Posted on 02/06/2016 7:38:29 AM PST by conservativejoy
On Wednesday I was a little hard on the Cruz campaign. In fact I did something I accused his campaign of doing - not fully checking the background of a story before putting it out there.
I'm speaking of the Iowa Caucus and the ensuing firestorm caused by the spread of a rumor that Dr. Carson was hanging it up after Iowa. The Donald is so upset over losing to Ted Cruz that he wants a mulligan - a do-over, like what you get when you're five. He's now saying it's not his fault he lost. What a child.
How does that even make any sense, other than to assume that every voter who baled on Carson went directly to Cruz, bypassing both Trump and Rubio? And has anyone seen any statistics of Caucus-goers abandoning Carson in droves? I haven't. It defies logic - but then most of what Trump has been doing lately defies logic.
If you happen to be a WWE or UFC fan, the upcoming Saturday night Republican debate in New Hampshire is likely to look familiar. It's going to be a bloodbath and everyone on the stage is will be targeting Cruz because of this. He had better be well prepared with the facts and the timeline of events surrounding this Carson dropping out rumor. He will pay a price if he's not fully prepared. I have confidence he will be, but it will likely not matter to the other candidates, or the so-called moderators. We'll just see if they keep a handle on things or stoke the fires of discontent, which is more likely, being that everyone except the voters hate Cruz and would love to take him out.
So, in short, I was wrong to jump on Cruz and his staff so prematurely. I now recant my criticism of Senator Cruz and his campaign staff - and here's the reason why. Many of you may already know this, but I feel compelled to right my own wrong.
On Wednesday, Trevor Loudon posted the timeline of events that led to the misunderstanding. And that's exactly what it was - a terrible misunderstanding. And the way things look now for the Carson campaign with staff be slashed and leaving for greener pastures, these folks may indeed know something we don't.
"Evidently, a damaging 'rumor' that Dr. Ben Carson was suspending his campaign started during a Monday broadcast on CNN at around 7:43 pm est, while the Iowa caucus was in full swing," the post explained. "The 'rumor' led to Cruz campaign staffers informing their precinct captains that they should urge caucus-goers to vote for Ted Cruz. The Cruz camp, along with many other media sources had the same impression." (emphasis added)
A Business Insider report was even posted and later updated with the link that read "businessinsider.com/ben-carson-campaign-suspension.."
At the time, even Larry Ross, Carson's communication director, was not blaming the Cruz people as he wrote: "Contrary to false media reports, Dr. Ben Carson is not suspending his presidential campaign.." Yes, they were blaming the media for this - not Cruz's staff.
This is when Twitter blew up, as Ken Shepard of Newsbusters, Chris Moody of CNN, Kaylee Kreider, former Al Gore aid and others tweeted how curious it was that Carson was going home to Florida instead of heading to N.H. or S.C. These tweets came in around 7:44 that evening. At 7:57 Laura Shupe of the Rand Paul campaign tweeted, "Word on the street Ben Carson done!Grab them voters!!!Look at @CNN."
By this point, the rumor had developed wings. It wasn't until 8:20 PM that Steve King, national co-chair of the Cruz campaign, tweeted that, "Carson looks like he is out. Iowans need to know before they vote. Most will go to Cruz, I hope.
It appears that Cruz himself got wind of this after the dust had settled and the Carson people had set the record straight. It was then that Cruz said what his team, upon learning what had happened, "should have done was send around the follow-up statement from the Carson campaign clarifying that he was indeed staying in the race when that came out."
Anyone with an ounce of honesty will see this was a misunderstanding - and that's it. But in politics, honesty is in short supply.
As Loudon said: "Basically, the Cruz team should have known better than to trust the media." Amen to that! Yet to me, the whole thing with Carson just seems very odd. I think there is something going on here and we may find out next week.
Rational. Throw this article out. /s
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Fox/s Greta V/S is not a Carson supporter.....but she went ballistic when she reported on the Cruz campaign/s intellectually facile response to his critics. ...claiming they used Carson/s own resignations words....when no such words exist.
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.....reports indicate that the schemers who did this were hired PRECISELY by Cruz b/c they did it before. That Cruz keeps them on his payroll, suggests the report is accurate.
Nice take. The evidence is all there for a criminal complaint. Cruz was caught w/ his pants down.
Cruz got victory without triumph.
“Setting the record straight”.
That’s what lying politicians always call it. Just ask Hillary about Benghazi....
But please don’t stop “correcting” - the longer this story stays alive the better we like it. Keep telling us how a politician didn’t lie and his campaign didn’t pull a dirty trick. People love hearing that stuff! Never stop setting the record straight!
Your post is false. The Cruz campaign reported the CNN breaking news report. You don’t announce that someone has gone home to do laundry in breaking news.
They reported that Carson was going home to Florida and had no plans to go on to New Hampshire and South Carolina.
As of right now, that report has proven to be accurate. Carson has not held a single primary event since he left Iowa Monday night.
Every commentator that looked at this, including Bret Baier and Brit Hume said they had interpreted the CNN story the same way the Cruz campaign did. No campaign that is serious about winning an election behaves this way, as CNN’s Dana Bash pointed out as they were breaking the story.
There are rational people who can read facts and be reasonable. They aren’t the ones supporting a fowl mouthed, bipolar candidate, but we’ll concentrate on the other two thirds of voters.
You might as well give it a rest.
You are trying to rationalize with people that Gruber correctly called “stupid”.
They are not too ignorant to know it’s all a lie, they know it’s all a lie but are too stupid to care so they repeat the lie.
No different than the stupid “hands up don’t shoot” crowd.
Good analogy. I just think of them as “wrestling fans”.
” I just think of them as “wrestling fansâ€.”
Very well put.
Well said.
Some people don’t care about the truth. They just want trump to win even if he lies. I was watching CNN when they alluded Carson was going home not to NH or SC. After saying this they said Carson was making a statement at 9:00. Here the transcript and the video.
Here is what the video said
RE: Cruz’s people took that speculation and passed it along as fact. That’s lying.
From your YOUTUBE VIDEO:
During CNN’s wall-to-wall coverage of the Iowa caucuses, Dana Bash shared breaking news from reporter Chris Moody that Carson would return home to Florida after the contest.
“Ben Carson is going to go back to Florida, to his home, regardless of how he does tonight here in Iowa. He’s going to go there for several days, and then afterwards, he’s not going to go to South Carolina, he’s not going to go to New Hampshire, he’s going to come to Washington D.C., and he’s going to do that because the National Prayer Breakfast is on Thursday,†she said.
NN’s Jake Tapper called the announcement from Carson “very unusual†and noted “almost every single candidate†would travel directly to New Hampshire after the caucuses.
“If you want to be President of the United States, you don’t go home to Florida,†Bash responded.
On Twitter, @TheLeadCNN told its 32,000 followers that Carson “will return to FL following #IAcaucus, will not go to either NH or SC.†The account for CNN’s politics section tweeted to 420,000 followers that the retired neurosurgeon “plans to take a break from campaigning.â€ÂÂ
7:50 p.m.: Carson camp clarifies he just has to go home for “fresh clothesâ€ÂÂ
Shortly before 8 p.m., a Carson spokesman tweeted the candidate was “not standing down†and was simply returning to Florida to “get fresh clothes†and dodge a winter storm in Iowa. The spokesman told TPM Carson would be in D.C. Wednesday and Thursday for a “campaign event,†and then would continue on to New Hampshire.
The campaign also disputed rumors that Carson’s trip to Florida was a mid-campaign vacation, which many read as a sign he would drop out.
Just as the Iowa caucuses were beginning, some users of the Cruz campaign’s official mobile app received a notification saying Carson was dropping out of the presidential race. The notification cited a report from CNN.
The alert said Carson “will stop campaigning after Iowa†and urged users to tell people at the caucuses “they should coalesce around the true conservative who will be in the race for the long haul: TED CRUZ!â€ÂÂ
It also included a photo of a TV tuned to CNN, showing the network’s ever-present “BREAKING NEWS†banner paired with the headline “Campaign: Carson To Take A Break After Iowa.â€ÂÂ
QUESTION: Was this an intent to LIE? Or was this simply repeating in a somewhat different wording, what CNN Originally reported?
This is what the Cruz campaign wrote: “CNN is reporting that Ben Carson will stop campaigning after Iowa....â€ÂÂ
How different is the above from this original CNN tweet:
“Ben Carson is going to go back to Florida, to his home, regardless of how he does tonight here in Iowa. He’s going to go there for several days, and then afterwards, he’s not going to go to South Carolina, he’s not going to go to New Hampshire....�
The wording is different but the idea is the same.
CNN was the source of this and the Cruz campaign simply repeated what CNN said.
Sorry about the jargon. I cut and pasted it and it changed. Just look at the video which tells the truth.
This website will get rid of the crazy “smart quotes”.
Copy & paste.
Copy & paste again to FR.
http://dan.hersam.com/tools/smart-quotes.html
Lol, the record will not be set straight by Red State.
This was not from Red State.
We’ve been so deluged with drivel from Red State, I just glanced at the source for this one after realizing it was just another excuse making attempt for the Cruz campaign’s lack of ethical standards. When they saw something they could misinterpret for their benefit, they jumped feet first, several of them did.
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