Posted on 01/29/2016 7:35:48 AM PST by springwater13
It's hard not to see Trump skipping the debate last night as a masterstroke. He avoided what would have been a political assassination attempt by FOX News. He ended up humiliating Roger Ailes and Bill O'Reilly who were begging him to show up. You owe me 17 milkshakes! Roger Ailes frantically calling Ivanka and Melania to change Trump's mind!
Trump got a few jokes at his expense but nobody really laid a glove on him and the entire debate was focused on his agenda....bombing the hell out of ISIS, muslims, immigration, security, etc.
He had the last laugh as FOX News destroyed Cruz and Rubio on immigration with the video montages. The immigration field is muddied for everyone but Trump. The headline of the Des Moines Register this morning says it all: Rough Night for Cruz. All the incoming that would have hit Trump ended up hitting Cruz.
Last night was to sink Cruz and build up Rubio.
The Trump rally was great. John Wayne needs to run for congress!
Kinda quiet on this thread. Me thinks the Cruzys are a bit shell shocked this morning.
Think it's quiet now, just wait til Tuesday morning!
Cruz made a major mistake by not boycotting with Trump. Instead he aligned with the establishment-oriented faux news and failed to present himself exceptionally well during the so-called debate.
[Think it’s quiet now, just wait til Tuesday morning! ]
BOOM!!!!
The rumor is Rubio is doing very well in internal polling and Cruz has started advertising against him. Rubio is popular with undecideds that may go to him Monday. The Rubio team thinks there is a distinct possibility he could surge to 2nd place and push Cruz to 3rd.
That would of course scramble the whole board. It effectively kills Cruz’s campaign and makes it a 2 man race between Trump and Rubio.
By trying to destroy the secondary target, she elevated the standing of the primary target.
Trump's rise in the polls began with his stance on illegals flooding into the country and his insistence on building a wall to keep them out.
Kelly with her amnesty attacks on Cruz, underscored how important an issue securing our borders has become.
Dummy must be kicking herself. They laid a trap for Trump. He refused to fall for the trap and laid a trap for them. They fell for that trap.
Cruz takes a tumble and Trump polling goes higher.
Trump should send Thank You notes to Ailes, Kelly, Baier, Wallace and FNC.
When Trump announced he would not be in the debate, I called it Pure Genius on his part.
Oh yeah.
Surest sign that things didn’t go well is the lack of breathless blog posts from pro-Cruz websites.
The whole gambit of taunting Trump was to get him to show up so that the other candidates would go after him, and let Cruz skate....like he’s been doing for months.
Without Trump, he was a sitting duck, and he got smacked all over.
He boxed himself in.
If he pulled out too, after making himself leader of the “taunt Trump into the debate” club, he would have looked like a complete hypocrite. They were even selling merchandise off of Trump not being at it!
He bet everything on Trump being there. Trump didnt take the bait, and that was that.
Last night, they asked very tough questions about candidates' prior statements and stances on immigration reform. Cruz and Rubio both were hammered on that.
It is therefore likely that if Trump had been there, he'd have been questioned aggressively on all the prior statements he has made on immigration, to include his condemnation of Romney's self-deport plan as "mean-spirited", and his comments that all the "good ones" return in "an expedited manner" after they leave.
If straight answers to those questions were properly pursued, it might have helped shatter the myth that Trump is uniquely tough on immigration. But by not showing up, the illusion (or delusion) continues.
So a smart move for him, because his immigration stance is sufficiently ambiguous now that people can read almost whatever they want into it.
Trump has no record and no in-depth knowledge on issues. So he was smart to skip.
Being rude, insulting, demeaning, angry, & crude wins his voters. They care little about substance.
They’ve been reduced today to multiple postings of Cruz seeking the Governor of Guam’s endorsement. Still, Rubio could be an issue. Trump needs to keep an eye on that.
I don’t want Rubio anywhere near 2nd
Rubio is a major threat.
He is fresh, unhurt by a lot of the in-fighting, being pushed by the press, and will have to be fought in the heat of the actual primary voting.
You see it as a brilliant trap. I see it as Trump wanting to avoid any more tough questions he doesn’t know the answer to.
Iowa could very well end up Trump, Rubio, Cruz which would effectively be the end of Cruz. If he does place one or two its over.
Soon you will be calling him President Trump. LOL!
in my view, Cruz was like one of the Japanese Pacific Islands.
He took a lot of pounding but it did not really alter the relative balance of forces.
He is still a solid number two
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