Posted on 01/03/2016 3:48:53 AM PST by BigEdLB
Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are locking horns in a few early voting states, but when it comes to states that vote later in the season, Trump seems to have a noticeable advantage. He leads among likely Missouri Republican primary voters 36-24%, with Marco Rubio not too far behind tallying 18%.
(Excerpt) Read more at overtimepolitics.com ...
IBPD
The gap keeps shrinking. People are beginning to pay attention. When Carson drops out the gap will close completely. Hopefully that will be sooner rather than later.
Good thing for Donald Trump that this election won’t be decided by the early states.
Call me a nut or whatever. I want Cruz in there for 16 years.
Agreed!! Together they are already above 50%. Why would we want to do the first term Senator thing again?
But keep grasping that straw!
Later states are difficult to predict based on polls. There are many people that are still not paying much attention and floating in the wind with Trump who seems to have the wind at his back.
Trump, while a 2nd or 3rd showing in IOWA wouldn’t be a disaster, he will draw some media and GOPE and Progressive HA HA! That ridicule will likely sap some strength from him and tighten up the later races, should he get an early string of ‘not placing first’ then his campaign is in jeopardy of collapsing.
New Hampshire February 9th is important, but South Carolina February 20th is the firewall. If that gets knocked down, the barbarians over run the Trump campaign and he’s toast coming March 1st Super Tuesday.
Conventional Wisdom says Trump will not come in first in IOWA. It’s just the nature of a caucus. Trump needs to place good, and follow up with a resounding win with New Hampshire, then South Carolina. When that happens, all hell breaks loose and Trump has a historic Super Tuesday all but signing the deal for his Presidency.
Pray for Trump. Keep him going with his unconventional campaign methods and keep telling it like it is.
Lincoln was a one term congressman, nothing else.
Trump entered the race with name recognition of nearly 100 percent. Ted Cruz is close in states with early caucuses and primaries because he is having to spend money and time in those states to increase his name recognition. Polls in states where Cruz has spent little time and money mean nothing at this point in the campaign. If Cruz wins a couple of early states, the gap between Trump and him will shrink immediately.
By the time they vote in Missouri that field may be down to just 3 candidates.
Although I like Cruz, I just don’t see him getting the number of Democrat and Independent votes in the general election that Trump will. Anyway, it’s going to get really interesting in the next two months. I look for a desperate GOPe to rally around one candidate (Rubio) and force the other establishment candidates to drop out. I have my popcorn ready, let the games begin!
Obama is not a bad president because he was a first term senator when he ran for president. Obama is a bad president because he was elected with a mandate to transform the greatest country in the history of the world into something else. Trump’s experience in government is nil, so if that is your criteria for selecting a candidate, then you should be urging Mitch McConnell or John Boehner to run.
It is ridiculous to compare Barack Obama’s resume of eight years ago to Ted Cruz’s (or to Donald Trump’s resume). Obama was and is nothing more than a racist community organizer and he will never be anything else. Obama is a soulless tyrant.
Lately, Cruz's campaign has done some things that have made people more skeptical.
Besides that, do you really think we'd ever get a President Cruz? If he gets the nomination, he'll be destroyed by the establishment. Besides that, there are certain demographics he won't attract that Trump will.
Senator Cruz should be patient. Four years in the US Senate, being mentored by Senator Sessions, and learning more about negotiating from Trump while he gains positive accolades is what's best for the nation.
I just don't get it why Cruz doesn't see the big picture, and that he's just "a pawn in their game".
And the worst President until Obama.
Oh. Unless you measure greatness in a President by how many Americans kill other Americans during his tenure.
Donald Trump is a successful businessman, but the reason that he is running a successful campaign so far is that he is a great showman and a reality show celebrity. It is an unfortunate fact that most Americans cannot even name the U.S. Senators from their own states. If you think that Cruz’s name recognition is even in the same ballpark as Trump’s you are badly mistaken.
I heard the same arguments that you are making every time that Ronald Reagan ran for president. BTW, Reagan was a great negotiator and his skill had nothing to do with government experience. The key to negotiating is the willingness to walk away from a bad deal because it gives you credibility going forward. Reagan understood that and Cruz does too. Our current elected leaders in Washington are also skilled negotiators, as they are all helping themselves to a piece of the growing government pie at the expense of all Americans.
Few people would have been shocked if Trump had decided to run as a Democrat, had Hillary not run. He could have pointed at his record and explained his past behavior as just doing whatever benefited his businesses - which is the same explanation that he has given for his many donations to Democratic candidates and causes to his new Republican supporters.
I will probably vote for Trump if he wins the nomination but I am growing tired of seeing Cruz trashed in what was once a very conservative forum.
Lincoln was a blood thirsty tyrant.
The thing to see is that this isn't a two-man race.
Polls that show voters' first, second and third choices provide information regarding what will happen as candidates drop out.
The most recent one I've seen is the YouGov/Economist Poll.
Moreover, Trump'a habit of insulting competitors has alienated their supporters, which is why analysts talk about Trump's ceiling.
Some say Lincoln would have been the Henry Clay administration that never happened had not there been war.
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