The facts on Rubio, Cruz, and immigration

He pointedly said: “I believe that one of our next generation of Republican leaders, one who may not be as well known as I am today, one who has not yet taken their message across the country, one who is just getting started, may well emerge as being better able to defeat the Democrat nominee”.

“You are looking at somebody who has had a lot of bad things said about me”. This might seem like an unusual assertion considering that Trump is now leading heavily in New Hampshire, whereas he is narrowly losing in Iowa.

The results came as other polls have shown Cruz surging in the race for the GOP nomination nationally and in the critical early-voting state of Iowa.

The jury is still out on whether the strategy will work. According to Quinnipiac, Trump still leads the GOP field, but carries only 28 percent of the vote, while Cruz comes in at 24 percent – within the poll’s margin of error, which means it is a statistical dead heat. Polls indicate that after a myriad of controversial statements, including Trump’s proposal that no Muslims be allowed to immigrate into the United States, he has maintained a large lead over his rivals nationwide.

Immigration and terrorism, of course, are the two issues around which Trump has delivered his ugliest and most xenophobic pronouncements and policy ideas, if you can call them that. Trump dominated television coverage after using a vulgarity when speaking of Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton’s election loss to President Barack Obama in 2008.

Between Trump and Cruz, however, the level of voter certainty was dramatically different. Chris Christie saw a slight rise of one point – he’s now at five percent in the poll. That’s a state where Trump is behind. That’s actually the second caveat as well – this is a poll of registered voters, not likely voters. Supporters of all the other major GOP candidates are opposed to shutting down mosques – 32/48 with Carson backers, 25/44 with those of Cruz, 9/66 with Rubio voters, and 9/69 with Bush’s. According to the media’s conventional wisdom, the Year of Trump has subverted all our expectations about politics. By comparison, Christie had only 9 hours, 51 minutes and 19 seconds. Cruz has the most momentum, picking up 11 points from his 14 percent standing in early November.

Many of Trump’s visits to New Hampshire have involved television interviews or multi-candidate forums. Rand Paul of Kentucky was at 4 percent, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush was at 3 percent, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Ohio Gov. John Kasich were at 2 percent each, and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina was at 1 percent. Scott Brown. Brown also has an impressive network of support throughout New Hampshire from his unsuccessful race against U.S. Sen.

Christie tied U.S. Sen.

Republican Rick Santorum, considered a long-shot White House contender in 2012, pulled off an upset victory in Iowa by visiting all of its 99 counties.

Marco Rubio hugs Mitt Romney during a campaign stop in Miami, in 2012, when Romney was running for president.

Clinton’s aides told reporters that she would not be commenting on Trump’s remark during the event.

His speech to the police union, for example, lasted less than 15 minutes as the union’s board voted to endorse him. Conceivably, we could be treated to the high insanity of a three-way presidential contest with, say, Hillary Clinton facing off against Trump and, just to pick a name, Florida Sen.