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Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.indystar.com/story/opinion/readers/2016/04/16/indiana-voters-should-back-hillary-clinton-ted-cruz/83099646/

Businessman Donald Trump’s seemingly unstoppable presidential campaign might be losing its momentum. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s recent sweep in Colorado put up another speed bump in Trump’s path to the Republican nomination. While Trump claimed the Colorado outcome was “rigged” and “totally unfair,” his campaign is simply no longer winning all aspects of the race. Prediction markets are reacting to this latest hiccup for the Trump campaign. As the possibility of a contested convention in July looks more and more likely, Trump’s numbers have dipped. Prediction markets are where people bet on the possibilities of certain outcomes in politics, sports...

In 1980, Ronald Reagan campaigned on a four point economic recovery plan. First, reduce tax rates, to increase incentives for job creation, investment, business start-ups and expansion, and wage growth due to the resulting increased demand for labor and increased productivity. Even liberal Keynesian economics holds that tax cuts are pro-growth. Two, reduce regulatory costs and barriers to business, which can act as further tax cuts. Three, reduce federal spending, to reduce the government’s drain on the private sector. And four, restrain monetary policy to restore a stable value for the dollar. After Reagan led adoption of those policies in...

Front-runner’s adult children huddle with their father as staff divides among three competing aides. Donald Trump’s campaign overhaul has inflamed an internecine struggle among three of his closest advisors, creating an atmosphere that multiple sources likened to a political “Hunger Games.” According to interviews with more than a dozen people on or close to the campaign, staffers are increasingly dividing themselves into competing factions aligned with Trump’s three top officials – embattled campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, who still commands deep loyalty among many of the people he hired; deputy campaign manager Michael Glassner, who has a growing group of supporters;...

Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/elections/presidential/2016/04/09/ted-cruz-scores-near-sweep-district-committee-delegates/82831640/

The assumption for months was that everything would fall into place. That there was no need to really dig in, that the outcome was obvious. And then, too late, it became clear that this optimism was unfounded. Or maybe not too late, but late enough in the process to mean that folks would have to scramble. And now everything is up in the air. The paragraph above describes the Republican establishment’s attitude about Donald Trump’s candidacy, obviously. But it also describes Trump’s push for the nomination itself. From the moment he stepped onto that escalator on Trump Tower until about...

Senator Ted Cruz has often stated that Jesus Christ is central to his life. He talks about how his father had left his family but returned after receiving the gospel, how his mother turned to Christ, and how this changed his life: I was raised in the church.… When I was eight years old… [I] gave [my life] to Jesus. … [To] know that… I am redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, nothing is more important to me. I am a new creature in Christ, and it [is] central to who I am today. I couldn’t run for president...

Over the past few months, the Republican race has morphed from a seventeen-headed gorgon into a more manageable monster with four faces. The first face belongs to front runner Donald Trump, who has run an idiosyncratic campaign, focused almost entirely on his own personality. He has no discernible platform, represents no clear faction of the GOP, and is running as Trump rather than as a Republican. The next two faces are recognizably Republican. Ted Cruz, a respectable second, is running as the strong constitutional conservative. He favors a smaller government; decentralization of authority; a foreign policy grounded in the national...

After several high profile incidents involving Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, the candidate continued to stand by his man, insisting that he was in the right and wasn’t going anywhere. And true to his word, Lewandowski was not fired, remaining by his side at events and on the campaign plane. But in the days which followed, according to some sources, Corey may be on the scene but his role is slowly diminishing as others take over key duties. (Politico) In public, Donald Trump is standing behind embattled campaign manager Corey Lewandowski as he faces battery charges for grabbing a reporter....

telling insight into yesterday's speculation-igniting, closed-door meeting between Donald Trump and top officials at the Republican National Committee -- via the New York Times: (GRAPHIC-AT-LINK) It's almost as if surrounding yourself with unsuccessful people actually isn't a wise way to run a presidential campaign, a realization that may belatedly be dawning on Trump. Turning to a new Politico report, is the Republican frontrunner aware of these realities? The math is difficult as it is -- particularly if he loses Wisconsin and especially if his South Carolina delegate haul is actually in some danger. And as we've discussed previously, Team Trump...

MILWAUKEE — In her Wisconsin debut as a Donald Trump surrogate, Sarah Palin was met with tepid applause and stone-faced silence Friday night at a Milwaukee County Republican gathering. In contrast, the 750 Republicans at American Serb Hall cheered enthusiastically for Sen. Ted Cruz, who was introduced by Gov. Scott Walker and talk radio host Vicki McKenna. The contrasting receptions illustrated why the Texas senator has surged past the real estate mogul and reality TV celebrity in the latest polls, especially in southeastern Wisconsin. Palin opened with a call for unity among the candidates in supporting former Green Bay Packer...

Friday on Fox New Channel’s “The O’Reilly Factor,” Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said if no candidate gets the 1,237 delegates needed to secure the nomination by the Republican convention this summer than at a contested convention, the Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Gov. John Kasich (R-OH) delegates will come to him, not Donald Trump. Cruz said, “The only way to win the Republican nomination is to earn a majority of the delegates and that is what I believe we’re going to do, either in the states leading up to the convention, or if we get to the...

Bernie Sanders and Ted Cruz appear poised for victory in Tuesday’s Wisconsin primary, but Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are still in good shape nationally. That’s the finding from Public Policy Polling‘s latest survey, released on March 31. In Wisconsin, Sanders leads Clinton 49-43 in the Democratic primary; on the GOP side, Cruz has a narrow 38-37 lead over Trump, with John Kasich a distant third at 17 percent. See the Wisconsin numbers here. PPP director Tom Jensen says the Republican numbers are a little deceiving, though. He says about a third of Kasich supporters say they may change their...

Armed with newfound, if tepid, support from unlikely sources over the past few weeks, Ted Cruz has touted himself as a Republican uniter whose campaign represents a broad and ideologically diverse spectrum of the party. But with the GOP aiming for a contested convention in July, there are mixed signals as to whether Cruz is the consensus choice in that scenario or simply the party’s vehicle to Cleveland, only to be ditched later. While Donald Trump still has a viable path to securing the 1,237 delegates needed to clinch the nomination, a loss to Cruz in Wisconsin next week would...

The April 5 Republican primary in Wisconsin is looking less like a toss-up between Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz and more like a probable win for Cruz. This would be a fairly grave problem for Trump in his effort to reach 1,237 delegates ahead of the convention. Further, a new Wisconsin poll from a well-respected outfit shows horrific favorability ratings for Trump in the state among all voters, mirroring his recent national downturn. If he can’t reach enough delegates ahead of the convention, and his support shows signs of erosion in the final contests—all while his overall favorability rating...

The Ted Cruz sex scandal story just took another twist, with Cruz blaming Donald Trump for allegedly planting the story that ran last week and serious doubts arising over whether any of it is actually true. The National Enquirer story accused Cruz of cheating on his wife, Heidi, with as many as five mistresses. The women were not named in the story but were quickly identified through their blurred out pictures and details of the alleged affairs. Cruz immediately denounced the story as untrue — as have some of the women identified as his mistresses — and now Cruz is...

Sen. Ted Cruz was more deft in his handling of a question about abortion criminalization than Donald Trump. Trump once again hijacked the news cycle with some incendiary remarks Wednesday, telling MSNBC’s Chris Matthews that there should be “some punishment” for women who get an abortion.

As he inches toward the GOP nomination, Donald Trump is becoming more and more disliked among American voters. Donald Trump wasn't wildly popular to begin with. And now he's becoming even more disliked among American voters, creating a significant threat to his chances of winning the Republican presidential nomination. Trump is, by far, the GOP delegate leader — and the only candidate with a realistic shot at winning a majority of delegates before the July convention. But at the same time, nearly two-thirds of Americans view Trump unfavorably — and his image rating has declined since Republican voting began in...

Ted Cruz didn’t attack Donald Trump early in the cycle because others who had “ended up as roadkill.” In an interview with Wisconsin's Charlie Sykes of WTMJ, the Texas senator was pressed about his earlier fawning statements about Trump, including a tweet from December that said he wouldn’t engage with Trump because the billionaire businessman was “terrific.” “What took you so long?” WTMJ asked, referring to Cruz's now full-throated attacks on Trump. “It was a wonderfully diverse, talented, dynamic, young field. It had really incredible talent. If you look at a number of the candidates that took on Donald Trump...

One pastor in Iowa recently suggested that despite, or rather, because of the bitter rancor among Evangelical Christians over Donald Trump that one particular running mate could persuade naysayers to actually support Trump. Who is this Hawkeye pastor and why should anyone care about his opinion? In 2012, conservative commentator, Iowan Steve Deace, a #NeverTrump and Cruz supporter, identified the most effective “super-operatives” in Iowan politics. One, he wrote was an “unassuming pastor” of Walnut Creek Church, who “could very well be the most powerful man you’ve never heard of.” “He could easily mean the difference between victory and defeat...