By Britt Nelson

Say goodbye to Republican candidates for president — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Hulett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorino.  Both Christie and Fiorino fled the race after serious losses in the New Hampshire primary Feb. 9. But Christie may reappear as the vice-presidential running mate for Republican billionaire and real estate king Donald J. Trump, of New York.

For their 6^th debate on Feb. 11, Democrats Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton sparred over the same issues — from previous debates  — as they took questions from PBS moderators. Their debate from Milwaukee, Wisconsin was uninspiring, contained little or no new information and it scored low in TV ratings.

Clinton is facing serious issues regarding her character and trust worthiness.  She keeps saying the same response when asked about these problems that she “never sent or received” top-secret information on her private email server.

The on-going FBI investigation swirling around Clinton’s use of private email and a private internet server is costing her dearly. She lost the New Hampshire primary by 22 points to Sanders scoring only with women voters aged 65 and older. New revelations seem to break daily on USA national news. The scope of the FBI investigation is widening to include additional members of her former staff — while Clinton was secretary of state under the Obama administration — that handled sensitive top-secret government information in a careless and potentially law-breaking manner. If the FBI recommends an indictment of Clinton to the U.S. Department of Justice, she is toast.

Jeffrey Toobin, in an August 2015 article in the New Yorker magazine wrote that “It’s not only the public who cannot know the extent or content of government secrecy. Realistically, government officials can’t know either—and this is Hillary Clinton’s problem.”

Sanders, meanwhile, is capturing young voters and he’s calling himself — during the latest debate — the new Franklin D. Roosevelt, who served as president of the United States from 1933 to 1945 longer than any other president in American history. A Democrat, Roosevelt won a record four presidential elections and dominated his party for many years as a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic depression and total war. After Roosevelt died in office in 1945 — before the end of World War II — presidents have been limited to two, four-year terms in office.

Citizen turnouts for Sanders’ political rallies remains huge and the following statement explains a lot about his growing popularity among young people and minorities:

“We are going to create millions of jobs for low-income kids so they’re not hanging out on street corners,” Sanders said in a CNN report. “We’re going to make sure that those kids stay in school or are able get a college education. So I think that when you give low-income kids, African-American, white, Latino kids, the opportunities to get their lives together, they are not going to end up in jail. They’re going to end up in the productive economy, which is where we want them.”

Part of Sanders’ platform also includes a plan to provide free tuition, for high school graduates, to public colleges and universities across the USA.

The next Republican debate is set for Saturday, Feb. 13 at 9 pm ET, in Greenville, South Carolina, sponsored by CBS News.

Voter attention is now focusing on the upcoming split South Carolina primary on Feb. 20 for Republicans and Feb. 27 for Democrats.

According to poll averages reported by Real Clear Politics for the South Carolina primaries , Republican Trump is ahead of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz 36 percent to 19 percent, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio is at 12 percent and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is at 10 percent. Democrat Clinton is way ahead of Sanders 62 percent to 32 percent.

The South Carolina split primary has a long reputation for “bare-knuckle politics” and “dirty tricks” so at this point anything can happen.