Were I a New Hampshire resident and voter who had been supporting Chris Christie, I would support him no more.  His junkyard dog act, his glee at knocking Rubio off his stride, was a disgusting display of gutter bullying.  His next-day pride in his I-was-a-prosecutor shtick made him seem a very small man.

Christie has not been a successful governor, despite his claims.  The Republicans in New Jersey who put him in office feel betrayed.  Much of what Rubio had to say is true, and only the tip of the Christie iceberg. 

Nevertheless, from the moment the debate was over, the punditry, across all cable channels and networks, were gleeful that Rubio had "stumbled"  because he was the conservative with momentum.  Then the directive went out that the word to use was "robotic."  These so-called analysts embarrass themselves by endlessly mimicking each other.  And they accuse Rubio of being scripted!

There is rarely an original thought among our political talking heads on television.  The cleverer minds reside, to the endless fury of the mainstream media, on the radio.  Because they hear from and actually listen to their audience each and every day, they have a better sense of how voters think and hear.  Yes, yes, the television folks hear all day long from the tweeters, the people whose ideas can be expressed in 140 characters.  These are the trolls; they are not everyday Americans who work for a living away from their computers and cell phones.  These people stop and think before they speak or text. 

No one knows yet who the Republican nominee will be.  Whoever wins in New Hampshire is hardly instructive on that score.  Whoever it is may have to contend with another billionaire narcissist, Mike Bloomberg, who sees himself as qualified to tell us not only how and what to eat, but how much to eat and drink.  That would be  a "monkey in the wrench" that could take us to a brokered convention.  Then all bets would be off.

Trump still leads in a race that for him is a verbal MMA.  The more he insults others, the more his core supporters love him.  Those who dare to criticize him are subjected to the most profane comments in the blogosphere.  These are the depths to which anonymous social media have brought us – crude, personal, often vulgar attacks on others, even those on one's own side politically.  Even Madeline Albright has forgotten her manners.  ("Women who do not support other women [Hillary] are going to hell!")

Christie tried to out-Trump Trump in Saturday's debate, but he only debased himself.  He will never be president.  The people, voters in flyover country, know a thug when they see one.  Why do so many not see Trump as a thug as well?  They are blinded by the light of everything he had to say at the outset of his campaign, things millions of Americans were desperate to hear said in public: that Obama has set out to take the United States down and is succeeding and that the Republicans we elected to stop Obama have capitulated to his every whim without a word.  Except Cruz and Rubio, the Republican candidates, Bush and Kasich, like Christie (like Mitch McConnell), are capitulators.  Fiorina would be an exceptional and qualified candidate.  (You can be sure that Stephanopoulos, as an agent for the Clintons, had everything to do with Fiorina not being allowed in that debate.)

Rubio will not lose support from the people who like and support him for one debate misstep.  He knew the others were coming after him with their long knives and had good reason to be trepid, but Christie will lose support for his malevolent joy at undermining an opponent of his own party.  Christie may feel he is riding the crest of a wave in New Hampshire, but his will soon crash upon the shore.