The race is on: Trump and Sanders stand tall, for now

Trump is using the Beatles song “Revolution” at his New Hampshire rally.

MANCHESTER, N.H. A week ago, it looked like the stars were aligning for Marco Rubio.

Christie had poured much of his campaign’s resources into New Hampshire and had considered a good showing there critical. Rubio was in second place at 17 percent, followed by Ted Cruz, a USA senator from Texas, at 14 percent.

The next stop on the presidential primary list: SC and Nevada. Amid doubt after the Iowa caucuses that public opinion polling was inflating Trump’s actual support at the polls, Trump was able to drive voter turnout in New Hampshire, fending off questions, at least for now, that he can deliver in future contests. Superdelegates are not decided by popular vote; they are Democrat party officials who can support whichever candidate they choose.

For all its importance in forming the reality of a presidential race, the New Hampshire primary has long ceased being a rock-solid indicator of destiny.

“Donald Trump says he talked with Chris Christie little bit about the New Jersey governor dropping out of the race for the GOP presidential nomination”.

“We raised more money after this debate than any debate we’ve ever had and we’re excited about it”, Rubio said.

The former Hewlett-Packard executive announced the decision on Facebook Wednesday after finishing seventh in New Hampshire’s primary.

Rubio touted his global affairs record on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, while taking aim at the experience of Ohio Governor John Kasich, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and the GOP frontrunner, Donald Trump – all of whom won more votes than him in Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary.

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a so-called democratic socialist, defeated former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the state’s Democratic contest.

He told supporters that instead of going to SC, he will head home to “take a deep breath” and take stock of his struggling bid.

On the Democratic side, Sanders’ impressive victory demonstrates both the appeal of his populist message and Clinton’s failure so far to galvanize many younger voters, a fact she acknowledged in her concession speech.

The attacks ramped up when voters in SC started to receive push-poll phone calls asking, “Would you be more likely or less likely to vote for McCain for president if you knew he had fathered an illegitimate black child?” “We have to nominate the strongest proven conservative to win, beat [Democratic candidates] Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in November and turn this country around”. The senator finished second to Clinton in the leadoff Iowa caucuses by the narrowest of margins. Ms. Clinton, despite her broad support in the infrastructure of the Democratic Party, should be running scared.