Originally Posted by
Dan Druff
It's over for Rubio.
I don't know about that. He has the money and support to take it all the way to the convention and a pretty good shot of taking the nomination from Trump on the delegates' second ballot.
I ran the numbers on a delegate model and the possibility that Trump is denied the votes he needs to avoid a convention floor vote is a lot more likely than Trump getting the 1200 plus votes he needs to win the nomination outright. This becomes a near certainty if
Kasich wins Ohio and Rubio wins Florida. Even then it can still be done even if Trump wins one of those states (I'm not sure if that's true if Trump wins both of them). Let's say Trump fails to win Ohio and Florida, in that case all Rubio or someone else needs to do is pick off a couple/few states like Minnesota (and Rubio already has one in the bag with Utah) and maybe somebody other than Trump needs to win California...maybe.
Plus, Rubio literally has nothing to lose. He's not running for reelection in the Senate so it's not like has to worry about saving his Senate seat or his political career (his political career is over if Trump wins the nomination). And even if Rubio fights all the way to the convention and loses or he fails to stop Trump from getting the outright win, there are gonna be a bunch of grateful establishment types with money who will reward him for "fighting the good fight to save the soul of the party" and hook him up with cushy lawyer and consultant gigs. Or he can get a job with Fox News ala Huckabee. The point is that losing a drawn out fight with Trump will have zero effect on his ability to clean up in the private sector post-election so why not go for it, especially with the Tump U trial set for July and Donald being required to testify at said trial.
The ONLY way it's over for Rubio is if the donations to his campaign and various super PACs dry up, and so far, there's no sign of that happening or Trump wins Ohio and Florida.