Before I get into the results of Saturday's primary in South Carolina, I want to take a few moments of silence to commemorate the end of a certain presidential candidate's time with us.
Jeb Bush has suspended his campaign. That poor man endured months and months of low poll numbers, feuds with Donald Trump, and "Saturnday Night Live" parodies (and there have been a couple). On Saturday, a few hours after the primary results were announced, he dropped out of the race.
I obviously have mixed feelings about this. I don't know whether to be relieved that I'll never have to watch Trump insult the entire Bush family at a debate ever again or annoyed that Bush thought he could win an election based on his family's history in politics alone. At any rate, there is one fewer Republican candidate, which is good for everyone.
But on to bigger problems that come with a smaller amount of candidates: my concern for Bush has shifted to concern for (now) fourth place candidate, John Kasich. That man just wants everyone to get along and as lovely as that thought is, that mentality has no place in a world where Trump is campaigning.
Based off past trends, Trump will never go after Ben Carson, a fellow outsider to politics. Maybe with Bush out of the way, Trump will be able to focus all of his energy on bullying Ted Cruz out of the race.
Trump has threatened to do to Cruz what people in four states already have done: File a lawsuit to get Cruz removed from the Republican ticket. There has been talk that Cruz isn't a natural-born U.S. citizen, so he shouldn't be allowed to run for president. The Cruz campaign maintains that since his mother was a natural-born citizen, he is, too.
Now that Trump isn't spending money on Bush-related websites, he'll finally be able to knock Cruz off the ticket (and maybe crash and burn along the way).
That is wishful thinking, though. Trump got all 44 delegates from South Carolina's primary, taking 32.5 percent of the votes. In a surprising twist, Marco Rubio, who has consistently been the third place candidate, came in second, with 22.5 percent of the votes. This was not a triumphant victory over Cruz, the regular second place man, though. He got a narrow third with 22.3 percent.
After those three, there is a clear split in votes received. Bush got 7.8 percent before he dropped (R.I.P.), Kasich got 7.6 percent, and Carson got 7.2 percent.
Looking forward, a major primary day is coming up.
On Super Tuesday (March 1), 15 states will have primaries. Whether it will be enough to really change the tide for the Republicans obviously remains to be seen.
