And the winner of TheIowaRepublican.com Sweet 16 is....Marco Rubio.
The influential Iowa website Thursday offered its own “brackets” for handicapping the potential Iowa Republican presidential field, and the U.S. senator from Florida came up a winner.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker was seeded first, and Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky was seeded second. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who won the 2008 Iowa Republican caucus, was third, followed by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Rubio.
Huckabee and Rubio make the finals.
“You can complain all that you want that I have a three and five seed in the finals, but this is Iowa, where the underdog tends to win more times than they lose,” explained editor-in-chief Craig Robinson.
“In a Huckabee vs. Rubio final I think Iowans will become enamored with Rubio, a young and dynamic leader who has a positive, uplifting message about the future of America,” he said.
This being 11 months before the caucus, Robinson issued a disclaimer: “We all know that the caucuses are not a series of head-to-head contests between the candidates. As such, my bracket isn’t necessarily how I see things unraveling in the caucuses. There are three candidates I wouldn’t underestimate: Huckabee, Rubio, and Santorum.”
Walker?
“Scott Walker is all the rage at the moment, or at least he has been for the past few months,” Robinson wrote. “It will be interesting to see if he can maintain his standing in the race or if he falls back with the rest of the field. If either Walker or Bush falter in Iowa, it creates an opening for Rubio, who might be the most gifted politician in the entire field.
“He’s a guy who could take off like a rocket and never look back. Sounds a lot like his 2010 U.S. Senate campaign, doesn’t it?”