Donald Trump Courts GOP Voters in Florida

“This is real life, a real crisis situation, and it reminds people of the importance of having a serious person as commander in chief”, said Dan Senor, a foreign policy adviser for 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney and unaligned in 2016.

Instead, he is facing humiliation as he languishes at single digits in the polls. And a few say the state is very much in play.

“He’s a loose cannon”, Missouri superdelegate Sandra Querry said of Trump.

The rhetoric was nothing new from the billionaire businessman, but it appeared more startling given the setting, and the fact that two of his rivals-one the son of Cuban immigrants and the other the husband of a Mexican immigrant-were once viewed as leading contenders who could help the GOP attract Latino voters.

Another Republican debate. Another record audience.

He presented him with a small but symbolic $50 campaign cheque when a year later at the age of 26 he first chose to run for local office in West Miami.

“Terrorism is not theoretical”, Christie said.

On Sunday, Bush went on Meet the Press , announcing that the United States “should declare war” and sneering at the Democrats for wanting a more cautious, considered response.

Republican presidential candidates are addressing party activists Friday and Saturday in hopes that they can gain ground in Florida, a state that could be pivotal in winning the nomination. They want to make good on promises to repeal “Obamacare” in its entirety, rather than a more targeted repeal approved recently by the House.

Mr Bush was more fired up, more eloquent, and more at ease on stage than in recent performances. Furthermore, decades of indoctrination have made an essentially religious faith in the virtues of high-end tax cuts – a faith impervious to evidence – a central part of Republican identity.

His speech was met with enthusiastic applause.

In an election year where “outsider” candidates rule, carrying the surname of one of America’s most dynastic families is proving a burden.

Jeb Bush speaks as John Kasich, left, and Marco Rubio listen during Republican presidential debate last week in Milwaukee.

Many analysts assume that once the election looms, support for these more radical candidates will fall away.

Carly Fiorina was asked the most incisive question of the evening: Given that the economy added an average of 240,000 jobs a month under Bill Clinton and 107,000 a month under Barack Obama, but only 13,000 a month under George W. Bush, “how are you going to respond to the claim that Democratic presidents are better at creating jobs than Republicans?”

“He’s going to come out of the ashes”. “There are some people in some states who see it one way, and some who see it the other”. “At this point polls mean nothing”. Over half of Republican likely voters said they would be willing to support Carson and Trump. My guess is that Cruz will hit Rubio hardest on immigration and that Rubio will hit Cruz hardest on his alleged inability to work well with others. Both are 44, both are first-term USA senators who rode Tea Party fervour to the reach the upper house, toppling establishment favourites in the process. On the surface, they both seem cool, calm, and collected, but are both frightened of the shrinking voting block. That process finally may have begun Tuesday night.

Out on the presidential campaign trail, Sens.

Despite the biographical similarities, the two men offer disparate visions for America.

“Folks who are worrying about Florida right now may not get to Florida, so I’ll worry about Iowa and New Hampshire right now, and then I’ll worry about Florida and the other states after that, South Carolina, Nevada, all the rest after that”, he said.

Mr Cruz, a senator from Texas, has spent his entire political career on the attack. Trump said of his deportation plan, to cheers from the crowd.

Now, his sights are set on Mr Rubio. Baltimore has struggled with crime, drugs and corruption for a long time. “He has insisted that he would be the finalist with Rubio, not Bush. Just look what he has done in the senate”. Cruz was one of 67 senators who voted for final passage while Rubio was one of 32 who voted against it. “It’s going to be very expensive, and grotesque”. “Cruz can really capitalize on this and it reads like a damning indictment of Rubio”.

In this outsider-dominated Republican race he seems prepared to cast himself as Donald Trump with discipline.