Trump is still way out ahead, but some people cling to the idea he somehow will be stopped and will not be the nominee.
The real contest, for these folks, is among what look right now to be the also-rans.
How Cruz and Rubio exposed the GOP’s rift on foreign policy
This is an interesting piece about a foreign policy fissure putting the likes of Pat Buchanan on the one side and Charles Krauthammer on the other showing up among the aspirants for the Republican nomination.
The neocons - Krauthammer is a well known example among pundits - are a species of altruistic globo-interventionists optimistic in varying degrees about American power and committed to a Marvel Comics foreign policy of fighting evil-doers and doing good.
Mostly this comes to fighting dictators and spreading democracy even as we fight the Jihaders and struggle against terrorism, but also keeping up and expanding our Cold War alliances and continuing struggles against Russia, China, and the remaining Communist regimes, as well as various forms of foreign aid.
Among these folks, Barack Obama is among those less sanguine about the utility of military intervention and John McCain among the most optimistic, with Hillary in between but closer to McCain than to O.
Opposed to the neocons and generally sharing neither their optimism nor their altruism are those sometimes dubbed realists but also sometimes labeled by interventionists as isolationists or neoisolationists.
Of these, Pat Buchanan is an example among the pundits.
The interventionist Wilson's name is bandied somewhat misleadingly in these discussions as his vigorous advocacy of and support for tribalism in the forms of ethnic nationalism and racism did far more to shape his aims and projects than his commitment to democracy.
And, in current ideological quarrels, the tribalists are more to be found among the realists while the neocons - Democrats much more obtrusively than Republicans and their loyalty to Zionism conspicuously excepted - are in varying degrees and ways post- and even anti-tribalist in their politics.
Rubio-Cruz Debate Clashes Will Shape GOP Race
Despite trailing Trump and Cruz in most polls, Rubio got a taste Tuesday night of what it’s like to be the frontrunner.
Both Cruz and Rand Paul pounced on the Florida senator for what they characterize as his neoconservative approach to foreign policy -- from defense spending to government surveillance programs to intervening in foreign wars.
Rubio wore the assault as a badge of honor.
“The isolationist tag team duo Ted Cruz and Rand Paul tried to take on Marco. They got beat, badly,” read a campaign fundraising email sent after the debate.
Lots of good detail in this piece on the differences concerning national security and also immigration between neocon Rubio and realist Cruz, with Paul thrown into the mix.
On the other hand, this article is utter crap.
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