Author Archives: doctorads

Will Any Voters Really Care About Biden’s Ad Attacking Trump’s NATO Attack?

by doctorads

Well the Doc opened up the old mailbag today and here’s what poured out.

Dear Dr. Ads,

There I was, minding my own business and reading Jim Swift’s Overtime post at The Bulwark, when I came across this item.

Happy Friday! The Biden campaign hit Donald Trump with a new ad about NATO. It’s a little wonky, but still, compelling.

Really, Doc? Trump’s trashing of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is going to put a dent in his poll numbers when 91 felony charges, a sexual assault conviction, and an endless series of lies and grifts haven’t? Does that seem reasonable to you?

– Trump Stumped

Dear TS,

According to this New York Times report by Nicholas Nehamas, the Biden campaign “is running [this] digital ad in three states — Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania — that have significant populations of voters with Eastern European roots.”

The ad notes that every president since Harry Truman has been a rock-solid supporter of NATO – except for Donald Trump, who wants to walk away from NATO and its Article 5 mutual defense pact. (The spot also notes that Article 5 has been invoked exactly one time: in the wake of the 9/11 attacks on America.)

Trump’s “you gotta pay” message to NATO members, the ad concludes, is shameful, weak, dangerous, and un-American. (It’s also the unofficial slogan of made mobsters, but why get technical about it. Not to mention Trump’s lifelong commitment to stiffing his own creditors.)

As NBC News White House correspondent Monica Alba writes, “[the] campaign is aiming to reach the more than 2.5 million Americans who identify as Polish, Finnish, Norwegian, Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian — all NATO countries that share a border with Russia.”

That doesn’t seem like much, until you break down Trump’s likely electoral math: About 30 to 35 percent of his voters are ride-or-die MAGA who are largely there for the cruelty and the crazy; then you’ve got maybe 10 percent of voters who mumble “something something something Dementia Joe.”

It’s the next four or five percent who will decide the 2024 presidential election.  This Biden ad might tell us whether Article 5 works for  ballots as well as bullets.

Are Nikki Haley’s Grumpy Old Men Ads Really ‘An Example of Ageism’?

by doctorads

Well the Doc opened up the old mailbag today and here’s what poured out.

Dear Dr. Ads,

There I was, minding my own business and checking out BU Today, when I came across Doug Most’s Q&A with Boston University School of Social Work professor Bronwyn Keefe about Nikki Haley’s new ad campaign mocking Joe Biden and Donald Trump as “Basement Buddies” and “Stumbling Seniors.”

BU Today: When I saw this ad, I admit that I chuckled, but at the same time I cringed a little bit. Is this going too far in your mind? Is the ad an example of ageism?

Ageism is just pervasive. When you go to CVS or someplace to get a birthday card, it’s everywhere, jokes about being older, not being able to hear—it’s so normalized . . . This makes older people feel invisible, small, and useless. It has an impact on the older adult population that is really detrimental.

Isn’t that the point of Haley’s campaign, Doc – to be detrimental to the presumptive 2024 presidential nominees?

– Bidin’ My Time

Dear BMT,

Let’s start by reminding ourselves that Nikki Haley is no stranger to the issue of ageism, having been on the receiving end last year of sexist/ageist comments from ex-CNN bigmouth Don Lemon, who declared in an on-air flameout (leading to his exit from the cable network) that Haley was past her prime.

Haley tweeted in response, “Liberals can’t stand the idea of having competency tests for older politicians to make sure they can do the job.”

So Haley’s new media  campaign – which consists of online videos, digital ads and voter emails according to Jazmine Ulloa’s report in the New York Times – is very much on brand.

As for the issue of ageism, it’s not like Haley is trying to take the car keys from Gramps. One of those two guys is going to occupy the Oval Office a year from now. Their age and mental competency are legitimate questions.

But that’s not the most important concern for voters this November.  The real issue, which Haley’s campaign blithely glosses over, is that both guys might be old, but only one of them is an unhinged anti-democratic grifter. We’re not talking six of one, half dozen of another here, folks. Joe Biden and Donald Trump are not a matched set, no matter what Nikki Haley or Cornel West or the No Labelsniks want you to think

Not to get all grumpy about it or anything.

Can Philip Morris International Zynoculate Itself With a New Ad Campaign?

by doctorads

Well the Doc opened up the old mailbag today and here’s what poured out.

Dear Dr. Ads,

There I was, minding my own business and plowing through the Sunday New York Times, when I came across this full-page ad from Philip Morris International about its Zyn nicotine pouches, which are apparently quite popular among the younger set.

Think the tobacco industry’s latest damage-control campaign can work, Doc?

– Zynterested Observer

Dear ZO,

Zynteresting indeed.

That ad comes in the wake of  this piece by Emily Dreyfuss in the Times Opinion section two weeks ago, which detailed the growing flight from vaping to nicotine pouches among teenagers and young adults.

Do you know what a Zynbabwe is? Or an upper-decky lip pillow? OK, here’s an easier one — how about just Zyn?

If you are scratching your head, don’t feel bad: Almost no adult I have spoken to has had any idea either. This is despite the fact that the nicotine pouch Zyn is a jewel in the crown of a multibillion-dollar tobacco company. Haven’t heard of nicotine pouches to begin with? Neither had I. But when I ask my 19-year-old neighbor Ian if he knows what a Zynbabwe is, I get a shocked reply: “You know about Zyns?”

Young people certainly do, Dreyfuss says, thanks in no small part to the tobacco giant’s efforts. “P.M.I. is . . . a company that has long denied it markets tobacco products to minors despite decades of research accusing it of just that. One 2022 study alone found its brands advertising near schools and playgrounds around the globe.”

Thus the full-page ads spinning out corporate eyewash such as “We restrict the marketing and sale of  ZYN to those of legal age – which is 21 in the U.S. We do not use social media influencers in the U.S.”

That, of course, is meaningless, since social media influencers in the U.S. use Zyn – prodigiously – as Sasha Rogelberg has detailed in Fortune.

Nicotine pouches, which do not contain tobacco but are slipped under a user’s lip like snus, have grown wildly popular. Over 800 million units were sold between January and March 2022, compared to 126.06 million units between August to December 2019 and beating out its competitors. ZYN shipped 105.4 million cans in the U.S. in their 2023 Q3, a 65.7% increase from Swedish Match’s 63.6 million can shipments in the same period in 2022. Philip Morris International, which owns ZYN’s parent company Swedish Match, partially attributed their $9 billion in quarterly net revenue to the “exceptional growth” of ZYN.

On social media, young people and so-called “Zynfluencers” are spreading the nicotine buzz, withTikToks using #zyn receiving over 715.6 million views to date.

Something similar happened several years ago with Juul Labs Inc., which in 2019 owned 75% of the e-cigarette market and was valued at over $38 billion, Suddenly the Food and Drug Administration was on Juul Labs like Brown on Williamson, and there were over 5000 lawsuits accusing the company of deceptive marketing and targeting of minors.  That led to a flurry of newspaper ads like this one.

The campaign worked so well, Juul has shelled out over $3 billion in legal settlements since then, and the company’s products are still in regulatory limbo.

So the Doc’s prescription for P.M.I.:  Zynvest in some malpractice insurance. Zynstantly.

Apple Ripped Off Masimo’s Technology, So Masimo Ripped Off Apple’s TV Spot?

by doctorads

Well the Doc opened up the old mailbag today and here’s what poured out.

Dear Dr. Ads, 

There I was, minding my own business and paging through the Boston Globe, when I came across this full-page ad for the medical technology company Masimo, which is pursuing  a patent dispute with Apple over something something something about Apple watches.

“Here’s to the underdogs . . . “?  Why does that sound so familiar, Doc?

–  Apple Chord

Dear AC,

For starters, here’s how the Masimo ad (which also ran in the Wall Street Journal yesterday) begins.

Loose translation: Masimo is David, having developed medical monitoring technology that it alleges Apple – which would be the bully – stole for its Apple Watch, as Aaron Tilley has detailed in the Wall Street Journal.

Ad transition: The copy sounds familiar because it echoes a legendary 1997 Apple TV spot that would “eventually play a pivotal role in helping Apple achieve one of the greatest corporate turnarounds in business history,” according to adman Rob Siltanen’s inside account for Forbes.

The commercial was Here’s to the Crazy Ones, and these were its opening lines.

Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules…

Here’s the spot, whose script Steve Jobs initially derided as “sh-t.”

And, for those of you keeping score at home,  here’s Masimo’s closing stock price yesterday after dropping six figures on full-page newspaper ads.

The Doc’s diagnosis: Actual underdog to be determined at a later (court) date.

Wait – Could Dr. Ads Actually Be Sued For Marketing Malpractice?

by doctorads

Well the Doc opened up the old mailbag today and here’s what poured out.

Dear Dr. Ads,

There I was, minding my own business and starting to read the Wall Street Journal, when I came across Erin Mulvaney’s Page One piece about the barrage of ad campaigns seeking plaintiffs for megabucks product-liability and personal-injury cases.

Nearly 800,000 television advertisements for mass litigation ran in 2023 at a cost of more than $160 million, according to X Ante, a firm that specializes in research on mass tort advertising. Ad spending has been at historic highs in recent years, showing surges when particular cases gain steam. When lawsuits targeting Monsanto’s Roundup weedkiller were gaining momentum in the courts in 2019, for example, overall industry ad spending reached nearly $300 million on television spots.

It’s even crazier than that, as you can see in this Journal chart of the top five tort targets for the past ten years.

(Glyphosate = Roundup weedkiller, for those of you keeping score at home.)

Hey, Doc – any litigation consternation about the prolific advice you dish to the ad-lorn?

– Sweet Sue

Dear SS,

For starters, please see the federally mandated warning in the banner atop this post.

Dr. Ads Is Not a Licensed Physician

So it’s not the Doc who needs malpractice insurance; it’s all the consumer brands out there scamming the fine folks across this great land of ours.

Like who? Like the fruit-faking, truth- and union-busting executives at Starbucks, whose grift NPR’s Joe Hernandez has detailed.

Mango Dragonfruit Starbucks Refreshers are missing mango, Strawberry Açaí Starbucks Refreshers lack açaí and Pineapple Passionfruit Starbucks Refreshers have no passion fruit.

That’s what two consumers who have sued Starbucks for consumer protection law violations say about the coffee giant’s fruit-based drinks. [In September] a federal judge in Manhattan ruled their case could move forward.

Then you’ve got the Great Reese’s Halloween Face-Plant, as USA Today’s Sarah Al-Arshani reported.

A Florida woman upset that Reese’s holiday-themed chocolates did not feature the same cute designs she claims was shown on its packaging is suing manufacturer Hershey’s for false advertisement.

In a lawsuit filed on Dec. 28 in Florida’s Middle District Court, Cynthia Kelly sued Hershey’s for $5 million, alleging that the company misled buyers with “false and deceptive advertising” on their packaging.”This is a class action against Hershey for falsely representing several Reese’s Peanut Butter products as containing explicitly carved-out artistic designs when there are no such carvings in the actual products,” the lawsuit said.

Not so sweet, eh Sue? The same law firm is suing Burger King for misrepresenting food items as larger than they actually are.

According to this Forbes piece by Dr. Marcus Collins, the issue goes beyond any technical definition of false advertising.

This story is about shared understanding and its impact on expectations and trust. If Reese’s understood that some people would see the packaging and expect the product to look exactly as it does on the wrapper then the company would have likely engraved the smile on the candy or put a disclaimer on the packaging. But it didn’t. Reese’s didn’t have that understanding, which led to unmet expectations and broken trust due to consumer disappointment.

Of course, no one in their right mind has any expectations or illusions about what the Doc might say. So no broken trust, right?

Case closed.

Shouldn’t Joe Biden’s Campaign Just Set His Advertising Dollars on Fire?

by doctorads

Well the Doc opened up the old mailbag today and here’s what poured out.

Dear Dr. Ads,

There I was, minding my own business and checking out Politico Playbook, when I came across this item about Joe Biden’s campaign jumping on “[a] recent Suffolk University/USA Today poll [which] found that 59% of voters agreed that prosecuting the [January 6] rioters was ‘the appropriate work of the justice system.’” 

These public perceptions, of course, create a major opening for Biden. And, as we’ve written several times now in Playbook, the president continues to lean in. During his speech yesterday at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, Biden cast his own reelection — and Trump’s defeat —as imperative to protecting democracy.

“Whether democracy is still America’s sacred cause is the most urgent question of our time. It is what the 2024 election is all about,” Biden said, a message that’s front and center in a new campaign ad that will start airing today in seven swing states.

Is pearl-clutching about threats to democracy really a threat to Donald Trump’s 2024 prospects, Doc? Or is Scranton Joe just whistling past the graveyard?

– Biden My Time

Dear BMT,

First of all, don’t say “graveyard” in the same sentence as Joe Biden. Beyond that, the Doc has previously noted that there are serious questions about the efficacy of presidential TV advertising (even if they’re raised by GOP chew toy Vivek Ramaswamy).

Regardless, Biden has so far failed to develop an effective advertising message. As New York Times reporter Reed Epstein detailed on The Daily podcast, his campaign recently spent $40 million on swing-state ads promoting Biden’s economic record – to little or no avail.

Epstein also pointed out that another potential ad theme – Trump’s 91 felony charges – is largely off limits. Biden can’t/won’t talk about the four separate Trump indictments because that just plays into Trump’s claim that the Department of Justice is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Biden Crime Family.

So what’s a fella to do? This, apparently.

Those people are nuts graf: “I’ve made the preservation of American democracy an essential issue of my presidency. Now, something dangerous is happening in America. There’s an extremist movement that does not share the basic beliefs in our democracy.”

The ad, which is paid for by the Democratic National Committee, is not getting a lot of love on YouTube: 97,000 views but only 2700 thumbs up. Not to mention lots of comments like these.

As Epstein noted on The Daily, voters concerned about threats to democracy are likely already in the anti-Trump camp, so Biden might just be whistling past the . . . voting booth with that approach.

The Doc is not in the habit of prescribing remedies for ailing political campaigns. But in this case, Joe Biden might want to forget surrogates like the oily Gavin Newsom and get himself a witch doctor to generate some good juju.

Just sayin’.

Could a TV Spot From U.S. Families of Hamas Hostages Actually Work?

by doctorads

Well the Doc opened up the old mailbag today and here’s what poured out.

Dear Dr. Ads,

There I was, minding my own business and scrolling through Politico Playbook, when I came across this item about a new effort to free the eight American hostages held by Hamas since October 7.

FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — A new national TV ad from the families of U.S. citizens still held hostage by Hamas calls on U.S. officials to do more to help bring them home alive, and soon. “Act now, or more will die,” a narrator says. “Every second counts.” The eight Americans have spent nearly three months in captivity, and the spot highlights the brutality of the Oct. 7 attack. Targeting elite audiences, the six-figure ad buy from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum will run for a week.

Think that might make a difference, Doc?

– Fingers Crossed

Dear FC,

Given that the Hamas hostage standoff includes more moving parts than an hourglass, it’s tough to gauge what impact – if any – this ad from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum might have.

Start with the six-figure ad buy, which could be anywhere from $100,000 to $999,999. Assuming the ad budget is at the lower end of that range, the group might be hoping to create a news ad – “an ad that is designed to give news coverage,” as media theorist Kathleen Hall Jamieson has defined it.

So far, the ad hasn’t gained much traction, at least according to Google News. That might change, though, now that the New York Times website has posted this Michael D. Shear piece.

The families of Americans held hostage in Gaza since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in southern Israel have released a television ad to press for urgent action to rescue their loved ones.

The 30-second spot, which is set to air on cable networks and during Sunday network news programs in the United States for the next several weeks, shows grainy images of the hostages being seized by Hamas militants, and black-and-white images of the captive Americans.

Given that the Times is still the assignment desk for much of the news media, that could jumpstart more coverage, especially tomorrow when the story will likely run in the paper’s print edition. Maybe by then the Hostages and Missing Families Forum will have also produced a press release about the ad, which it has inexplicably failed to do so far.

There’s also social media to give the group’s plea a boost. Although the ad’s YouTube video  has garnered only 1400  views in its first 24 hours online, #BringThemHomeNow has lots of activity on Xitter, and the Bring Them Home Now Facebook page has 52,000 likes and 71,000 followers.

In the end, who knows whether the “elite audiences” the group is targeting will get the message. Regardless, the Doc’s fingers are crossed as well.

Is Presidential TV Ad Spending Really Idiotic, Like Vivek Ramaswamy Says?

by doctorads

Well the Doc opened up the old mailbag today and here’s what poured out.

Dear Dr. Ads,

There I was, minding my own business and poking around Xitter, when I came across this post on David Axelrod’s feed addressing the latest nonsense from Vivek Ramasmarmy – sorry, Ramaswamy.

Two questions for you, Doc – is presidential TV ad spending more idiotic than Vivek Ramaswamy? Or is it vice versa?

– On the Spot

Dear OtS,

This one looks like a photo finish, yeah?

Let’s start with Vivek Ramaswamy’s X-clusion of TV spots from his primary campaign.

Given that Ramaswamy spent $200,000 on TV ads during the first half of December, as NPR’s Ashley Lopez reported, presumably he’s had some kind of IQ boost in the past few weeks. Regardless, his campaign told NPR it hasn’t entirely stopped spending on ads.

“Our spending levels haven’t changed—we’re just following the data,” said campaign spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin. “We are focused on bringing out the voters we’ve identified—best way to reach them is using addressable advertising, mail, text, live calls and doors to communicate with our voters on Vivek’s vision for America, making their plan to caucus and turning them out.”

Yeah – that and going to six Iowa Pizza Ranches in one day might actually get you within 40 points of Donald Trump. Or maybe not, considering that some – like the New Republic’s Jason Linkins – think you might not even make it to caucus night.

As for how idiotic presidential TV ad spending in general might be, it certainly hasn’t paid off for the super PACs that have dropped tens of millions of dollars touting presidential primary hopefuls, as The Bulwark’s Tim Miller has painstakingly documented.

The Super PACs Are Worthless. Donors Should Stop Torching Their Cash.

SUPER PACS FOR SEVERAL GOP CANDIDATES challenging Donald Trump have raised hundreds of millions of dollars to help fund efforts to displace him as the party’s nominee—and they have absolutely nothing to show for it.

No progress. No signs of life. No movement. Nada.

The impotence of the super PAC efforts is an all-the-more-inviting target for ridicule when you consider that this entire strategic approach was discredited in the 2016 and 2020 presidential races. (I can speak from firsthand Jeb! experience about the law of diminishing returns on super PAC dollars.)

Case in point: The pro-DeSantis super PAC Nevar Back Down, whose $25 million worth of ads have gone over like the metric system, rocketing the Florida governor from over 30% in the national polls to 11.7% in ten short months.

So yeah, some presidential ad spending is in fact idiotic. But that doesn’t make Vivek Ramaswamy any smarter.

Could a Never Trump PAC’s TV Spot Hold ‘Dictator Donald’ Accountable?

by doctorads

Well the Doc opened up the old mailbag today and here’s what poured out.

Dear Dr. Ads,

There I was, minding my own business and reading Politico Playbook, when I came across this item about a new ad campaign highlighting Donald Trump’s bromance with authoritarian figures past and present.

The Republican Accountability PAC is rolling out a six-figure ad campaign to take Trump to task, titled “Dictator Donald,” hitting the former president for his recent comment that he wouldn’t be a dictator if he returns to the White House “except for Day One.” The 60-second ad compares Trump to the likes of BENITO MUSSOLINI, HUGO CHÁVEZ, AUGUSTO PINOCHET and Hungarian PM VIKTOR ORBÁN.

In your home for the holidays: The ad will begin running nationally today on CNN and MSNBC. It will also be shown on the Hallmark Channel and during TBS’ “A Christmas Story” marathon in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

That’s some Murderers’ Row Trump is being compared to, eh, Doc? Think the spot might work?

– Christmas Jeer

Dear CJ,

So you’re sitting there watching Catch Me If You Claus when this commercial pops onto your big-screen TV.

Talk about the Ghoul of Christmas Future, eh?

As for how effective the Republican Accountability PAC ad might be, the spot has gotten 164,000 views and 706 comments on YouTube in 48 hours, along with a smattering of press coverage about the group’s six-figure ad buy. (Here’s a list of their donors, via OpenSecrets.)

Then again, anti-Trump ads generally face an uphill battle, as New York Times reporter Jonathan Swan noted several months ago.

A well-funded group of anti-Trump conservatives has sent its donors a remarkably candid memo that reveals how resilient former President Donald J. Trump has been against millions of dollars of negative ads the group deployed against him in two early-voting states.

The political action committee, called Win It Back, has close ties to the influential fiscally conservative group Club for Growth. It has already spent more than $4 million trying to lower Mr. Trump’s support among Republican voters in Iowa and nearly $2 million more trying to damage him in South Carolina.

But in the memo — dated Thursday and obtained by The New York Times — the head of Win It Back PAC, David McIntosh, acknowledges to donors that after extensive testing of more than 40 anti-Trump television ads, “all attempts to undermine his conservative credentials on specific issues were ineffective.”

Of course, an ad campaign depicting Donald Trump as a five-and-dime dictator could conceivably be more effective than accusing him of failing to build a wall at the southern border. And yet . . .

“Even when you show video to Republican primary voters — with complete context — of President Trump saying something otherwise objectionable to primary voters, they find a way to rationalize and dismiss it,” Mr. McIntosh states in the “key learnings” section of the memo.

Regardless, the Republican Accountability PAC ad is a good start.  Let a thousand followers bloom, yeah?

Aren’t the Chris Christie Super PAC Ads Actually Telling It Like It Isn’t?

by doctorads

Well the Doc opened up the old mailbag today and here’s what poured out.

Dear Dr. Ads,

There I was, minding my own business and poking around Politico, when I came across Alex Isenstadt’s piece about Chris Christie kneecapping Nikki Haley in the New Hampshire presidential primary.

Chris Christie has singularly devoted his presidential campaign to tearing down Donald Trump.

But with the start of the primaries just a few weeks away, some top Republicans in New Hampshire say Christie is now positioned to help pave the way for Trump’s nomination by siphoning votes away from Nikki Haley, Trump’s closest-polling competitor in the state.

“Chris Christie is a monumental problem for Nikki Haley,” said Mike Dennehy, a former Republican National committeeman from New Hampshire who is neutral in the race. “They are both currently splitting the Independent vote, and Haley desperately needs those votes if she is to have a chance of knocking off Trump in New Hampshire.”

Drive Haley nuts graf: “Christie advisers said no one has asked the candidate to drop out. And there is no indication he is slowing down either. Tell It Like It Is PAC, a pro-Christie outside group, is running a $3.5 million TV advertising campaign in New Hampshire.”

Three and a half million to prop up a candidate the majority of Republican primary voters totally hate? They’d do better setting their money on fire and posting the video to YouTube. That would probably have a more lasting impact, don’t you think, Doc?

– Fired Up

Dear FU,

Chris Christie is the guest who’s really fun and entertaining until he refuses to leave the dinner party when the clock strikes midnight. Instead, he just keeps banging on about himself, as this press release from the pro-Christie PAC indicates.

With the New Hampshire primary less than six weeks away, and on the heels of a winning debate performance, Tell It Like It Is PAC launched its largest paid media campaign of the cycle in New Hampshire: $3.5 million dollars across broadcast, cable, statewide digital and radio.

Entitled “Unacceptable,” the :30 second spot . . . focuses on not only core policy issues important to New Hampshire voters (inflation and immigration), but also reminds voters of the bold distinction between Governor Christie and the other candidates in the race: the willingness to tell the truth about former President Donald Trump.

Here’s the spot.

Christie might in fact be “the only candidate with the courage to tell the truth and the experience to get it done,” but whatever “it” is most certainly does not include winning New Hampshire, never mind the GOP presidential nomination.

Not with numbers like these (via FiveThirtyEight) in this month’s poll from Saint Anselm College Survey Center . . .

. . . or these from American Research Group (which gets a C+ rating at FiveThirtyEight).

Roll your own from those polls. As for actually telling it like it is, listen to The Bulwark’s publisher Sarah Longwell on The Focus Group Podcast (around 18:19).

When the New York Times called me recently for a story and it was like, lots of people are saying Christie should drop out and like, why don’t you think he is or whatever. And I was like, I got I got all mad and I was like, because time is a flat circle. And everybody insists on playing out the 2016 primary beat for beat exactly like it was back then. And Chris Christie needs to drop out instead of doing what he did to Marco Rubio . . .

He’s just hurting Nikki now. Anything he does, it’s not helping her. I don’t know what he thinks he’s doing. It’s time. It’s time, buddy. Good job. I appreciate what you’ve done, but you’ve got to show now that it is more than your ego at work here and you are ready to actually be helpful to some of these other candidates.

Question is, does Chris Christie have the courage to get that done? Or will he just keep telling it like it isn’t.