Posted on 11/30/2015 7:44:46 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
None of us knows how this election is going to play out, but the one thing that we can say is that this has been the most entertaining presidential primary season ever. By far the most amusing part has been the utter state of panic the GOP establishment has been in since the voters took a look at their "electability" candidate, Jeb Bush, and started laughing. Since then one nightmare has followed another. If I'd had the foresight, I could have financed my children's college expenses by selling brown trousers to the US Chamber of Commerce and the GOP Senate caucus.
Right now the GOP establishment is panicking over the specter of a Donald Trump candidacy. But if that wasn't sufficient to get those panties wetted, now a fear of Sen. Ted Cruz is setting in.
Mainstream elected Republicans now see Cruz as a bigger threat than Donald Trump or Ben Carson to clinch the nomination - but equally damaging to their party's chances of winning the White House and keeping the Senate next fall. Rubio would be a much stronger general election standard bearer, they believe.
This, of course, is patent nonsense. For the first time in my memory none of our top tier candidates has an "electablility" issue. Rubio does poll stronger against Clinton, but Clinton is either behind or in a statistical tie with the top six GOP hopefuls.
Cornyn, Thune and Coats have not endorsed in the presidential primary, and lawmakers interviewed for this story said many senior Republicans do not want to embarrass long-shot presidential hopeful Sen. Lindsey Graham by endorsing Rubio while the South Carolina senator is in the race. They're also aware that endorsements from top GOP lawmakers at this point in the primary wouldn't help Rubio's cause with the Republican base.
This is the most delicious part of the entire season. Though the establishment is very unhappy at the thought of Trump or Carson or Cruz, they know they are so toxic with GOP primary voters that their endorsement will sink their candidate. So they are forced to keep quiet, stand on the sidelines and hope for the best.
Cruz scoffed at the notion that Rubio is more electable, telling POLITICO that that's precisely the logic that paved the way for Democrats to win five of the past six popular votes for the White House.
"Democrats also told Republicans Bob Dole was more electable, Democrats also told the press Sen. John McCain was more electable, Democrats also told the press Mitt Romney was more electable," Cruz said. "Then the Democrats were quite happy to go to their inauguration balls."
Cruz predicted that millions of blue-collar Democrats would rally behind him in a general election, like they did with Ronald Reagan three decades ago. Rubio's earlier support for comprehensive immigration reform - or a "massive amnesty plan," in Cruz's words - would preclude that kind of crossover appeal, the Texan said.
But congressional Republicans say the truest indicator of Rubio's strength is the abuse he's getting from Democrats. They've been pounding him daily over missed votes and briefings, while dissecting his policy plans. Cruz, by comparison, has been getting kid-glove treatment, to the extent Democrats mention him at all in opposition dumps from the party apparatus and outside liberal groups.
This last paragraph is meaningful only if you assume that Sen. Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer know what they are doing, electorally. There has been precious little evidence that any Democrat senator has a good grasp on the mood of the nation given their drubbing in 2014. Rubio is attacked because, until now, he has been the highest ranked traditional Republican candidate. As Cruz rises in the polls they will begin attacks on him. Right now, you will note, is the attacks on Rubio are focused not on his conservative credentials but on the times he has voted with the Democrats.
The fundraising reports show that Cruz is running a savvy campaign that is both frugal and results oriented - very much like how we'd like the federal government to operate. Nearly alone among the non-Trump candidates, Cruz is financially positioned to fight the battle to the end. He is in that position because he is not acting as a life support system to RNC endorsed consultants that are sucking the other candidates dry.
The establishment is right to panic over Cruz. There are five or six others who could be more than adequate presidents, certainly - and in this they are like my dog - they would be superior to Obama. Alone of the GOP field, Cruz is the guy who could be a game-changer as president. The more the establishment panics the more my optimism grows.
A Democrat has threatened to sue over Cruz’s eligibility, but I wouldn’t be surprised if a good portion of establishment RINO’s join in on the lawsuit.
Ping!
It is becoming increasingly clear that Ben Carson, while a fine person and a perfect fit for several cabinet posts, is just not ready for prime time yet. The same is true with Rubio except that he is a little weasel and may not even be a good fit for any cabinet post.
Yeah, I saw that. It’s that grandstanding idiot in Florida, Alan Grayson. I don’t think many will want to associate with him.
ROTFL!
Look up Heidi Cruz—the missus.
He should go ahead and file his case. It is going nowhere.
Ping-a-Ling!
If the republican/RINO establishment elites don’t adjust to the reality that people are fed up with their lies and scams the only candidate to meet with their approval will be Hillary Clinton.
Wait a tic, I thought Cruz was the financial honey pot epitome of the one world TPP globalist empire, according to some FReepers. LMAO.
He may be a grandstanding idiot but he is right.
"CHARITON, Iowa - Around 10 p.m. Saturday, with locals here stuffing the entryway of a general store known for something called taco pizza, the presidential campaign of Senator Ted Cruz seemed to be winning a bet with itself.
Could the candidate fill the space on a frosty night, in a town of 4,000 or so, more than two months before voting begins, at an hour late enough that taco pizza was no longer being served?
"I'm pretty sure this is breaking a Guinness World Record," Mr. Cruz said, settling in beside the doughnut display as scores of Iowans surrounded him. A burly man with a thick beard, a shaved head and a large soda offered to be Mr. Cruz's "personal bouncer."
"It's a very bad idea in politics," Mr. Cruz began, diplomatically, "to ask voters to leave."
In fact, Mr. Cruz's Iowa bandwagon, long churning in relative obscurity, seems to be approaching capacity. Event audiences have swelled. People are coming forward with endorsements. A recent Quinnipiac University poll of likely Republican caucusgoers gave Mr. Cruz 23 percent support, a close second to Donald J. Trump, in the clearest signal yet that Mr. Cruz has begun to tap into the outsider fervor that has for months powered rivals without public sector experience................."
I’ve heard Cruz’s support is from a lot of individual donors (the same fervor there was for a candidate called Obama).
All right! Good news bump to that.
Yes, the first seems to be a verifiable truth. However, the second statement is not.
After reading more about Cruz's timeline in GuvCo in a Treeper's comment/post a few days ago, I'm not convinced that Ted wasn't taken out and taken in fairly soon after arriving in DC and by mid-2013, he shows signs of having been assimilated.
I've read that the GOPe prefers to have Hillary as POTUS instead of Trump and I don't doubt it, but I think they already have Ted in their pocket and don't care if he wins or loses against Hillary, though I think they believe he loses in that race.
As I understood the article, they pretty much admitted that the current law implementing the constitution would make Cruz eligible. What they wanted to challenge was that law and whether it actually represented the constitution. Their argument would be that the Supreme Court has never decided on this issue. They haven’t.
If they get such a hearing from Scotus, then:
1. It tells us that Scotus is establishment down to their bone marrow. We already know that, so I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if they took up such a case.
2. It ices a lot of people when considering Cruz. They’ll be wondering what Scotus will decide. It would hurt him. I have no doubt.
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