Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Remember Ronald Reagan's...

..."Eleventh Commandment"? Thou shalt not speak ill of thy fellow Republican. Expect to see a lot of sinners real soon.

Of all the Republican hopefuls who showed up in New Hampshire last weekend (and the two who didn't), I think you could reasonably expect at least ten or so of the following thirteen to actually make a run for the White House.

Three candidates have already announced:

Marco Rubio
Rand Paul
Ted Cruz

Three more are all but certain to announce:

Jeb Bush
Scott Walker
Mike Huckabee

And seven more have a better than 50/50 chance of announcing:

Ben Carson
Rick Perry
Chris Christie
Bobby Jindal
Rick Santorum
Carly Fiorina
Lindsey Graham

Where am I going with this? While most everyone had something snarky to say about Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire, at some point they will have to turn their fire on each other.

If you're standing on a debate stage with nine or ten other candidates, how else would you expect to distinguish yourself from the rest of the group? And you may not get that many chances, either. There will be fewer debates this time around. What if you're lagging in the polls? How else do you break out?

So while everyone had fun at Mrs. Clinton's expense last weekend, this thing could turn into a circular firing squad real fast. And it could get real ugly.

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