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Christie: Rubio as out of place in New Hampshire on abortion

Less than 3 percent of likely New Hampshire Republican primary voters listed abortion policy as the most important issue facing the country according to a Suffolk University poll taken last month. But an intense battle is underway for a second and third place showing in next Tuesday’s primary, as candidates furiously crisscross the state to connect with voters.

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But now his candidacy is threatened by the rise of Rubio to consolidate support within the party’s establishment and move on to southern state primaries after New Hampshire.

Audio for this piece will be available by approximately 11 a.m. Friday, Feb. 5.

“I’m pro-life but I believe that rape, incest and the life of the mother – as Ronald Reagan did – should be exceptions to that rule”, he added.

With New Hampshire voters set to cast ballots Tuesday in the nation’s first primary, a week after the Iowa caucuses, each debate thrust and parry will be crucial.

On Wednesday he took out a full-page ad in a leading New Hampshire newspaper, the Union-Leader, attacking Rubio as not ready to serve as commander in chief.

“If I get smoked here, like killed, bottom of the pack, I’m going home to OH, and I’ll have to be with my family and my friends”.

On the campaign trail this week Bush has questioned the abilities of freshman U.S. senators – both Rubio and Cruz are first-term senators – by saying they lacked his proven record. And I don’t think being president is the same as being a real estate developer.

“People put all of their eggs in the New Hampshire basket”, Sevugan said.

Those relationships are fine – until people get angry and say that none of it works and that the people in charge are responsible, a point that Morse concedes. “You know, I don’t think any time in politics when you lose and you ask for a do-over that that’s something that gives people a lot of confidence in your leadership ability”, Christie said. Marco Rubio, but interviewers on Fox News this morning had far different ideas. Voters, Cullen says, have already made up their minds about Bush. “If you look at the Republicans from South Florida, all three of us are for Jeb”. And as the candidates desperately drive from one event to the next, Bendix says it is likely that one or more will not continue on to the primary contest in SC.

While emails, texts and phone calls between operatives in rival campaigns are not uncommon in the tight-knit world of political strategists, the contact among senior aides in the two campaigns has drifted toward musings about what can be done to stop or at least slow Mr. Rubio, the operatives said. “New Hampshire is certainly a good place to identify losers, and to narrow the field”.

Cruz said he wouldn’t insult Trump, but now reels off barbs. “So they will pressure the candidates who are struggling who are unlikely to win to get out early”.

Sanders held the former secretary of state to a whisper-thin margin of victory in Iowa’s leadoff caucuses, and polls show he has a big lead in New Hampshire.

“(All he does is) fix his hair, smile, and give the same speech he’s given for the last six years… then he does a driveby 45-minute town hall meeting where he gives the same 60-second canned answers that he gives on the debate stage”, he continued. Should those candidates do poorly, donors big and small might turn their words against them, as they did with Dean, said Trippi. “So over the next five days I’m going to make sure you all understand what the choice is”.

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That’s partly because Rubio is trying to portray himself as a candidate for all Republicans – a possible bridge builder who could coalesce Tea Party and traditional establishment support around him. He challenged the Republican governor for the Senate nomination and won. Conventional wisdom in both parties says the GOP must appeal to political moderates and non-white voters who are becoming a greater share of the voting-age population.

New Hampshire may be now or never for Jeb Bush