Posted on 03/23/2015 5:02:01 AM PDT by LeoMcNeil
Ted Cruz is set to announce is candidacy for President of the United States. Rand Paul is apparently going to announce early next month before going on a campaign tour. Until today technically the only candidate was Jeb Bush, who announced late last year his intentions. At the time everyone thought that Bush was going to force everyone else to declare their candidacy early. It doesn’t appear that has happened, Cruz and Paul have appeared in no rush to make a formal announcement. Scott Walker, perhaps the front runner in the race, still hasn’t formally announced his candidacy and there’s no telling when he might do so.
A formal announcement at this point is nothing more than a trivial formality. Cruz, Paul and Walker have been campaigning and engaging in the sort of activities one engages in when running for President. They’ve been doing this for months, arguably since the midterm elections. There has never been any doubt that Cruz, Paul and Walker were going to run. There’s little doubt that Marco Rubio, Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum will be running. The legal distinction between an exploratory committee and a campaign committee may matter to the FEC but in the political world it doesn’t matter at all. The 2016 primary season has been under way for some time, the only people who disagree are the paper pushers in the Federal government.
There is one consistent thing about the slate of 99% certain to run candidates. All but one of them is a conservative, either appealing to Christian evangelicals, Tea Party conservatives or Tea Party libertarians. Bush being the lone exception, it is without question that he has the support of the establishment moderate wing of the party. In fact, Bush has been openly hostile to conservatives on the campaign trail. The problem for conservatives is that this election is shaping up just like 2008 and 2012. There are too many conservatives running and only one establishment moderate. In a lust for power, half a dozen or more conservatives are willing to sacrifice the country in a vain attempt to obtain power for themselves.
Some of these people shouldn’t even run. In fact, they should step back and act as kingmakers. The endorsement of someone like Mike Huckabee would significantly help one of the other conservative candidates. Huckabee doesn’t have what it takes to win the nomination. He hasn’t been in office in years, he’s selling magic pills for diabetes on the internet wherein he looks like a rabid snake oil salesman. Nevertheless, he has a loyal base that likely would vote for whoever he endorses. There’s power in king making, a lot more than losing a race for President at Huckabee’s age. We could say the same thing about Rick Santorum. He hasn’t been in office in nearly a decade, he got annihilated the last time he ran for US Senate. He was the conservative of last resort against Romney in 2012, he really wasn’t a good candidate. Yet he’s likely to cater to his own vanity and run in 2016, further diluting the conservative vote. Bush must be thrilled.
At least Cruz and Paul have more base support than Huckabee and Santorum. Having said that, do Republicans really believe the country is going to elect a first term Senator again? Obama didn’t exactly work out very well and while Cruz and Paul are obviously better than Obama, most of the country have no idea who these two Senators are or where they come from. In the last century our country has only elected a sitting Senator twice and only one of those times did a sitting Senator defeat a candidate with executive experience. Kennedy’s victory over Vice President Nixon in 1960 was the lone exception, otherwise this country has elected Governors or Vice Presidents. In other words, the country has a tendency to elect men with executive experience. While Cruz is magnificent on any number of issues, he’s going to have a very difficult time convincing people that a first term Senator should be the Commander in Chief. Especially after eight years of Obama. Paul has the same problem. If only we could get rid of some of these candidates, Jeb Bush could be defeated. Unfortunately this is unlikely to happen.
The headline states Too Many Conservatives Running In 2016 Primary; Who else has declared they are running yet? Get it now?
Two is too many?
They are "getting things done" in congress, but few of them are GOOD things! A President Cruz would spend most of a first term rolling back the harm done over the prior eight years.
“do Republicans really believe the country is going to elect a first term Senator again? Obama didn’t exactly work out very well and while Cruz and Paul are obviously better than Obama, most of the country have no idea who these two Senators are or where they come from.”
Of course the only thing that matters is that Cruz is a first term Senator, like Obama. The fact that Obama is a fascist and Cruz a REAL conservative doesn’t matter.
The naysayers are out already.
Cruz not only scares the liberals, but the RINOs are quaking too.
BTW, I disagree that there are too many conservatives in the field. I see only one, maybe two. There are too many RINOs running.
“Cruz and Walker split the conservative vote. Jeb rolls in on the GOPe Express. Brilliant!”
So vote for the only anti-amnesty candidate and we will have a conservative president.
Cruz had both sides terrified. Expect much mire of this.
“You demonstrate part of the problem with the conservative vote. It’s Ted Cruz or no one for you, all the others are conservative heretics.”
Cruz is the ONLY conservative running so your premise is wrong.
Straw man alert!
The same way it did in 2000 — the true conservatives split their votes and we didn’t get what we wanted.
“I lean towards supporting Walker...”
Aww, that’s why you are here.
Nope, I will never vote for a pro-amnesty candidate. Never. I had to up and move out of a state ruined by illegals. It is my mission to inform everyone I meet about how amnesty and illegals will ruin the beautiful state I’m in and the quality of American life we enjoy here.
And a election-eve conversion doesn’t fool me. One either respects our laws or they don’t.
“In a battle such as we face now with liberals, government as a self perpetuating entity and the evil that surrounds them, perhaps what we need are the true of heart, the expertise to express it, and the determination to actually do what they promise.”
Well put.
The same way it did in 2000 — the true conservatives split their votes and we didn’t get what we wanted.
___________________________________________
We didn’t?? You mean we wanted Al Gore?
In retrospect, Bush was a marginal conservative. At best. But he was better than any dem.
Back to my point: Having a field of conservatives is a good thing. Did we have too many conservatives in ‘08 and ‘12 running?
No. We. Did. Not.
“There are a few issues that are deal-breakers for me. Amnesty is one of them.”
Me too. I escaped a state ruined by illegals, at a loss of income and money. It was well worth it, though. But I’ll be damned if I ever vote for anyone who advocates ruining the entire country.
I’ve been on FR for a year posting on any number of topics. I’m not here to troll for Walker or any candidate.
It’s absurd to believe Cruz is the only conservative running. In fact, it’s objectively false.
Do we want a President that is successful in governing from a conservative standpoint or do we want a President who is right on all the issues but has no idea how to govern? I will grant that Cruz has all the right viewpoints. However what evidence is there that he can be successful as President? He has no executive governing experience. He has as little legislative experience as Obama did in 2007. He has just as many accomplishments as Obama did in 2007 in the Senate: Zero. That’s not a knock on Cruz, it’s just a statement of fact. We don’t know whether he has what it takes to be successful as President because he has no experience. It seems to me this election is too important to risk on someone as inexperienced as Obama.
-—The only conservative that I see is Ted Cruz.——
I think you might want to see an eye doctor...
So if Cruz doesn’t win the nomination, you plan to vote for Hillary by sitting 2016 out..?
The legal distinction between setting up a Presidential exploratory committee and formally announcing a run for President is nothing more than a legal fiction. Cruz and Bush are the only two who have formally announced, the others have set up exploratory committees. Can anyone tell the difference between the two states of campaign being? Of course not.
How quickly the forget who swept the country last November. You really can’t fix stupid. The party has to stand for something different from the rats Or why bother?
How would Cruz roll back the harm done by Obama? I understand Cruz would likely roll back many of Obama’s more absurd regulations. What’s he going to do legislatively? How is he going to convince his own party to repeal Obamacare? Presumably he’ll have to offer some sort of replacement, if only because the liberal end of the party will demand as such. What is that going to look like and will he be able to get it through Congress? I can almost guarantee by summer 2017 if Cruz is elected there will be dozens of people here on FR calling him a sellout and a turncoat because he’s going to be forced to compromise on some piece of legislation despite having a Republican Congress.
Obama did the same thing in 2009-2010, remember he wanted single payer socialist healthcare, not Obamacare. He wanted more significant Wall Street regulations, he was forced to compromise. He wasn’t able to pass amnesty, he wasn’t able to pass Cap & Trade, he wasn’t able to pass a massive tax hike, he was forced to compromise on his Stimulus bill etc. One of the main reasons why Obama wasn’t successful his first two years is because he was inexperienced. He didn’t have any executive experience and because he hardly spent any time in the Senate he had no real relationships there and he didn’t have a feel for how things worked in Congress. You don’t want to hear it but Cruz is in the same position.
My vote goes to the conservative.The GOPe only runs sellout republicans.Wise up POPS.
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