Posted on 02/11/2016 6:37:09 PM PST by Kaslin
From now on, if you want to hear how Cruz is an unlikable illegal immigrant from Canada with a nasty disposition who cheated Ben Carson, has run wild like a “maniac” in the Senate, is on the take from Goldman Sachs, and, by the way, is a “pussy,” you’ll have to settle for watching Trump’s rallies or one of his 35 interviews a day on cable news.
When it comes to ads, he’s all about positivity.
On Tuesday, Donald J. Trump's campaign started running a negative ad in South Carolina against Senator Ted Cruz that was searing, describing the winner of the Iowa Republican caucuses as a fake and a "Washington insider."
The spot also scolded Mr. Cruz for his campaign's role in spreading claims that Ben Carson had suspended his campaign while the caucuses were taking place; Mr. Carson, in fact, had not ended his candidacy, and Mr. Cruz later apologized to him.
But on Wednesday the spot was abruptly pulled down by the campaign. The Wall Street Journal reported on the strategic shift, saying that Mr. Trump's campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, had made the decision to go with all positive spots beginning on Thursday. Mr. Lewandowski made the decision after seeing that Mr. Trump's more positive-focused tone in New Hampshire appeared to help him at the end, according to The Journal.
That’s one possibility. Trump fans may like mean Trump but undecideds who are worried about his temperament surely prefer nice Trump. Another possibility per Sean Davis is that this is just another case of Trump demonstrating his mastery of the media, knowing that his ad will get plenty of free hype now from cable news as The Ad That Even Trump Thought Was Too Negative. I think there’s probably an element too of Trump wanting to play the victim next week, knowing that Cruz has little choice but to attack him as a fake conservative, a Christian in name only, and a loose cannon. Trump likes to be seen as a counterpuncher so that he can claim self-defense when he’s accused of being a bully. He’ll probably get more mileage out of telling people “look how statesmanlike I’m being as Ted Cruz throws the kitchen sink at me” than he will from running one ad a few times on South Carolina TV. Attack ads, after all, are what politicians do, and Trump’s not supposed to be a politician. So long as he sticks to ripping Cruz to shreds in earned media rather than paid media, he’s still an “outsider,” I guess.
Speaking of ads, here’s a new one from Cruz that dropped this afternoon targeting … Marco Rubio. You can see the strategy here: To beat Trump, Cruz needs to consolidate conservatives, and plenty of conservatives are still behind Rubio. I don’t know if goofing on Rubio voters for having been naive is the best approach to conversion, though. I also don’t know how long Cruz and Rubio are planning to wait on attacking Trump in earnest while each tries to eliminate the other. Righties have been screaming at them and (especially) Jeb Bush for months to stop waging this dangerous war to become the one true Anti-Trump while Trump advances through the primaries unhindered on the assumption that there might be time to stop him later, but it looks like that’ll have to wait until Nevada, and maybe even the southern primaries, at the earliest.
I agree, I hate negative ads unless of course they are against the rats
makes sense
Its good that Trump can be whatever he want to be and change real fast
If you have your way we will get an unpredictable President (don’t we already have one of those?) and a lot of dead Republicans
Cruz is ramping up his neg ads. It will be a nice contrast with Trump’s positive ads. People in SC are pretty gracious. I don’t know that the neg ads do real well there.
Makes some sense to me but whats in it for me?
Thats the sale
Bernie aunt selling it Hilly aint selling it
It would be impossible to do a positive ad involving a rat! :-)
Stop with the negative waves.
They have been pulling that BS forever.
NO one likes it on either side
Hit the points
LOL
Either the ads didn’t test well or he’s going to let some other PAC do the work for him.
I don’t think the negative ads will be effective. The MSM keeps telling us how nasty the South Carolina political agenda is but.....the people of South Carolina are not that way. Southerners in general are just good, kindhearted people.
It's only because he lives in a glass tower.
Either the ads didn’t test well or he’s going to let some other PAC do the work for him.
ok — good question. I will take time to tell you IMO. We got lied to by the republicans. Right? They said give us the Senate — “we will kill Obama care”. WE DID !! They ran like the Iraqis at MOSUL!! I hate the basturds. I want the Wall. I want Islam stopped in this country!! I want American Jobs!! I want individual freedom. I want Christians protected. I want TRUMP! There — that’s the best I can do. Please join.
I just saw the negative Trump ad on Megyn Kelly’s show.
Now don’t get all het up, she also showed the negative Cruz ad.
Krauthammer was on and said Trump isn’t a conservative.. he’s a Trumpist. He wasn’t that negative about him though.
The Trump ad was kind of a mixture of stuff heavy on the Ben Carson thing. You know, there has to be a video of Trump absolutely savaging Ben Carson early on. Maybe Cruz dropped a hint that if Trump kept on with that tack, he might dig it out.
To remind you. A few months ago, when Donald Trump referred to Carson as pathological and compared him to a child molester, Carson had nothing to say. He was completely impotent. And in fact, his numbers tanked shortly thereafter
Maybe they’d both better hold their fire.
Maybe that IS what they are doing.
Dang. I want to see the porn actress thing.
Yep. That and even Trump’s advisors figured out that no one believes Cruz is a D.C. insider. If Trump’s lies about that, nothing he says can be trusted.
The Eleventh Commandment:
Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican
Ronald Reagan
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