It's Monday, January 22nd, 2024.

I'm Albert Moller and this is the briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview.

And then there were two.

Two major candidates for the Republican presidential nomination in

2004, that is.

But in reality, it's one candidate and one other candidate.

Because one candidate, former President Donald Trump, is zeroing in on a commanding lead

in the Republican nomination process, and there's an important historical

pattern to keep in mind here.

And that is that no candidate in recent Republican primary history who has won the Iowa

Caucasus and then has won the New Hampshire

primary has been denied the nomination. That's a very interesting historical

pattern by the way the same thing does not pertain on the Democratic side.

But on the Republican side there are two the former

president and former South Carolina governor and former U.S. ambassador to the

United Nations, Nicky Haley. Now according to some polling and composite polling is hard to find over the weekend

It looks like Nicky Haley is running over 30% some as high as 39% but Donald Trump is holding fast at about 50% or a little greater than 50%.

But the big news going into the weekend is not really about who's running,

but who's not. And who's not is former Governor Ron Desantis, who's not and who's not is former governor Ron Desantis who suspended his campaign

that's a little bit different than ending a campaign and by the way that's a legal

technicality because in suspending a campaign at least in theory you can pick it back up that's not likely to happen there's no momentum once you suspend a campaign

But you are allowed to continue to function as a candidate in legal terms with some fundraising issues

...