Posted on 01/17/2016 9:33:07 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
I do not just observe and write about politics. I got elected to office and prior to that managed and consulted on campaigns. I have read just about every campaign book out there. I have gone to campaign management school. I have interviewed campaign strategists. I have helped shape polling, advertising, opposition research, etc.
What Ted Cruz has just started doing to Donald Trump is a master class campaign performance. It is the model textbook example of when and how to attack.
Cruz, for six months, said nothing but kind words about Donald Trump. Every time Trump even offhandedly suggested something critical of Cruz, Cruz just laughed it off and gave Trump a pass.
For six months, as other candidates attacked Trump, Cruz stood shoulder to shoulder with Trump. It annoyed and pissed off a lot of people, but every poll out there shows it also had the effect of making Cruz the second choice for Trump's voters and Carson's voters.
As Carson declined, Cruz began rising further still. He held his fire. He kept laughing off Trump, defending Trump, and blaming the establishment. Cruz never took the bait, never got off message, deflected where he must, and kept building up his ground game while other candidates engaged Trump and spent days going off message squabbling in the press with Trump.
Suddenly Cruz found himself number one in Iowa. He also found himself number one in favorability among Republican voters.
When Donald Trump began attacking Ted Cruz, he was no longer attacking just anybody. Trump suddenly found himself attacking the most popular Republican in the field -- a position Trump was holding when former Presidential candidates were attacking him.
When Cruz finally responded, Cruz was responding, not initiating an attack. That plays well in voter psychology. They're better with a candidate defending himself than starting an attack. More importantly, voters are willing to give the candidate with the highest favorability a pass they will not give others.
This is just a model, textbook attack from Cruz.
There are lots and lots of people who think Cruz cannot win a general election. They should look at his thus far perfect campaign strategy and think again. He has stayed on message, stayed focused, and struck at the perfect time with perfect favorability.
Like him or not, it is impressive -- the more so because he is not using a bunch of Washington consultants who get on television as experts to run his campaign and make these plays.
Erick Erickson will be bashing Cruz two days from now. I can’t stand listening to him. He had already counted him out last week. I saw him pull this same crap in 2012.
Cruz let Trump take the heat. All the shots were fired at Trump over the big wall, stopping Muslim immigration, etc.
Trump took the heat. Cruz picked up the ideas.
It was a brilliantly run campaign. I’m just sad it’s all out war now as I like both candidates and feel they play a vital role in the future of our party.
I cannot help but believe, particularly on the social issues, that Trump is fake. I know Cruz is real—especially on those issues.
Trump is very likely to fall back on all his NYC friends once he gets in office—and we’ll have liberal NE Republicans (and even Democrats) running the administration.....
From my perspective, it is Trump that has been absolutely strategic. It would not surprise me if Trump ran as a write in candidate on the Dem ticket in New Hampshire just to create more chaos between Bernie and Hillary.
I will say that if it’s strategic to vet all your garbage early and make it old news, Cruz is doing an excellent job. Between the Goldman Sachs, Canadian Citizenship until a few months ago, question if he is a “naturalized Citizen” ......... I hope he has no more surprises in his closet to pop up in the heat of intense battle!!!
I am still open in my own decision. I like Cruz. I admire Trump’s strategic thinking as he is often dumb like a fox. But I do not trust the purity of Trump’s motives enough to trust him. I’ve read his biography and studied his work... Absolutely the most brilliant strategic person I have ever observed. But is his loyalty to himself or the people in the USA?
Nothing like hearing from Erik the Red
In about a month, Erickson will be hoping that people forget he ever wrote this article. His thesis is already being disproven. Trump is disproving all the rules on what works and what doesn’t and he’s writing new rules that others never even thought of before.
Not exactly. I heard him say in a speech he will bring in millionaire friends to help him run the government. He did not say what party they would be - just millionaires. His cabinet will be a regal affair of millionaires. The oval office will likely be plated in gold as are his home and plane fixtures. Royalty will have arrived.
TigerClaws said: I’m just sad it’s all out war now as I like both candidates and feel they play a vital role in the future of our party.
I would change that to: “. . . they play a vital role in the future of our REPUBLIC.”
Oldplayer
you do know that Reagan brought a boatload of his brilliant millionaire business friends to Washington DC with him to run the government and it worked out pretty damned good,, Ted has no friends
I’m sad we are seeing no proportionality from Trump. His attacks against Cruz’s modest advantage in Iowa are sized to destroy not weaken. A guy he treated as an ally for three months is now his hourly discussion topic as disgusting. He has no reverse gear or sensible moderation.
I wonder will he get that disgusted with conservatives in general at some point.
did you see the straw poll in Iowa yesterday?.. yeah Rand Paul beats Cruz
that’s paddy cake brother.. do you remember the Bush/McCain battle in 2000?.. black babies and all that?
Cruz should have hit Trump long ago and that bad decision has hurt him big time.. sometimes you make bad decisions and you pay for it big time.. just look at last year’s Superbowl, trying to run two more laps in the Daytona 500 without topping your tank or trying to eek out another hundred miles on 2 gallons of gas in your Cessna 150
Perhaps we should dig up and apologize to George III.
Better yet, he’s far and away the best conservative in the field, much to the chagrin of heretofore ‘conservative’ Freepers.
You said what I had been thinking since Trump kept pointing out that he is beholden to no one due to self funding. I thought he was going to be beholden to the North East crowd who are his friends and helped him get where he is.
I don’t see him being so in love with the average person that he is going to risk hitting the bottom line of his friends.
Unfortunately economics is not a total zero sum game. You get lower gas prices, people get laid off in the energy field and energy sector takes a hit.
If you try to get all that overseas corporate money coming back to the US, other countries will sweeten the pot for that money to stay put. Not like corporate heads at Apple, Facebook and Microsoft are loyal to the US anymore. They go for the best offer.
Yes, with his big ego, Trump is beholden to people, just not the usual suspects.
It's no surprise EE the political consultant likes Cruz. The cash from Cruz's campaign fattens the lifestyle of EE's caste.
Talk about a conflict of interest.
"Down with the one percent!" /sarcasm
No I didn’t!!
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