The George Pataki Story
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This is a great line, on the next “contenders” likely to drop out of the GOP race:
“There comes a point when his irrelevance becomes crystal clear even to him”
Beside Pataki, the Iowa GOP insiders picked Jindal and Paul. The former is interesting because Five Thirty Eighty just published a piece that was relatively bullish on his Iowa prospects. The idea that a hard right conservative could still come back and take Iowa is worth taking seriously, although at the moment Cruz looks like a better bet to me.
With respect to Paul, the big issue is his Kentucky Senate race. Old Man Paul was fond of taking these things to the bitter end, but Rand has yet to demonstrate much gumption. He’s also made enough concessions to political professionalism that you imagine he probably wants to continue being Senator.