Posted on 03/23/2015 12:08:22 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is framing his presidential campaign as part of a conservative crusade against the "mushy middle" of Republican politics.
However, his more immediate foes are also on the right.
While former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) has increasingly been dubbed the frontrunner in the race, he's not Cruz's main concern in the GOP primary. While Bush and another top GOP contender, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, are clearly appealing to relatively moderate Republicans, Cruz is hoping to grab staunchly conservative voters who may be inclined to back a hardline candidate as an alternative.
However, Cruz isn't the only top-tier candidate aiming at becoming the Bush alternative to this segment of the electorate in the Republican primary.
Another likely hopeful, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (R), is also moving to run to the right of Bush and New Jersey Gov Chris Christie (R). However, Rubio's voting record is still to the left of some of the candidates who will really be fighting for the most conservative voters in the primary, including Cruz, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R).
With Cruz likely in most direct competition with Paul and Walker, some have even interpreted the timing of his presidential campaign announcement as a shot across Paul's bow. The Daily Beast argued that Cruz was trying to upstage Paul, who is expected to launch his bid in April.
"[T]here’s a sense of mischievousness to Cruz’s timing: Advisers close to Paul leaked a presidential campaign launch date in the first week of April. By announcing Monday, Cruz becomes the first Republican candidate formally running for his party’s presidential nomination—allowing him a couple weeks of peerless press and fundraising. It is hard to imagine this as an accident,"(continued)
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
I don’t see Marco Rubio going anywhere. Its all hype. When the dust settles its going to be Cruz, Paul and Walker. I’m just not into Walker at all.
I see Jebbie fading fast after the first debate. Cruz, Walker and Paul will dispense with Jeb first and then settle it between themselves after that.
Wouldn’t a Cruz-Walker ticket be super strong (Walker-Cruz ticket would be too). I have thought for a year that it would be a waste of talent to put them on the same ticket, but with all the opposition they would have in the media and the mess our country is in, it may take a super-strong ticket to straighten it out. I’ve been thinking of Dick Cheney’s words to Rosen in the Playboy article. If they are the ticket, I HOPE that they utilize other Republicans who are running: Paul, Jindal, Carson, even Huckabee and Alan West (not running, but a strong conservative, intelligent, former military) in their cabinet. There are so many good candidates, I’m probably forgetting some.
I hope Rubio doesn’t throw his hat into the ring. As you said, he isn’t going anywhere. Florida law says a candidate can’t run for two offices at the same time. He comes up for reelection to the Senate in 2016, and he can do far more good staying in the Senate. If he drops out of the Senate race, Murphy, who beat Alan West, or maybe Alan Grayson, would be our next Senator. I’m afraid we would lose Rubio all together if he ran.
As a side note to this thread, the major concern about what conservative wins in ’16 is this. Which candidate will be most receptive to patriots getting her / him up to speed with the federal government’s constitutionally limited powers in the Oval Office? /sarc not
What a dilemma, We have too much talent on our side.
They both have good heads on their shoulders imo.
I agree.
I`ve been calling for Cruz, he`s my candidate.
Did anyone besides me notice that the two authors of this article used a lower case “g” every time they mentioned God? They never capitalized “God”. Hmmmmmm.......
Romney was leading until Chris Christie was walking down the beaches of New Jersey arm in arm with Obama after Hurricane Sandy. I think that visual significantly changed the election.
I don’t know about “TOO much talent”, but we have a bunch. It makes my high bp go down some. Can hardly wait for Nov. 2016 get here (maybe I should say Jan. 2017).
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