CARTOON: “Wanna Buy A Watch?”

From cartoonist Clay Jones on “Wanna Buy A Watch?”, the latest debate, and Rubio’s broken-watch-selling business

Did you watch the latest Republican debate, the final debate before Super Tuesday (as every debate is the final debate before something)? I did, and it was a slobberknocker. Basically, it was Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio versus The Donald. It couldn’t have been much worse than if Trump was caught between the Pope, Vicente Fox, and Mitt Romney.

The first impression I got was how sad it was to see former president George H.W. Bush and former first lady Barbara at the debate after Jeb had dropped out. It’s like your parents going to your little league game after you were kicked off the team.

The high point of the debate was when Rubio stated that if Trump hadn’t inherited $200 million, he’d be selling watches in Manhattan. That was a good one. It was so prepared that Marco is pretend selling broken Trump watches at his website. You don’t actually get a watch, but you get the privilege of giving him $10. The remark was as prepared as the audience, because Rubio’s people had planted screamers to react to everything he said. It was annoying. This was supposed to be a debate, not Beatlemania.

But Rubio came out swinging at Trump. He attacked him for his fortune, his taxes, his hiring illegals, his fake university, his lawsuits, his donations to Democrats and charities (Republicans are so terrible that donating to charitable causes will be used against you), his bankruptcies, his lack of specifics, and I’m kinda surprised he didn’t squeeze a “your mama is so ugly” in there somewhere. He hit Trump on issues that aren’t new, some having been out there for over a decade. Someone discovered Google.

Cruz was more than happy to join the pile-on. The thing is, where was this before? Why did they wait until the tenth debate to go hard against Trump? Rubio has yet to win a primary or a caucus, and he’s behind Trump by double digits in his home state of Florida. Cruz is barely leading Trump in his state of Texas and has a lead in Arkansas, but that’s it. Did they do a Christie and hurt Trump without helping themselves? Quite possibly. If Rubio loses Florida, it’s over for him. If he wins Florida, which is over two weeks from now and several primaries away, and half the delegates are already gone … it’s still probably over. Rubio might actually be working on Campaign 2020 at this point.

For Trump, who states he can shoot a guy and his supporters will still love him, will any attack hurt him? Plus, people may not really interpret anything that was said as it was mostly inaudible since all three guys were talking over each other most of the night. Trump’s defense against his rivals was that Cruz is a liar and a basket case and that Rubio suffers from meltdowns.

Oh yeah, John Kasich and Dr. Ben Carson were also on the stage. Kasich, who is not a moderate, is the most qualified and prepared for the presidency out of all these guys. Carson, desperate for time, begged for someone to attack him. Seriously.

claytoonz.com/2016/02/26/wanna-buy-a-watch