There were 147 delegates at stake in the four states -- Michigan, Mississippi, Hawaii and Idaho -- that cast votes in the Republican presidential race on Tuesday. Marco Rubio won one. No, not one state. One delegate. Or, put another way, 0.6 percent of all of the available delegates.
Not good. Especially considering that Rubio was hoping this week would position him as a real contender to knock off Donald Trump in Florida's winner-take-all primary on March 15. Now Rubio is looking to his home state's vote this coming Tuesday less as a chance to position himself for the race to come against Trump than as a sort of swan song for his presidential campaign.
And, unfortunately for Rubio, polling suggests that he's an underdog in the state that launched his political career.
Rubio allies insist that he can win the state -- with private polling showing him closer to Trump than the public stuff. Maybe. But even if Rubio wins Florida and its 99 delegates, he will still trail Trump and Ted Cruz in the delegate count, and there won't be a whole lot of obvious states left on the calendar where Rubio would be favored. (He's won only two contests to date: the Minnesota caucuses and the Puerto Rico primary.)
The obituary of Rubio's campaign was largely self-authored. On the eve of the New Hampshire primary, Rubio looked poised to finish second to Trump and turn the race into a three-way contest involving him, the real estate mogul and Cruz, where Rubio would be positioned as the clear establishment favorite. But, Rubio's robotic debate performance badly weakened him and left him in fifth in New Hampshire.
Then, as February turned to March, Rubio and his team decided that the only path past Trump was to go after him on things like his allegedly small hands and other personal matters. It totally backfired, as Rubio's sunny conservatism turned dark -- and voters responded by handing him three thirds and a fourth in the March 8 contests.
Marco Rubio, for getting one more delegate than me on Tuesday, you had the Worst Week in Washington. Congrats, or something.
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