I always watch how candidates act after an election.  I am particularly interested in the unexpected response.  We got three of them after the Nevada Caucuses.  The first was by Marco Rubio.  He wasn’t in Nevada and he didn’t give a speech at all.  One would think he at least earned bragging rights by coming in second ahead of Ted Cruz.  I mean he gloated about his third place finish in Iowa and was thrilled with his second place finish in South Carolina.  Nevada, not so much! .Rubio wasn’t acting like he won anything.

Then this morning I got one of those Marco Rubio e-mails.  It contained the following line:

P.S. One more thing is clear tonight: this is at most a three-man race and Marco Rubio isn’t going anywhere! If Marco can count on you, will you let him know by making an instant online contribution tonight?

This is not what you expect from someone who thought they did well.

Another was John Kasich, who gave a rambling speech about maybe his destiny wasn’t to be President of the United States. I think Kasich is close to pulling the plug.

Ted Cruz, on the other hand, gave a victory speech.  He looked exhausted, but he at least tried to look enthusiastic.  Then I got the following e-mail from his campaign today:

Here’s the good news: I’m leading all Republicans in Arkansas and Texas, and we are in striking distance of Trump and ahead of the other remaining candidates in five more key March 1st, Super Tuesday states — Alabama, Alaska, Georgia, Oklahoma, and Tennessee.

As you can see — this is quickly becoming a two person race between me, a consistent conservative…and Donald Trump.

That is not what you expect from someone who came up short.  So either Ted Cruz is a better actor, or his campaign really is more optimistic.  So I did some research and something became obvious.  Cruz expects to win at least two states and maybe more.  Rubio doesn’t expect to win any.  It is going to be hard for Rubio to sell himself as the candidate most likely to win the general election if he has never actually won anywhere.  We will know a lot more by next week at this time.

By the way, no, I didn’t send anybody money.

TDM