The Influence Factor: Romney & Cruz will produce a better ROI than rest of the GOP field

US News & World Report ^ | November 12, 2014 | Jamie Chandler

[2ndDivisionVet]

Looking ahead to the 2016 presidential election, how influential were each of the potential GOP candidates during the midterm election?

The Appinions study I wrote about on Monday provides great data to answer this question. The midterms continue to be a highly salient topic, despite the fact that it’s been just over a week since voters drew the curtain on the campaign. Indeed, Appinions "Active Attention Index," a metric based on the quantity and quality of reactions on the topic from opinion leaders across multiple media venues, grew 34 percent, from 129,000 the day after the election to 173,000 on Nov. 10.

The pundits are now throwing so many Chinese fortune sticks to forecast who will run that if they’re not careful someone is going to get their eye poked out. But as is typically the case, these divinations are based on conventional wisdom. They are about as telling as televangelist Pat Robertson predicting when a doomsday asteroid will hit the planet.

The Appinions data indicates, and if we use the level of attention a politician commands as a proxy for electability, then Mitt Romney and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, generated more attention than the rest of the current GOP aspirants. To wit, their scores were one-third greater than Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, double New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, triple that of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, and a whopping six times higher than former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. Clearly, Romney and Cruz have the attention advantage.

We can’t understate the influence of these men, and the appeal of their diametrically opposed visions for the country. It’s significant. If Romney runs, he immediately leads out of the gate and will hold more sway over the electorate than Bush, who most see giving Republicans the best chance of retaking control....

[PieterCasparzen]

Hi riri. Oh my - actual facts !

I think... (lol since you asked)... if something goes relatively horribly wrong for new world order in the 2016 campaigns, and the US sheeple vomit out their preferred candidate class of the CCCP (communists, criminals, concierges, perverts), he’d make a perfect fallback for the elites to begrudgingly be appointed their vassal.

I doubt they’ll need him, though. His part in the play is just to say conservative things for ambiance, sort of like conservative background noise.

They play this for the conservative sheeple to relax them on the way to the slaughterhouse.

[nascarnation]

The Vampire Squid of Wall Street.
Not a good connection in my view.

[riri]

I can't figure the role of Cruz out. He sets off my "spidey sense" though--and that's not because I have great intuition. It's all there in black and white for anyone with a computer and a search engine to see.

Most I can figure is we just don't know what we don't know. I think you have an excellent handle on things (remarkable actually) and I have a pretty good understanding of what is happening but we don't know quite a bit.

I agree with your synopsis re:Cruz though. Probably the most viable scenario.

I want to say, "Well couldn't the NWO crowd have gone the extra mile and found someone who wasn't this obviously connected?". But, I guess they didn't need to, just look at the conservatives on FR--they buy the whole act-hook, line and sinker.