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Democratic delegates feel confident assessing GOP field

It’s going to be very hard for the media to take Trump and Carson out; they’ve been firing their heavy artillery and done little damage. “I think it’s becoming more likely by the day”.

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The contrast cuts to the state of the 2016 race for the Republican nomination.

Sen. Marco Rubio and former Gov. Jeb Bush no longer lead the polls in Florida, where Republicans are gravitating toward outsiders Donald Trump and Ben Carson. Campaigning here requires millions of dollars and an ability to woo a broad cross-section of the Republican Party – seniors in large retirement communities, active and retired military service members in the northeast, suburban families in Central Florida and Cuban Americans in Miami.

Although Trump is, perhaps unsurprisingly, leading in the polls, he was widely booed by the audience as he attempted to defend himself and attack other candidates at various points throughout the debate. Among the 176 responding to that question, Ohio Gov. John Kasich was second to Rubio’s 65 mentions with 45, followed by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s 36.

Overall, there’s a prevailing sense that a number of candidates in the still-robust, 15-candidate field could capture the nomination.

“We have to be in this fight, there is no other option”, Bush said.

At the same gathering, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie also indirectly blamed Obama, saying that the attacks showed that “the world is desperate for a strong, secure, smart, and tested American president”.

Unlike the early primary states, whose voters demand intimate retail-style campaigning, Florida has 10 television markets and encompasses disparate regions – including glitzy Miami Beach, the choked highways of Tampa and Orlando and the hardwood forests of the Panhandle. Though neither has moved into the Trump/Carson level, many observers believe that the race will eventually be between these two, once the inevitable implosion of Trump and Carson has occurred.

As for Trump’s viability as a general election candidate, Snowden said: “I believe, because he does have a big ego, he is not going to fail”.

And despite Rubio’s rise, there has been no consensus establishment alternative to come into view.

Donald Trump appears to be evolving as a candidate in exercising more restraint and avoiding personal skirmishes with other candidates.

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who dropped out of the race, and Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee also got a vote.

“It doesn’t surprise me”, one veteran GOP strategist told Business Insider when asked about the Romney speculation.

“The Romney boomlet is awesome”, Erickson, the conservative radio host, added. Marco Rubio of Florida would make the strongest.

Note that I am not predicting this implosion, but I’m hearing it from people who can not imagine that either of these two political neophytes will be the last man standing in the GOP contest. Their advisers engaged in a furious air war over Twitter – and in reporters’ inboxes – to press their cases. “And it’s getting really late in the process”, Jowers said. “The focus increasingly will shift to issues, a potential mine field for front-runners Carson and Trump”.

As Trump said, “Well, you’re going to have to watch and study the mosques because a lot of talk is going on at the mosques”.

What they don’t realize is that their assassination effort is the very type of behavior that is fueling Carson’s (and Trump’s) campaign. On Thursday night, Trump used an approximately 95-minute speech to tear into Carson in every way imaginable, comparing his “pathological” temper to the supposedly “incurable” behavior of child molesters.

Then again, even as Sen.

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