This story was originally published on nationaljournal.com on Feb. 15, 2016 With every passing day, the odds increase that the Republican presidential nomination will come down to a choice between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. Even with Chris Christie’s decision to suspend his campaign, three conventional, establishment-oriented candidates—Jeb Bush, John Kasich, and Marco Rubio—remain in the race. Which is two too many. The longer it takes for the establishment side of the party to coalesce behind a single candidate, the tougher it will be for him to secure the nomination. Each of these three are smart and able men, and each has enough support and strong qualities to keep running, but none is strong enough yet to pull away from the others. It is the opposite of what happened on the conservative side, which Cruz has dominated after pushing aside Mike Huckabee, Rand Paul, and Rick Santorum. Ben Carson is still technically running, but he hasn’t been viable in months and isn’t drawing enough support to cut into Cruz or Trump in any meaningful way. According to RealClearPolitics.com’s average of
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