Posted on 01/07/2016 9:32:46 PM PST by VinL
Ted Cruz is doing his best to avoid Donald Trump's birtherstyle attacks, but it's not easy when you're on a bus tour with a pack of reporters questioning you about it every chance they get.
And when another rival candidate echoes the questions about whether Cruz is really eligible to be president, given his Canadian birth. And when a nemesis of yours in the Senate lends credence to the question, too.
So far, Cruz has dismissed the growing miasma the same way he has done in the past. (Trump has also raised questions about Cruz's evangelical Christianity and claimed Cruz.) He tries to ignore the jab, responds with a jokey counter ab, blames the media for inflating the controversy and forcing him to talk about it, insists he likes Trump, and repeats as needed. Trump has succeeded, again, in getting the media and other candidates to deal with the topics he wants them dealing with, in the midst of Cruz's splashy Iowa bus tour.
But if Trump's goal is to turn voters against Cruz, there's no evidence it's working. It's just not clear that this is an issue voters are particularly interested in litigating, though, unlike with the birther movement that centered around Obama during the 2008 election, and there's just too much goodwill for Cruz here in Iowa. The same genre of attack that destroyed the likes of Jeb Bush seemingly can’t be applied to Cruz, whose supporters are much more committed and less tenuous than Bush's.
"Trump] goes after everybody, even poor people who have handicap issues," said Mary Lawson, 59, before Cruz's appearance in Sioux Center. "He says some awful things. I don't want that as our president, can you imagine?"
"Ultimately any time [Trump] attacks anybody it's because somethi"g good is happening with them and that's why he does it,†said Jim Bolkema, 61, after the same event. "So the moment somebody starts emerging, that's when he goes on those kind of attacks. I'd say if [Cruz] is getting those kind of attacks from Donald Trump, he should be happy, because that means he's scared of him.â€
"I would care if I thought it was legitimate," said Vickie Froehlich, 61, who drove from Minnesota to see Cruz in Pocahontas, Iowa, on Thursday. "But I don't. And I admire Mr. Cruz, who has said he is not attacking people."
Trump has said stuff that's "not necessary," said Amber Bailey, 37, who is choosing between Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio and attended Cruz's event on Wednesday in Spirit Lake. "This week he’s going after Senator Cruz for the Canada thing, like, mind your own business and take care of your own stuff."
Trump is a "jerk," said Nathan Lichter, 28, who saw Cruz on Wednesday night in Storm Lake. "I think he's not nice. I think you can be conservative, be very far right conservative, and still be kind and unifying and not divisive."
Trump is a "bum," said Tim Bever, 65, who went on Wednesday to see Cruz at a town hall event in Spencer. "I think we see through him. We see a suit, all the money, what goes with it."
There's also a contingent of Cruz supporters who see this as just the cost of doing business.
"It was a legitimate concern with Obama," said Wayne Wolf, 56, at Cruz’s stop in Pocahontas. "People fall on both sides of the issue, I think it's a legitimate question to raise. I don't have a problem with him raising a question about Cruz." However, Wolf said, he's read up on it and doesn’t believe there’s a problem with Cruz’s eligibility.
Gary, 71, who was attending Cruz's event in Storm Lake and didn't want to give his last name, said he's still choosing between Cruz and Trump and that Trump’s attacks don't influence him either way.
"It's part of the politics, part of the game," he said.
Trump's motivation isn't really a mystery. Cruz is basically tied or leading in Iowa polls and is rapidly consolidating support among Iowa's conservative elite. Family Leader head Bob Vander Plaats and Rep. Steve King, both conservative stalwarts known and loved in Iowa and key endorsements for Cruz, have been accompanying Cruz on stops along his bus tour. Over the past two days, the campaign has named both of them as national co chairs.
Speaking with BuzzFeed News on Tuesday night, King dismissed the Trump birtherism out of hand.
"I think Ted Cruz is a natural born citizen of the United States of America, so that would be my answer to that," King said. "Do you see anybody that was in the polls that looked like they were closing in or polling ahead of Donald Trump, and [him] not having attacked them? He promised he was going to do this, so I think it's completely predictable."
Cruz responded early to Trump by gently implying that Trump has jumped the shark, and has refused to go further than that. "I'm gonna stick with Fonzie jumping the shark and I'm gonna let the rest of y'all battle it out and that's fine," Cruz said on Tuesday evening. “I like Donald Trump, I like everyone on the Republican side who's running for president, and you guys have seen as others have thrown rocks, as others have tossed insults, I haven't reciprocated, and I don’t intend to start now.â€
(This approach hasn’t slowed down Trump at all; on Thursday morning, Trump tweeted at Cruz offering “free legal advice†for avoiding a legal entanglement over the birth question.)
While Cruz is largely giving Trump a free pass on the citizenship questions, he's not doing so with John McCain, who said in a radio interview that it’s legitimate to question Cruz's eligibility and that he doesn’t know whether Cruz is a natural born citizen or not. Cruz told Bloomberg Politics in an interview on Thursday that McCain is playing into the birther rumors because of his alleged clandestine support for Rubio. Cruz repeated this claim while talking to reporters ahead of a campaign appearance in Webster City on Thursday afternoon.
"It is no surprise, everybody knows that John McCain is going to endorse Marco Rubio. Their foreign policies are almost identical, their immigration policies are identical, and so it's no surprise that people who are supporting other candidates in this race are gonna jump on the silly attacks that occur as we get closer and closer to election day," Cruz said.
Cruz noted that most of the voters he encounters don't seem particularly interested in this issue.
"As we travel the state of Iowa, none of these silly attacks that other candidates are pushing are being raised by real live voters," Cruz said.
Cruz's 1st reaction was telling Trump "jumped the shark"--- which is to say, Cruz knows that Trump had to be desperate to launch this attack. That's why, he's not replying--- he'll lock away Iowa, then torpedo the sissy Birther in NH.
I’m a Cruz supporter, and he is at the top of my wish list for the coming election.
That being said, the characterizations and lamenting from those who are opposed to Mr. Trump (he is my second choice) are showing me nothing less than thin skinned crybabies who are happy to dish out the insults and/or attacks but are unable to cope with either coming back their way.
Entertaining, to say the least.
Ted Cruz is a US citizen as far as I know it.
As far as I know it he didn’t have to undergo a citizenship test and immigration process to become a citizen.
His mother was a US citizen who lived in the United States for at least 10 years after turning 14 years old.
Ergo, ipso facto, Ted Was Born a US Citizen, he could have been born on the moon and he still would have been a US citizen.
Let’s not count our chickens in NH just yet. NH was always going to be, will always be, a tough sell for a Southern social conservative.
I’ll be quite happy with a second place in NH or a very close third (especially if Christie is in second). The really interesting races at this point are SC and Nevada. Can Ted’s authentic boots stomp out the competition in Nevada or will the glitz of other campaigns play so well in Las Vegas that he won’t get any traction?
Will his strong showing with Iowa evangelicals play well in South Carolina? Just how accurate are those Dixie polls with Trump leading in double digits?
I watched the “Morning Joe” interview of Donald Trump that apparently started all this. Joe Scarborough makes the statement that there are Constitutional scholars who think Ted Cruz isn’t eligible to be President. Donald Trump says that that would be a problem if it were true, and somehow Trump is attacking Cruz?
This is a case of the Progressive media saying “let’s have you and him fight” so as to distract from the reality of the situation in the country.
.... Trump goes after everybody, even poor people who have handicap issues,” said Mary Lawson, 59, before Cruz’s appearance in Sioux Center. “He says some awful things. I don’t want that as our president, can you imagine?
Hmmm. Let me count the times I have posted that sentiment..
Fun read.
Oh look.
Another bunny with a pancake on its head thread.
Didn’t say Cruz would win NH, said he would torpedo Trump— i.e. try to make Trump lose. Two losses would be devastating for Trump.
I read Limbaugh’s take on this attack by Birther Trump- and I think that’s his opinion— Trump is facing the possibility of 2 defeats, and that’s what prompted him to lose his marbles.
Maybe. I agree with them. Maybe because I am old, female and southern. Would you really let your children, bully, belittle and brag about themselves like Trump does?
I do expect better behavior from a president.
Their reactions to Trump are not nearly so uncivil as Trump’s reactions to his detractors.
I am a Cruz supporter, Trump used to be my number two. I can’t vote for anyone who trashed Scalia and supports affirmative action.
Even if he were ineligible, after The Won, the good guys would still deserve a pass on one POTUS for two terms.
Fair enough.
Cruz on!
Your post to me is deceitful and insincere. I’ve noted your posts over the last few months and you are a bitter and spiteful person with an agenda. I need not specify to you nor any other on this forum the substance of your agenda as it has been perfectly clear to all.
You can peddle your hyperbolic tales to those who are not paying close attention to the facts, but I have no need of your specious narratives.
Bless your heart!
I have been a Trump voter since he entered the race. Cruz second. AS of tonight, I’m for Cruz first and Trump second. I’ve had it with the folks who are using this to take Cruz out. they are using the dems’s method and sounding like the GOP and the dems... so.. count another first vote for Cruz.. this nonsense needs to stop.. it sounds so childish and foolish... and really stupid.. dumb.. and so on....
Cruz doesn’t have to win NH. He pretty much has to win in Iowa.
You got that right!
It's Cruz who is fooling his own supporters.
I agree
Trump was my second
I loved the way he attacked Establishment
Now he attacks Conservatives like Cruz and Scalia
Supports Crony Capitalism (Ethanol Subsidizes)
Supports Affirmative Action
wants to raise taxes
and sides with McCain and Obama
I vowed never to vote for a RINO
Trump has become a RINO
Trump is one of your children? Who knew?
.
And the dumb bunny even posted to the thread.
The dumb bunny posted the thread.
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