Rove breaking out his whiteboard.
Via DC Whispers:
Donors began to pull away from the Jeb Bush campaign over a month ago. Since that time Team Jeb has initiated cost-control measures intended to allow them to continue campaigning into the South Carolina primary. Unfortunately, those measures have proven too limited and with poll numbers stagnant, and fewer and fewer dollars coming in, even those directly affiliated with the campaign are suggesting it will be difficult for them to continue past New Hampshire unless things change dramatically for them.
That leaves Marco Rubio as the direct benefactor of big-dollar GOP donors’ collective interest in propelling him to the top-tier of Republican candidates by the time voters in New Hampshire go to the ballots. Rubio’s slow but steady climb upward in the polls correlates almost perfectly with Jeb Bush’s decline, yet further proof of the Florida senator’s new-found standing as the GOP Establishment choice.
“The senator’s team is positioning to take Carson’s support over the next two months and then emerge as the dominant candidate in the nomination race.”
Such a plan does appear to have an element of very simple math – add Jeb Bush’s support, then Ben Carson’s, and that would likely leave Marco Rubio in an almost-dominant position to potentially run the table on Super Tuesday which will take place on March 1st and represent over 400 delegate votes.
Tens of millions of dollars are set to pour into the Rubio campaign and related super-PAC’s in the coming weeks to make certain the senator does just that.