Escalation

After Saturday's primaries, many observers began to wonder if Donald Trump's "momentum" had been slowed, but last night's results seemed to suggest that his candidacy still has a lot of force behind it.  One thing seems clear, though: Trump's opponents at many conservative institutions as well as his GOP rivals will continue to hit him hard.

Elizabeth Wilner points to some data that suggests how intense the media combat could be over the next week.  According to advertising data, about 62% of all GOP ad spending between February 29 and March 6 was used on anti-Trump ads.  During that period, there were almost as many anti-Trump ads as there were ads put out by Republican candidates and their SuperPACS during the first week of February.  Advertising dollars haven't necessarily moved the needle that much this primary cycle (just ask Jeb Bush), but the magnitude of that anti-Trump spending is noteworthy--and may have an effect.

Tomorrow's debate could be fierce indeed.  Stumbles on policy answers and responses to personal attacks likely hurt Trump in the last debate, and his rivals are almost guaranteed to renew these attacks.