Carpenter: The GOP Debate Stakes for Saturday Night

Conservative Review ^ | Amanda Carpenter

[SoConPubbie]

Then there were six.

Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, John Kasich, Marco Rubio, and Donald Trump will all meet on Saturday night in Greenville, South Carolina for CBS’s GOP presidential primary debate, a week before Palmetto State voters declare a victor.

Rubio has the most to lose after suffering devastating blows in the last debate delivered by Chris Christie, who dropped out of the race on Thursday; but that’s not the only dynamic to watch for during the debate tomorrow. Rubio has promised supporters in no uncertain terms that he’ll never perform that badly again, almost baiting his other rivals to attempt taking him down.At this moment, however, it’s a two-person race between Trump and Cruz while everyone else plays for second place. If South Carolina voters believe that’s the case, that’s good news for Cruz. A mid-January NBC/WSJ poll showed Cruz besting Trump by eight points in a man-to-man matchup.

The two men have been dancing around each other since the primaries began and at this point, a confrontation seems unavoidable.

In the run-up to the debate, Trump has frequently called Cruz a “liar” and Cruz’s winning card against Trump seems to be character. The Cruz campaign released a humorous ad on Tuesday that questions whether he would be a good role model for children, while reminding voters Trump supports eminent domain and has donated generously to liberal Democrats.

While Trump and Cruz prepare for a stand off, Rubio is probably comforted by the fact that he has an ally in one of the debate moderators: The WSJ’s Kimberley Strassel, who has eagerly used her column to snidely criticize Cruz.

For example, Strassel has complained of Cruz’s use of the term “squishes” and oddly maintained that the 2013 gun control legislation would have, somehow, defeated itself if it weren’t for Cruz’s efforts to do just that with a threat of a filibuster, joined by Senators Mike Lee and Rand Paul.  She couldn’t bring herself to credit the men with their brave victory. She fretted that this tactic “only shielded Democrats from owning their gun failure.”

But that is exactly what those squishes, whom Strassel so well represents, count on Democrats to do: defeat themselves so the GOP doesn’t have to take the risk of winning. There are many other examples like this. But we have to move along to the worst.

The two Floridians cannot peacefully coexist in the same primary universe because they share many of the same voters.

In one column, that reads as if it were written word-for-word by the Rubio opposition research team, Strassel even went so far as to compare Cruz’s positions on national defense to Bernie Sanders.

After deriding his actions to stop Obamacare, amnesty, and gun control, Strassel blasted Cruz for opposing nation building in foreign countries and indefinite detention of US citizens. Strassell concluded in the last line of her piece, “That’s a record closer to Bernie Sanders than to the GOP.”

That’s what we call a shark-jumping moment. Thanks to the RNC who approved her as a moderator, she’ll get another chance show off her disdain for Cruz in the debate on Saturday night.

[SoConPubbie]

	"If we must have an enemy at the head of Government, let it be one whom we can oppose, and for whom we are not responsible, who will not involve our party in the disgrace of his foolish and bad measures." - Alexander Hamilton "We don't intend to turn the Republican Party over to the traitors in the battle just ended. We will have no more of those candidates who are pledged to the same goals as our opposition and who seek our support. Turning the Party over to the so-called moderates wouldn’t make any sense at all." -- President Ronald Reagan "A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice." - Thomas Paine 1792 "It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men." - Samuel Adams "If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen." - Samuel Adams " Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost." - John Quincy Adams

[SoConPubbie]

    CRUZ or LOSE!

[Mother Mary]

Thanks for including those great quotes! My favorite:

“A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.” - Thomas Paine 1792

[VanDeKoik]

Hppity-hypepity

It will be the same as the last debate.

The only difference is that Rubio will go after Cruz hard, Jeb will try to go after Trump, Carson will make an appeal to Christians...

and Kasich will try to make himself into the “not Trump” that you can support without feeling you are supporting a crazy person.

There isnt going to be a war between Cruz or Trump on-stage because it doesn’t help either.

In the end Trump wins all of the debate polls like he has for ever, and by Monday people aren’t going to remember anything from it.

[Mr. N. Wolfe]

“The WSJ’s Kimberley Strassel, who has eagerly used her column to snidely criticize Cruz.”

“Thanks to the RNC who approved her as a moderator, she’ll get another chance show off her disdain for Cruz in the debate on Saturday night.”

Megyn Kelly (FNC) is constantly reminding her viewers that the RNC has no say on who the networks choose as their moderators.

So which is it? Does the RNC have final say on who moderates the debate?

If the RNC does have a say in who the networks choose as moderators, then there is absolutely no excuse for having Republican primary debates moderated by hostile journalists.

[theoldmarine]

I think you already lost... Sorry

[Lurkinanloomin]

Rubio has promised supporters in no uncertain terms that he’ll never perform that badly again

********************************************

The Memorizer Bunny has new stuff memorized

[Lurkinanloomin]

In one column, that reads as if it were written word-for-word by the Rubio opposition research team, Strassel even went so far as to compare Cruz’s positions on national defense to Bernie Sanders.

***********************************

That’s because Strassel works for the Wall Street Journal which is a propaganda organ for the same people who own Rubio, The Cheap Labor Express

[uncitizen]

Rubio will still look rehearsed because he really is that empty of a suit. Watch his eyes. They’re his ‘tell’. When he is reciting, um I mean talking, his eyes are pointing slightly upward and to the left as though he is searching his memory for something. It’s very subtle. He tries to hide it. But it’s there.

[Georgia Girl 2]

“Rubio has promised supporters in no uncertain terms that he’ll never perform that badly again”

That’s the problem. Its a performance. :-)

[teg_76]

Abortion on demand! Government run healthcare! Go Trump!

[hollyweed]

Trumpism is nothing new or special. It’s a Perot/Ventura blend of populism that promises to get even with a political elite that despises them. This is how Trumpism has seduced Rush and Palin. Both have been ridiculed and savaged by the establishment and now it’s payback time.

Trump is not about a return to the constitutionally mandated limited government. It’s a big government, populist, nationalist, french revolution style screw you to the establishment. It will end in disaster but at least Rush, Sarah and anyone who’s had their feelings hurt will relish their revenge. The country and the constitution be damned.