Rubio's surprise close third makes me think back to Jeb's attacks on Rubio seemingly out of nowhere in one of the previous debates. People speculated that he was simply vying for more support from establishment voters in the face of a surging Trump with whom it was obviously fruitless to quarrel. But the popularity of Trump, Cruz, and Carson made it seem like he was fighting for an irrelevant seventh place more than anything else. Rather odd.
Then, suddenly, Rubio skyrockets into third place, bare inches from Trump with what Rubio's team admits was an unexpected insurgency.
The obvious explanation to the casual observer would be that it was punishment for Trump skipping out on the Iowa debate and, therefore, shedding voters to Rubio and Cruz. But if that many people were voting for Trump, odds are a more sizable number would go to Cruz himself who, despite being neck and neck with Trump throughout the entire Caucus, didn't see more than a three point uptick over Trump.
With Rubio and Jeb doing so poorly up to this point, I figured that they were both simply banking on a brokered convention due to Trump being unlikable/risky. But after tonight, I'm beginning to think that maybe, perhaps Jeb knew that whichever candidate secured the distant third establishment candidacy was going to get into--at least--a close third regardless of how pitiable said candidates numbers would. Perhaps he knew that his place would be assured not by any establishment voters, but by establishment powers......
