Super Tuesday

Is there really an establishment, anti-Trump “lane” of any consequence in the GOP race? I’ve been asking that question for some time, for one simple reason: since Trump’s rise, there have been no strong, center-right establishment candidates in the race.

Trump, Cruz and Carson (and Rand Paul) have been generally understood as anti-establishment candidates whom the political class would be unhappy with. The candidates typically classed as “establishment” or “mainstream” from the beginning were: Bush, Christie, Kasich, Walker, Perry – and Rubio.

Live coverage of the Nevada caucus and South Carolina primary

In the simplest possible terms, NBC seems to be suffering from a rather acute bout of schizophrenia when it comes to assessing the race for the GOP nomination.

If was just 2 days ago that NBC, in conjunction with Survey Monkey, released the results of a national poll which showed that Donald Trump was a 20 point national favorite among registered Republicans going into the South Carolina primary.

The same poll showed Trump holding a commanding 9 point lead in the race to secure the white evangelical vote.

Authored by Cynthia McKinney, Op-Ed via RT.com,

Jesus once remarked to a wealthy man that “it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to go to heaven.”

Today, we could amend the words of that Biblical reference with the US presidential race underway:

“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a voter in the US to know and understand the rules regulating the administration of all elections, including elections for President of the United States.”

It would be exceptionally foolish for me, the man who said Donald Trump could very well run the table, to predict the next twist and turn of this campaign with any confidence. It feels like this thing is now Trump’s to lose, since he will run better in South Carolina than Cruz will in Michigan, and the establishment is in deep disarray. It feels like Clinton needs a win to right her campaign, but that one is fairly assured her in South Carolina for demographic reasons.