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Insiders: Trump flopped in debate

Sparks flew Saturday night, and Donald Trump got burned — more than half of Republican insiders say the billionaire was the loser at the GOP primary debate in Greenville, South Carolina.

That’s according to the POLITICO Caucus, our weekly survey of the top activists, operatives and early-state strategists.

Off Message 5 takeaways from the GOP debate

There’s just something about South Carolina — maybe it’s the bad-karma ghost of John C. Calhoun (the ideological godfather of secession) — that just brings out the snarling mean in conservatives.

More likely it’s the palpable fear among GOP candidates that Donald Trump is running away with the Republican nomination that accounted for the foul mood that descended on the sour debate stage in Greenville, South Carolina, on Saturday night.

After a disappointing fifth-place finish in the New Hampshire primary, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio is hoping for a better showing in South Carolina’s primary on Feb. 20. The Washington Examiner this morning explains what Rubio’s plan is to regain the momentum he had coming out of Iowa and re-establish himself as a leading contender for the GOP nomination:

Marco Rubio’s South Carolina comeback plan

The Florida senator has expanded his scope of attack to include rival Donald Trump, while continuing to contrast ... Read More >>

The Five Republicans Who Could Be President

We began with more than 20 Republican candidates. Seventeen made it to a formal announcement. Eleven reached Iowa. Now six remain; and with Ben Carson going nowhere, only five have a chance to win the nomination. Here is how each of them could do that.

GOP candidates woo SC evangelicals

With the national political spotlight shifting to the Bible Belt, Republican presidential candidates camped out in South Carolina have begun stepping up their campaigns to win over evangelicals – a group that’s expected to make up nearly 60 percent of the vote in the state’s GOP primary on Feb. 20.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s presidential campaign is looking past the Feb. 20 primary in South Carolina, where Bush is polling in fourth place, and is hoping to keep his supporters focused on later states where he has a better chance.

Republican elites are 0-for-2 in presidential nominating contests this year, a rare and panic-inducing outcome for the party’s leadership. Yet their preferred candidates continue to fight each other, and have begun the march to the next battlefield in South Carolina without a plan to stop Donald Trump.