Tuesday, December 22, 2015

First Read: GOP Outsiders Flex Muscles as 2015 Comes to an End

 
First Read is a morning briefing from Meet the Press and the NBC Political Unit on the day's most important political stories and why they matter.
 
GOP outsiders continue to flex muscles as 2015 comes to an end

In a 2015 filled with fascinating political stories -- Donald Trump's rise and durability, Bernie-mania, Joe Biden's Hamlet-on-the-Potomac act, John Boehner stepping down from Congress -- maybe the most amazing one has been the strength and size of the Republican Party's outsider/anti-establishment wing. Today's new national Quinnipiac poll provides an exclamation point to that story: Donald Trump 28%, Ted Cruz 24%, Marco Rubio 12%, Ben Carson 10%, Chris Christie 6%, Jeb Bush 4%; no one else gets more than 2%. Add up the Trump/Cruz/Carson percentages, and you get 62%. Then add up the Rubio/Christie/Bush numbers, and you get 22%. Polls, of course, don't determine the GOP nominee -- the Dec. 2011 NBC/WSJ poll had Newt Gingrich leading Mitt Romney by 17 points, 40% to 23%. The New York Times' Nate Cohn describes a perfectly reasonable scenario how Rubio, despite possibly losing both Iowa and New Hampshire, still grabs the Republican nomination. And we realize these insider-vs-outsider/establishment-vs.-anti-establishment labels are imperfect. Is Cruz, a U.S. sitting senator, really an outsider? Is Rubio, who was the Tea Party's darling in 2010, really part of the GOP establishment? 

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Source: NBC News

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