New Hampshire is the last chance for Chris Christie, Jeb Bush, and John Kasich to break into this race, and Christie is throwing down the gauntlet hard. Interestingly, he’s ignoring Ted Cruz and Donald Trump but has the knives out for Marco Rubio big time:

“It’s time for him to man up and step up and stop letting all of his handlers write his speeches and handle him,” Christie said. “If he wants to sit here and answer your tough questions about his flip-flops on immigration, if he wants to answer your tough questions about his lack of record and experience, if he wants to answer your questions about why he ran away from his own immigration bill when it got too hot, I’m fascinated to hear his answers.”

Rubio’s response is to highlight Christie’s record as a blue state governor — note once again the role Common Core is playing:

Rubio campaign spokesman Joe Pounder issued a written response to Christie thunder: “No amount of hot air or made-up facts can distract from Chris Christie’s liberal record of supporting Common Core, gun control, abortion rights, Planned Parenthood, and Obama’s liberal judicial picks. Marco is the only candidate who can unite conservatives and beat Hillary Clinton.”

This is the last stand for a lot of men formerly considered potential front runners: Bush, Christie, Kasich.

How they make their stand in New Hampshire, with just a week to move up, is going to be fascinating.

Maggie Gallagher is a senior fellow at the American Principles Project.