argue for him was the last straw.
See, I think in retrospect, his problem was that he was basically George W. Bush but with no charisma. You may be right, but he could have been a direct descendant of George Washington and Jesus Christ and still lost based on his personality and ability to campaign.

Rubio is more religious than Cruz? I've always found American Roman Catholics to be pretty tame compared to the "I'm born again and if you aren't you're going to Hell even if you believe in Jesus" folks.

I mean Cruz did say he was a Christian first, an American second...

Yeah but Rubio was very clear that he is not the Republican savior, the only savior is Jesus Christ who died for our sins.

I thought he was Canadian second and American third.

Seriously, though, Cruz (and his preacher father) are on the fire-and-brimstone, born-again scale of Christianity, which is kind of frightening because Cruz's foreign policy is "bomb the hell out of everything" and his favorite domestic issue historically has been his strenuous pro-death penalty position. I think he may literally believe his job is to kill in the name of Jesus.

Marco's currently ramping up the religious talk to pick up some Carson supporters, but I don't see how he could be considered more overtly religious than Cruz.

omgggggg

I'd bet money Cruz doesn't actually believe God exists if there were a way to prove it

The closeness of the Democratic results just further drives home how ******ed this system is. Caucus is ******ed. Delegates are ******ed. The electoral college is ******ed. Popular vote GOAT.

Trump is probably done. His entire campaign was based on being a winner and making his supporters feel like they'll be winners by voting for him. Well most of them are losers and they have lost again. Those people will abandon him in a heartbeat. They're fickle.

His entire answer to why you should vote for him was that he's leading the polls. He's toast. Rip Sando.

Sweet analysis. COUNTERPOINT: I just dropped half a G on TRUMP in NH.

National race is a bit up in the air but the bottom line from Iowa is TRUMP fans turned out. There was record turnout, other people turned out big as well. But the idea that TRUMP can't turn out voters was not verified. I think he will do better at a primary than at a caucus.

32. Trump
33. Russell Wilson

I think he's still a favorite to win NH for now but that could change if a few people drop out. The establishment raped the nation last night with no lube.

Rubio's going to win. Trump and cruz are going to split the antiestablishment votes

I really don't get why people are saying this was a resounding win for Rubio.

Like this is the result we expected for Rubio, he maybe did 3% better than people expected. But Rubio was going to be the chosen establishment candidate in Iowa and Jeb, Kasich, and Christie were always going to do terribly in Iowa.

I don't think a bunch of supporters of those candidates in NH are going to jump ship to Rubio just because he did well in Iowa. Those 3 were always going to drop out before Rubio barring some weird goings on and they were always likely to coalesce their support around Rubio.

Trump far from done IMO. Iowa is weird and will be a blip on the radar compared to upcoming states where it is easier to go vote and he is polling better than he was in Iowa.

This isn't a secret. This was tweeted before Iowa:

Luke Brinker ‏@LukeBrinker
Headlines tomorrow: RUBIO WINS IOWA CAUCUSES, TAKING 15% TO TRUMP'S 28%

The wealthy that own the networks are in the bag for Rubio and his H1B visas.

Of course, I have full faith The Unstumpable will wrangle the conversation back his way.

Trump and Sanders are going to destroy the NH primary.

Lol Iowa who even really care about this pretend political event.

Super PAC investors?

Such a rigged country

Rubio would have to do a hard pivot back center to seem sane after some of the things he's said this primary.

He'd have to just not be Hillary, people overrate primary rhetoric too much IMO. I still think Republican party's GE chances are pretty underrated, though I do think the establishment mistakenly thinks Rubio is the Republican's best chance in a GE. I guess it's more so they can't get their hands on Cruz or Trump so would prefer Hillary to either of them anyways, and that the political class and the elites want either Rubio or Hillary.

Yeah, all the political pundits on CNN were gushing over Cruz's ability to get the vote out. This is politics at its best! But um, if the best you can do is win some podunk little state by 4% which is just full of idiotic evangelicals and you've spent the last year desperately doing everything you can to mobilize them, that seems like a bad thing, not a good thing. Having a great organization might win you a mayoral election, but good luck duplicating Iowa in the other 49 states where you haven't spent the past year grinding out each and every vote. Basically, LOL IOWA

Iowa is basically the hall of fame bowl. Its great because you finally get FOOTBALL but it's **** quality and completely meaningless