The surprisingly strong finish in Iowa by Marco Rubio in Monday’s caucuses shuffled the competition amongst the Republican presidential candidates for New Hampshire. That has led some to focus their attack on the Florida Senator leading up to the state’s primary next week.
A sense of renewed urgency could be seen in New Hampshire as Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey belittled the toughness of Rubio as well as his intelligence and manhood.
Christie said that maybe Rubio would now campaign than just his 40-minute canned speech he memorized. Christie mocked the tightly controlled Rubio campaign appearances.
Jeb Bush the former governor of Florida expanded his attacks beyond just those at Donald Trump to also include Ted Cruz and Rubio.
Bush said during a campaign stop in New Hampshire that Cruz and Rubio did not possess the needed life experience to be the president and also questioned if either of the two had sacrificed their own ambition for the good of the public.
For the last six weeks, four GOP mainstream candidates – including John Kasich the Ohio Governor, have looked at New Hampshire as a proving ground.
However, they all four saw a change with the results of Iowa, as the three with experience as governors each were in the low single digits and Rubio surged up to within a one percent of Donald Trump, who finished second.
Just a week remains before New Hampshire and potential voters could eliminate some of the candidates in the GOP race, means the stakes remain high with the overall tone becoming more and more confrontational.
One member of the Republican National Committee in New Hampshire said the candidates were going to battle to the last minute next week as at stake for them is their ticket to continue in the race.
The stakes are higher with Iowa now behind the candidates. However, after New Hampshire the field of GOP candidates will likely thin out considerably.
