What happened
Donald Trump still held a commanding
poll lead on the eve of the potentially pivotal
South Carolina primary, as he and his
Republican rivals slugged it out in a series
of increasingly personal attacks. A week
of acrimony began with a GOP debate in
Greenville, S.C., that at times resembled a
schoolyard brawl. Trump drew boos when
he challenged Jeb Bush’s assertion that as
president his brother George W. Bush kept
the nation safe. “The World Trade Center
came down during the reign of George
Bush,” Trump said. “That is not safe.” The
GOP front-runner also suggested the Bush
administration tricked the country into the
Iraq War. “They said there were weapons of mass destruction,”
Trump said. “There were none.” While campaigning for his brother
in North Charleston this week, former President Bush fired a retaliatory
shot at Trump, declaring, “We do not need someone in the
Oval Office that mirrors and inflames our anger and frustration.”
The clash between Trump and Ted Cruz also grew increasingly
bitter. After the Texas senator ran ads that accused Trump of holding
liberal positions on abortion and gay marriage, the billionaire
branded Cruz “the single biggest liar I’ve ever come across.” A
Public Policy Polling survey of South Carolina Republicans showed
Trump leading with 35 percent, followed by Cruz and Florida Sen.
Marco Rubio with 18 percent each. A CNN/ORC survey gave
Trump a 38-22 edge over Cruz—though Trump’s support dipped
to 31 percent in post-debate interviews.
What the editorials said
South Carolina Republicans should “cast a vote against Donald
J. Trump,” said The Greenville News. “He has failed to articulate
conservative philosophies on key issues,” and his ugly rhetoric
shows “he lacks the temperament needed in a leader.” It’s hard to
imagine that he could “engage in subtle diplomacy during times
when a light touch is needed.” No, “a reality show mentality will
not win the day in an international crisis.” Or in November.
Rubio is “the best-positioned GOP candidate to win the White
House,” said the Las Vegas Review-Journal. After a fifth-place
finish in New Hampshire, Rubio emerged
from the “South Carolina debate with the
performance of the night,” deftly defending
his foreign policy proposals to reassert
American influence in the world. Rubio
snagged the endorsement of South Carolina
Gov. Nikki Haley this week, and polls
show he’s the only Republican capable of
beating Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders
“in a head-to-head matchup.”
What the columnists said
Millions of American voters agree with
Trump that the Iraq War was a mistake,
said Jamelle Bouie in Slate.com. “Unfortunately
for the real estate magnate, this isn’t
the general election.” He needs to win the GOP nomination, and
most Republicans still support the war and former President Bush.
But if Trump can secure the nomination, his break with party orthodoxy
“will stand as an asset, not a liability.” For all of his anger and
vulgarity, Trump understands that “Americans may want a Republican
in November, but they don’t want a return to the Bush years.”
Meanwhile, Cruz’s unfavorables “have skyrocketed,” said Jennifer
Rubin in WashingtonPost.com. He flip-flops on issues, uses deceptive
campaign tactics, and his “strained, awkward smile and cringeworthy
attempts at humor” don’t help matters. Despised on both
sides of the aisle, Cruz has a narrow, ultraconservative base. He’s
counted “on Trump voters falling away” and turning to him, but
that’s just not happening. “It is hard to get people to vote for you if
they don’t like you.”
If Trump does win in South Carolina, “he’ll be going straight to
the Republican nomination,” said John Podhoretz in The New
York Post. His dishonest attacks on George W. Bush—who has an
87 per cent approval rating in South Carolina, a state filled with
evangelicals and retired military—would seem “politically suicidal.”
But Trump has proved again and again that “he knows things
we don’t know about the emotions roiling in the American underbelly.”
Rubio and Jeb will battle it out for the title of establishment
anti-Trump, but it’s not clear they can beat the bullying billionaire.
“They’re hungry, ambitious, even desperate men, but they still
operate according to basic rules of elementary human conduct.”
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