Posted on 03/09/2014 1:38:39 PM PDT by smoothsailing
March 9, 2013
Drew Zahn
When it comes to picking a presidential candidate for 2016, the GOP elite is having a hard time getting the grassroots to toe the establishment line.
Top Republican strategist Karl Rove, for example, has repeatedly praised Chris Christie, the Republican governor of New Jersey, as “a strong potential candidate in 2016,” whom Democrats fear will win the nomination.
And when other names gained popular attention, particularly attention among the so-called tea-party crowd, the man known as the “architect” was quick to criticize.
Rove, for example, blasted potential presidential hopeful Ted Cruz for not playing ball with the GOP establishment, just as the Texas senator’s name started to gain traction with Republican voters.
Rove similarly opened fire on Sen. Rand Paul, R-Tenn., for talking about Monica Lewinsky and potential Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the same breath.
And even if Christie has fallen from favor among the establishment, other GOP insiders have floated names like former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, former vice presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and even the return of former presidential candidate and Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney as possible nominees in 2016.
But now a poll on one of the Internet’s top websites, the Drudge Report, reveals the ground troops just aren’t buying it.
With over 234,000 votes counted, Rove’s “strong potential candidate,” Christie, was garnering less than five percent of the vote. Bush had just over six percent. Ryan had less than four.
But despite fiery criticism from the GOP establishment, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz was registering over 28 percent in the Drudge Report poll, while Tennessee Sen. Rand Paul was leading the survey, with over 30 percent. Paul’s 72,297 votes compared impressively to Christie’s 11,437.
(Excerpt) Read more at wnd.com ...
A Cruz-Paul ticket would be a winner.
Agreed.
considering Rand Pauls huge win of the CPAC strawpoll, did he inherit some of his dads poll packers?
If he brings too much of Dads luggage along, he’s gonna lose a lot of possible voters
This is all just fun and games at this point.
The GOP still controls the machinery of fundraising and determines where the big money gets spent. I’ll say it again - the only way Cruz, Paul, or anyone else outside the ruling class elite ranks stands a chance is to win on their own merit, and that means each and every one of us has to stop participating in the circular firing squad and seeking the perfect candidate, and instead support the Buckley Rule, e.g. the “most conservative candidate who can win.”
It’s going to be far easier to determine who that candidate is if we work hard in the primaries and coalesce behind a front-runner early than if we have a repeat of 2012. And as tempting as it is to talk about a third party, any objective analysis says it’s going to take multiple election cycles for a third party candidate to be able to win, and while that strength is being built, they will splinter the vote in favor of the Democrats.
Good. I hope more on the right adopt this attitude. It is the first step to any solution.
I would not shed a tear if the “ignorant Bastard” Rove got run over by a street car
I wish people like Hannity would stop giving the jerk air time.
“A Cruz-Paul ticket would be a winner.”
Running on what objectives?
WND needs an editor, or a new writer, or both.
Be fun to watch.
Least they wouldn’t bore us all to death like dole, mc lame, bush, mitt?
“I would not shed a tear if the “ignorant Bastard” Rove got run over by a street car”
I would hope the street car backs up over him, too.
I am one of the 7% Others.....
Like Tennessee Ernie Ford?
Fine with me as long as Trey Gowdy is the next Attorney General!
Heck, after the past 5 years, it would feel like hitting the darned lottery!
Nah, Rand can’t sing like Ernie! B^)
AKA "The Architect of DISASTER".
If you took Sarah’s name off the list, I bet Cruz would have been the winner.
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