Why Cruz Could Beat Clinton

nationaljournal.com ^ | April 17, 2016 | Josh Kraushaar

[John W]

Last Novem­ber, I spent a week in Ken­tucky to cov­er one of the most-loathed Re­pub­lic­ans on the bal­lot that year. Matt Bev­in, an am­bi­tious, tea-party-ori­ented busi­ness­man who had chal­lenged Sen­ate Minor­ity Lead­er Mitch Mc­Con­nell in a 2014 Sen­ate primary, was now the GOP’s gubernat­ori­al stand­ard-bear­er in the biggest race in the coun­try. Mc­Con­nell’s ad­visers tried to pre­vent Bev­in from win­ning a di­vided primary. After he se­cured the nom­in­a­tion, Re­pub­lic­an in­siders openly dis­missed his chances of win­ning the gen­er­al elec­tion; they were ex­as­per­ated that he nev­er listened to the party es­tab­lish­ment for ad­vice. Demo­crats be­lieved the preelec­tion polls show­ing their nom­in­ee, ex­per­i­enced state At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Jack Con­way, with a com­fort­able lead.

De­fy­ing con­ven­tion­al wis­dom, Bev­in won in a land­slide. Des­pite hav­ing weak ap­prov­al rat­ings, he pre­vailed be­cause his Demo­crat­ic op­pon­ent’s num­bers were even worse. And he has achieved some early con­ser­vat­ive gov­ern­ing suc­cesses in a state where Demo­crats had dom­in­ated.

Ted Cruz is Matt Bev­in, on a na­tion­al level.

[fastrock]

I’m a KY resident and Matt Bevin supporter. Kim Davis refusal to sign gay marriage licenses and Bevin’s support for Davis brought Northern KY conservatives, Eastern KY coal people and bible believing Dems together to push Bevin over the top. The week before the election, the GOPe took out pantry level buys for TV and radio ads.

[nopardons]

Go research the Hillary V. Lazio debate and only then talk on this topic.

Trump is the ONLY one who can and shall shut Hillary down in a debate. OTOH, Hillary will eviscerate Teddy in less than 2 minutes flat and leave him slack jawed, open mouthed, looking like a deer in the headlights. And FYI....Cruz is NOT a good debater at all.

[Dr. Sivana]

OTOH, It’s the Cruz Cult that slavishly worships Two Faced Teddy. Cruz says he always opposed Obamatrade yet he campaigned to fast track it knowing ZERO fast tracked trade bills have ever been voted down.

Not true. I supported Cruz DESPITE his stand on H1B visas. He improved on the issue. Call it a flip flop if you like. His voting record is near 100% conservative on all indices. He doesn't speak conservative as a second language. He is sound on life and culture issues. Trade and H1Bs were a soft-spot. Santorum was sound on that, but no one was buying Santorum this time around (he was also in Trump's league on immigration, not talking about letting the good ones back in). All the candidates have had their weak spots. We will never know if Cruz improved on H1Bs because of polling or because the Disney firings woke him up as to how the law worked in practice.

Is Cruz perfect? No. Is his life and personal expression that of a conservative? Yes.

Trump supporters are split between issues people (Build the Wall, get Mexico to pay for it.) and those who are drawn to a particular posture, which is not purely a personality play. Saying, "We have to start winning again" can mean different things to different people.

We can all agree it means we aren't going to look for excuses to not look out for national interests rather than international consensus in trade and foreign policy. That is also an issue, and Trump has wisely made it a signature issue for him, the first to do it since Pat Buchanan, without the Buchanan persona. Others do like his personality and his personal life story of achievement and being generally outsized. Only some have it as the primary motivation. A fourth group see him as able to reshape the Republican coalition in a more nationalistic tone, less wed to a straight Adam Smith/less government tone. Whether that is because they don't believe in it or because they don't think that is a winnable or primary battle right now varies with the individual. It IS the basis of a new coalition, which has for Reagan conservatives good and bad points.

Let's keep Hillary Rodham Clinton out. Let's keep the contest between Cruz and Trump, and may the nominee keep her evilness out of office.

[nopardons]

Unlike YOU, I know what Hillary does in debates and I also know what a terrible debater Cruz is, no matter what you and your ilk claim.

She uses her own rules, when she debates. Ted is incapable of thinking on his feet and if he hasn't memorized the lines, he can't and doesn't talk...but just stands there like a deer caught in the headlights. She would utterly destroy him.

[PrairieDawg]

That makes YUGE sense Linda Frances. YUGE!!! ;-)

[grumpa]

“I will never vote for this POS.”

What has happened to the Freeper crowd? You have become as disgusting as the man you are championing.

This crowd used to be largely a group of intellectual libertarians and conservatives. You have drunk from the Trump toilet. (Maybe because you are really Trump campaign hacks that have not been part of the historical community. . . .)

[cornfedcowboy]

Trump will be mathematically eliminated by June 1. I demand he drop out if he cannot win!

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Put down the ethanol, sheesh.

[tinyowl]

I'm rather well acquainted with the psychology behind cults and creating a cult. The problem is, to some extent, it's always going to be true in a political campaign that friends and enemies are shaped and caricatured. To be honest - I don't know whether you're criticizing Trump or Cruz. For sure, both have their share of cultish followers, which does make the leader a cult leader. Good men have supporters who worship them as in a cult.

So I'm not sure what you're getting at. Both have identified legitimate enemies, both to some extent have caricatured the enemy.

One is making deals with his primary enemy. One has already been effective in breaking through the national hypnosis about our real enemies and changing the course of the conversation. At least one has his positions on the major issues posted on his website, pretty specifically, and did so I believe earlier than the others. One is proven at actually building things - at turning his vision into a reality. One has a short track record at such things. One has higher negatives amongst in polls, one is disliked by virtually anyone who has actually worked with him.

I don't really think Cruz is running as a cult, but if you're suggesting that Trump's campaign is a cult ... that it's just like calling him an actual Narcissist -> there are certain similarities -> but it doesn't fit the actual meaning of the word.

Another thing about cults ... their followers, in the face of convincing evidence that their leader is corrupt, stick with him irrationally and make excuses for him. How is this not true of Cruz's followers if you believe, as I do, that Ted is sleeping with the enemy and may never have been what he says he is in the first place. James Carville has said flat out he became a democrat operative not because he believes in any of it, but because the democrats are more gullable - no one would have guessed that he was anything but an ardent democrat. Why believe Cruz is what he says he is, and hasn't just played the part?

But I don't know who you're trying to criticize with your comments ... so not sure how to answer.

I don't personally like or dislike Trump. I don't know the guy. I think he's authentic, wants to get done what he says he wants to get done, and he has a track record of getting stuff done. He's not corrupt, he's not asking for anything from me other than my vote. Does that make me culty? Of course not - I'm just hiring the guy -> I don't consider the president 'my leader' at all - I consider him a high level janitor if he does his job right.

So if you're anti-Trump, which I suspect, you're posting this to the wrong guy, and I don't think that other than the robots on both sides, you're going to find many dumb culty Trump supporters on this site. Most of us here supported him early long before it was fashionable or popular or acceptable in the country, for specific concrete reasons, and our arguments against Cruz have been made by Cruz and not ourselves. I liked Cruz for a long time, but I don't trust him any more, and it has nothing to do with anything he's done specifically to Trump. I think he's in bed with the enemy, don't think they ever were his enemy or friends, just players in his vision, and I think he's creepy, cagey, sneaky, dishonest, ambitious, out for himself, and I think he's acting the part of the pure conservative when he's really nothing other than liquid ambition who read the political landscape into which he entered well.

[hinckley buzzard]

Cruz has been fading in both national and state polls since the Colorado fiasco, and I can't see any other reason for such a drop.Cruz has the Hillary disease-- the more you hear from him the less you like him.

The closer he gets, the more he looks and sounds like a crank. He may be the only person in history that makes the Constitution sound like it has punitive intent.

[Seaplaner]

Go research the Hillary V. Lazio debate and only then talk on this topic.

Trump is the ONLY one who can and shall shut Hillary down in a debate. OTOH, Hillary will eviscerate Teddy in less than 2 minutes flat and leave him slack jawed, open mouthed, looking like a deer in the headlights. And FYI....Cruz is NOT a good debater at all.

Well, my good FRiend, I've seen Mrs. Clinton debate on several occasions, and I believe I recall at least parts of the Lazio debate (awkward, IIRC)

Mr. trump's debating skills are, at best, streaky. His "New York Values" response was, admittedly, pretty good. His promises to build "the wall" would (if I could believe him) have me going.

Mostly, however, trump's debate performances have been a mixture of histrionics and rudeness. His overuse of middle school adjectives ("very, very beautiful") and verbal crutches ("this I can tell you, this I can tell you") along with his accusative interjections are creepily cringeworthy to the very peeps that a serious candidate would be courting.

I also know from observation that Mister trump hasn't spent any serious time in preparation. His geopolitical, history, and simple civics knowledge is woefully lacking, and would be an embarrassment to anyone pretending to run for the highest office.

That said, as low as is my opinion of Mister trump, it is quite high for his supporters. We are conservatives, we agree on nearly every issue (major and minor) and we absolutely do not want Hillary running our lives. Our disagreement is who we choose as a party leader.

.

[JoSixChip]

And if Trump wins the nomination, I take it you would find nothing wrong with Cruz supporters writing in Cruz or going 3rd party?

Ya, good luck with that. The only ones that would vote for him are the gopE party hacks.

[JoSixChip]

What has happened to the Freeper crowd? You have become as disgusting as the man you are championing. This crowd used to be largely a group of intellectual libertarians and conservatives.

Read your post again, your use of projection and hypocrisy in back-to-back sentences is really pretty amusing. And just for the record, it is clear you don't have a clue what conservative or libertarian even means. But here's a hint, it's not TPA or the corker bill or trying to disenfranchise American voters.

[nopardons]

I am hardly your "friend" and most assuredly NOT your "GOOD FRIEND"; I don't know you from Adam!

As she does with EVERYTHING, Hillary "debates" with her own rules. This is PERFECT for Trump, because he knows her, knows what buttons to push, and knows exactly how to shut her up and down.

Lazio is a better debater than Cruz and just as good with the lawerly verbiage, which just doesn't work against Hillary.

What you call "histrionics", from Trump, is the ONLY method that works AGAINST Hillary; he beats her at her own game.

When he promises to do something, HE DOES IT! For Trump, his word is his bond! And if you don't believe him, you do so at your own peril.

While he doesn't talk down to people, when he is on the stump, he does talk like "the common man". He also has a speech pattern that was very common for his father's age group and his, in NYC. Trump is NOT an elitist at all and though his bank book is much larger than most people's, he still connects with most.

OTOH, the professional pols, most, if not all of them, have law degrees. They don't talk like "normal" people do.

Stupidly snobby "elitists" at NR , with their NEVER TRUMP crap, all attempt to sound like William F. Buckley and never do pull that off at all!

You wanna talk "CREEPY" and "CRINGE WORTHY"? That's Cruz"s IN THE WEEDS weasel word lawyer crap and his black Southern preacher cum weepy televangelist style is!

Unlike Cruz, Trump actually KNOWS world leaders and the higher ups in many foreign nations. He knows how to woo and work with them, on different levels. He understand finance, business, and is a true fiscal conservative.

Frankly, at this point in time, I'm truly not all convince that all of us ARE Conservatives now. What REAL Conservative makes excuses for a candidate who lies about his Constitutional standing re eligibility to be president; especially one who promotes himself as being a "CONSTITUTIONAL CONSERVATIVE" ?

[JediJones]

Opposing Trump doesn’t make you pro-establishment.

Last I checked Giuliani and Christie are establishment and were bashed as liberal candidates for president in the past. Have they turned Trump into an establishment liberal by endorsing him?

[nopardons]

Unlike Cruz and the Bushes, Trump doesn’t have Rudy nor Chris on his campaign staff.

[Mechanicos]

Opposing Trump puts you in bed with the establishment, Obama, the democrats the MSM, UN Muslims LaRaza etc. What the hell are you thinking? If it was as you think it is then why the hell are conservatives’ enemies trying to stop Trump while they are helping Cruz? That does not compute on any level.

If the situation was as you say they would be after Cruz as the most conservative, but none of our enemies are, why is that?

[JediJones]

The Power of Cultivative Thinking?

[JediJones]

Your accusations against Cruz are baseless. What you “think” doesn’t mean anything when you don’t have facts.

Trusting Trump over Cruz shows irrationality. Cruz over time has been extremely consistent in his viewpoints and actions. Trump has held radically different positions on a wide array of issues. If Cruz was a liberal all his life, why in the world would he have been acting like a conservative all his life? To paint Cruz as anything but authentic requires taking absolutely fanciful leaps akin to believing in Bigfoot, U.F.O.s or that Elvis is alive. Sure, your theory COULD be correct, but there is not one bit of evidence to back it up and not only that, but it would be EXTREMELY UNLIKELY that no evidence would exist to back it up IF your theory was actually true.

Name me one thing a conservative who wanted to beat Trump in this primary would do differently than what Cruz has done. Cruz’s statements and actions have been thoroughly consistent with what a true conservative would do going back as far as we know, including those photos of him in his college dorm mapping out on the wall which Republicans were winning during a 1980s-1990s race.

[JediJones]

Trump has had Roger Stone on his payroll off and on since the ‘90s, who is a guy who tried to get the GOP party platform turned into pro-choice.