The big political news this morning comes via Drudge in the new Quinnipiac poll that is posted here. Quinnipiac notes that it conducted its survey over the period February 10-15. Donald Trump’s outrageous performance at the South Carolina debate on the evening of February 13 is therefore not fully factored into this poll. As of the dates covered by this poll, Trump continues to surge.

Quinnipiac provides this summary of the results on the Republican side:

The Donald Trump juggernaut rolls to a 2-1 lead among Republican voters nationwide, with 39 percent, his highest total so far, followed by Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida with 19 percent and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas with 18 percent, according to a Quinnipiac University National poll released today. Ohio Gov. John Kasich has 6 percent with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Dr. Ben Carson at 4 percent each. Nine percent are undecided. This compares to the results of a February 5 survey by the independent Quinnipiac University, showing Trump with 31 percent, Cruz with 22 percent and Rubio with 19 percent…. The top three Republicans are closely matched in terms of voter opinion as Trump gets a 62 – 31 percent favorability among Republicans, with 64 – 17 percent for Rubio and 62 – 23 percent for Cruz.

I thought Trump’s performance in the Republican debate in South Carolina hosted by CBS News this past Saturday night disqualified Trump as the standard-bearer of the Republican Party. He continues to benefit from a splintered field. In my view, Jeb Bush, John Kasich, and Ben Carson need to remove themselves from the race as soon as possible. A three-way race may still be to Trump’s advantage, but he should not have the benefit of five opponents.

What about the Dems? “For many months, I’ve been strongly in favor of Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary,” Senator Cotton joked in a year-end interview. At last night’s Minnesota GOP Lincoln-Reagan dinner, Senator Cotton reiterated his endorsement of Bernie Sanders on the Democratic side. Dems appear to falling into line behind Senator Cotton’s endorsement of Sanders:

In the Democratic race nationwide, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has 44 percent, with Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont at 42 percent, and 11 percent undecided, unchanged from February 5.

The linked Quinnipiac poll includes much else of interest. Interested readers will want to take a look at the whole thing here.