In fact, heвЂ™ll need to improve on it the party awards its delegates proportionately, so narrow victories do little to improve his relative standing where it matters, in votes at the national convention.

ClintonвЂ™s strength among older voters and African-Americans should make for easy wins in Florida and North Carolina, so Sanders will have to duplicate his Michigan Miracle in at least two of the remaining states. If Bernie Sanders has a realistic chance of becoming the Democratic nominee, we should know it by the time the votes are counted tonight. Best shot: Missouri, where Trump led by just 7 points in the most recent polling. Cruz will need to show strength beyond the mostly rural Western states, where he has won most of his delegates so far.

If both Rubio and Kasich are effectively eliminated today, TrumpвЂ™s margins will be scrutinized closely for clues to the race going forward. In all of them, Trump holds significant, although not overwhelming, leads, with Cruz in second place. The other three states voting award their delegates by some formula, so are less likely to be decisive - and have attracted less polling and attention from the candidates. Watch for: Establishment Republicans parachuting in to climb onstage with Kasich. Mitt Romney, the leader by default of the effort to stop Trump, has been campaigning with Kasich, although he wonвЂ™t make an endorsement until after the smoke clears tonight. Rubio is hoping for the same thing, which is why his campaign has thrown in the towel on Ohio and is calling on voters there to support the governor. His only hope for the nomination is as part of an anti-Trump coalition at the national convention. (Photo: Matt Rourke/AP)Д®ven a victory there would leave Kasich far behind in the delegate count, however. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and his daughters, Emma, center left, and Reese Kasich, his wife, Karen, and former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, right, at Westerville Central High School in Westerville, Ohio, on Monday. John Kasich of Ohio, left, is joined onstage by Sen. But Virginia and Michigan were seeing those candidates for the first time Rubio has been in Florida politics since the late 1990s and is certainly a known quantity to Florida voters. More promisingly, in Virginia, Rubio managed in two days to come from 15 points down in the polling to within three points of Trump. Polls, of course, can be wrong - as they were, spectacularly, in Michigan, where Sanders eked out a 1.5 percent margin after surveys taken just days before the vote showed him trailing by as much as 27 points.

(Rubio has won just three contests, including, on Saturday, the Washington, D.C., Republican caucus, virtually the definition of a Pyrrhic victory.) Marco Rubio, who until a few weeks ago was widely considered TrumpвЂ™s most plausible challenger, is now fighting for his life in his home state of Florida, where Trump has led in every poll taken since last July - most recently by around 20 points. The question is into whose hands the tattered banner of Not-Trump will fall. Here are some things to watch for as the results come in: TodayвЂ™s voting should give an indication of whether Sanders is strong enough to win. But following her startling defeat in Michigan last week, Clinton could, in fact, lose. On the Democratic side, the nomination is, and almost surely will still be tomorrow, Hillary ClintonвЂ™s to lose. But by the end of the evening, if he wins all five states - and polls say itвЂ™s possible - he will have put away two of his three remaining rivals, and substantially widened his lead over the one left standing. The audiences at his victory parties-cum-press conferences are limited to supporters and the media, and the events typically find the candidate on his best behavior. But this time, one, or potentially both, nominations could be all but sealed by the end of the night.ДЄs usual, all eyes will be on Donald Trump, because, really, who can look away? The edgy rage and sporadic violence that has characterized his rallies over the past week wonвЂ™t be in evidence when he takes the podium tonight at his Palm Beach resort club, Mar-a-Lago. Some newscasts are calling today Super Tuesday, and your memory isnвЂ™t playing tricks on you if youвЂ™re thinking, DidnвЂ™t we just have one of those? Today, when voters go to the polls in five big states - Florida, Illinois, Ohio, Missouri and North Carolina - marks the second crucial, all-important, potentially decisive primary day in two weeks.

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