Posted on 03/25/2015 9:30:11 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
On Monday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) became the first major contender to announce his candidacy for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. Dan Balz has written that Cruz’s candidacy “tests the limits of conservatism,” and based on his congressional roll call voting record, Cruz is the fourth-most-conservative member of the Senate. But how does his ideological position compare to those of Republican primary voters, especially in early states such as Iowa and New Hampshire? Very favorably, as we will see.
We use data from the 2014 Cooperative Congressional Election Study (CCES). The 2014 CCES asked respondents to place themselves and several political figures, including Cruz and former Florida governor Jeb Bush, on a seven-point ideological scale ranging from “very liberal” to “very conservative.”
Historically, a major problem with using this type of perceptual data has been that different people interpret the points on the scale to mean different things. For instance, a Democratic respondent might view the tea party as “extremely conservative”, while a Republican respondent might view the group as only “somewhat conservative.” When respondents distort the ideological scale, their self-placements are not directly comparable....
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
The answer we should have in our back pocket as a response is: "Yes, we did. And we also tried out a President with 4 years of experience in the Oval Office and that didn't work out too well either, did it?".
Of course, he will be under fire not only for Democrats, but members of his own party, with the cooperation of the lapdog media. And there is the problem of campaign donations. You can be sure that the liberal Republican hierarchy will do all it can to ensure that more donations go to their handpicked candidate, Jeb.
But I believe we ordinary people can put Ted Cruz in the win column. We just have to get up off our duffs and make it happen. It's not enough to whine and moan in front of a computer screen or just cast a ballot. Ted can win, but we will have to work for him.
Abe Lincoln had exactly two years of elective experience before he was elected president. 9 out of 10 historians consider him the greatest president in our history.
At about this point in the Texas US Senate race he was polling at 3%. As I’m sure you know, he won that seat.
I’ve already raised thousands since Monday.
YES!
He’s a Constitutional Conservative from what i am able to gather? That makes him a dangerous in the eyes of Republicans and Democrats and their cult of media.
Ron Paul was my congresscritter. I think he is a kook.
I am keeping an open mind about Rand Paul. I like some of what he has to say, but I have not paid enough attention to him to determine how far the apple has fallen from the kook tree.
The only candidates that I have definitely made my mind up about are Ted Cruz and Jeb Bush. I will absolutely support Cruz if he is the nominee. If Bush is the nominee then I will vote for Hillary.
Only the low-info ones.
But, but, but, if you don’t vote for Jebster, you’ll be voting for Hillary...oh, wait.
I held my nose and voted for McCain over Obama because he was the lesser of two evils.
I held my nose (and swallowed vomit in my mouth) and voted for Romney over Obama because he was the lesser of two evils.
I frequently made the analogy that if you are in a terminal condition it is better to hobble along on life support and hope that a cure will arrive before you die (i.e., voting for McCain and Romney) than give up and pull the plug (voting for Obama).
If Jeb Bush is the nominee I will finally concede that there is no point going on and pull the plug.
FANTASTIC!!!
Interesting article and graph.
NO!
Immediately clear is that Cruz is quite ideologically in-line with Republican voters in these four states. In fact, his estimated ideological score is to the left of (i.e., more liberal than) the median Republican in Iowa, South Carolina and Florida.
Instead, Bush is the candidate who appears to be the most ideologically out of step with Republican primary electorates in these four states. His score places him to the left of at least 70 percent of Republican voters in every state.
I forgot the sarcasm tag. I was making fun of the FRinos who will be out in force next year if the RNC succeeds in nominating Jebster. I held my nose for Romney, but could not stomach McCain. I’d be thrilled to vote fr Cruz, never voting for another Bush. Ever.
Which is why the RNC will try to engineer his nomination. The last two elections they have managed to nominate the least liked candidate. Whatever it takes to keep us from electing anyone who will stop the invasion.
The RNC cannot engineer Jeb Bush's nomination without getting the votes of the Republican primary voters, or diluting the votes of the Republican primary voters.
I argued many times after Romney got the nomination that it was better to hold your nose and vote for Romney than stay home and give the election to Obama. I don't see how Romney could have been any worse than Obama has been the past two years, and Our Glorious Leader is only getting worse as his reign winds down.
Jeb Bush probably could not be any worse than Hillary, but I honestly don't see how he would be any better.
About the only material difference I can think of is that Hillary will fill Scalia and Kennedy's Supreme Court seats (they are both turning 80 next year) with committed far left wing liberals, like Sotomayor and Kagan. Bush will fill the seats with pretend moderates who are really liberals, like Stevens and Souter.
Either way, we are screwed. The far left wing will be legislating from the bench for the next 30 years. Say goodbye to the Second Amendment along with every other issue that has been decided by a 5/4 conservative/liberal vote during the past 10 years.
If Cruz is elected then we have a good chance of turning things around.
Walker is a good man and has an impressive record as governor. However, no matter how hard I try,I cannot invision him as President. He doesn’t have the world leader presence that commands respect. He comes off as too much of a Mr. Rogers personality.
The prospect of Rand Paul scares the heck out of me from a national security standpoint. His foreign policy is a problem.
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