Well here's what happened.
Trump was waaaay behind in Iowa for months in the polls. I'm not going to discuss how Bush was actually leading way back in the Summer
but let's look at a couple months ago. Trump was making his leap nationwide but Cruz was holding steady in Iowa. He had the evangelicals in his pocket. He was looking like the new Huckabee.
Fast-forward to a couple weeks ago and Trump had started to run neck and neck with Cruz and some polls even had Trump up by 2-5 points.
So what happened? I don't believe it was anything to do with skipping the debate. It didn't even have anything to do with Cruz. It was Rubio. It was the establishment. They got on the phone and started backing Rubio hard.. I don't think many voters jumped from Trump to Rubio. I think it was a collection of people who may have went with Jeb or Christie or whoever. Peep how damn low all their numbers were. Christie at 1% and Bush at 2% ... They weren't that low in the polling.
So now it's a 3-man race. Cruz is fairly legit but this was by far his best state. He has a lot of money in his pocket right now so he'll be able to run a formidable campaign at least into South Carolina.
But the establishment is now behind Rubio 100%. These other establishment candidates should probably drop out of NH but they won't. And it's risky because if Trump wins NH BIG that could start the ball rolling for him into South Carolina. I think Rubio needs to take South Carolina.
So all these people saying Trump fell off, no.. He got 25% in fukking IOWA.. of all places. That's a big deal. That's a state that would never have fukked with Trump even 3-4 months ago.
What Trump needs to do is actually leave Cruz alone and focus on Rubio. Cruz will probably end himself at some point anyway. If Trump focuses on Rubio and blasts him over the next couple weeks that'd be helpful. Donald needs to go in.