You could see the desperation jumping out of the TV screen last night. Marco Rubio looked like a smarmy politician and Ted Cruz looked like…well, Ted Cruz. Both were so busy trying to tear Donald Trump down that they forgot about building themselves up. Look, I get it. They needed to land some blows on Trump, and while they did, none of them were kill shots. Plus, the whole thing just looked frantic. Instead of waiting and catching Mr. Trump with a massive counterpunch, they both just emptied the opposition research file in successive rapid-fire attacks. Yes, Trump got beat up in a lot of ways, especially during the first part of the debate. But after a strong finish, victory almost assuredly awaits him on Super Tuesday.

The thing that really sold this for me, as silly as it might sound, was Rubio’s sarcastic smile. It’s not a winning look. Working class people have seen this face from their supposed betters all their life and they don’t want it in a president. If you’ll recall, President Obama slipped into this mode a couple times when he ran against Hillary Clinton in 2008. Every time he did, it ended up helping Clinton. The same thing is about to happen again, this time with Rubio.

It’s not that Sen. Rubio failed to land anything, it was the way he landed those blows. Plus, he just looked out of character. After spending the whole week leading up to the debate refusing to hit Trump, the way he went after him last night just looked pathetic. This was not the uplifting candidate he’s been selling himself as this entire campaign. This was a loser who knows he’s on the brink of being knocked out.

As for Sen. Cruz, he sounded like a fake preacher, which to be fair is his usual style. He might be able to pull out a win in Texas, but I don’t see it going much further than that. He didn’t land as much as Rubio, but to me, he had the better night stylistically…which isn’t saying much. He’s not a likable person, as Trump pointed out with the jab about how none of his Senate colleagues support him for president. Still, I didn’t get as turned off by him as I did with Rubio. That’s saying a lot, since I don’t care for Cruz at all. I think he did stumble on the bit about Israel, though. Trump pointed out that while he loved Israel, he needed to keep a neutral stance so that he could possibly bring about a peace deal between them and the Palestinians. This was one of his best moments throughout the entire campaign, but Cruz went full-AIPAC and looked like a fool with his response.

https://twitter.com/MisterMetokur/status/703054899181780992

As for Trump, he was like Godzilla towering in the middle of the stage, swatting away attack after attack. It’s not that he didn’t stumble, because he did, especially early on. But he finished very strong. This response sums up that part of the debate pretty well…

https://vine.co/v/i6vpjrIOnqZ

Plus, take a look at what got the most time during the debate. It was immigration, one of Trump’s main selling points. I doubt Rubio, the man who the establishment hopes will dethrone Trump, wanted this to be front and center.

If I’m wrong, I will come back here and admit it, but I think Trump is going to win pretty handily on Super Tuesday. I don’t see the debate last night slowing him down at all. If anything, it might actually end up helping him. Only time will tell, but that’s my prediction.

I’ll be right back with a non-electoral politics post. Happy Friday to all my readers.

 

UPDATE: Trump sent this out moments ago…

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/703199361514123264