What Is Marco Rubio Waiting For?
We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets … and I’ve pointed out the things that Hitler is for that I don’t agree with, and if he says something I don’t agree with, especially about conquering all of Europe, I’m gonna correct him on it.
.. Candidates with a near-zero chance at the nomination, from Ben Carson to Gov. John Kasich of Ohio, are still carving up the electorate in ways that clear Trump’s path. And the man who now, finally, has the support of the institutional party, the very talented and frequently eloquent junior senator from Florida, has decided that Trump is still better mostly ignored than actively opposed.
.. So if you’re the Rubio campaign, looking at this landscape, you might say: Why change what we’re doing when we’re actually gaining ground? Why give Cruz a new lease on life by starting an ugly war with Trump just days before the S.E.C. primary might all but finish off the Texan’s chances? Why act panicked about Trump when he’s still so many hundreds and hundreds of delegates away from the magic 1,237? Why not do everything you can to get an effective two-man race before you face the slings and arrows of Trump’s outrageousness?
.. From their perspective, there’s no reason to play Churchill yet because Trump’s advance is less Hitler-in-France than Napoleon-in-Russia, and they’re like Marshal Kutuzov, the much-maligned Russian commander whose wait, wait, wait strategy was vindicated when winter overwhelmed the French. (With winter, in this case, being Trump’s relatively high unfavorable numbers relative to Rubio, his poor performance in general election polls, the ad campaigns that haven’t yet been unleashed against him but will be, etc.)
.. If Rubio can’t actually pull ahead of Trump in swing-state polls by March 15, when Ohio and Florida hold their winner-take-all votes, then he won’t be Kutuzov after Napoleon took Moscow ..