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GOP pushed Iowa win for Cruz only to blunt Trump and pump up Rubio
nytimes.com ^ | FEB. 2, 2016 | David Brooks

Posted on 02/02/2016 6:54:18 AM PST by Trumpinator

Trump’s whole campaign was based on success breeding success, the citing of self-referential poll victories to justify his own candidacy.

What happened in Iowa was that some version of normalcy returned to the G.O.P. race. The precedents of history have not been rendered irrelevant.

Ted Cruz picked up the voters who propelled Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee to victory in previous caucuses. His is a Tea Party wing in the G.O.P. But its size and geographic reach is limited.

The amazing surge for Marco Rubio shows that the Republican electorate has not gone collectively insane. At the last moment, and in a state that is not naturally friendly to him, a lot of Republicans showed up to support a conservative who could conceivably get elected and govern.

Marco Rubio now has his moment. He is the only candidate who can plausibly unify the party. Desperate Cruz-hating Republicans will turn their faces to him.

The Republican Party usually nominates unifying candidates like Marco Rubio. The laws of gravity have not been suspended. He has a great shot. But he has to show one more burst of imagination.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Politics
KEYWORDS: cruz; election; iowa; rubio; trump
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To: Trumpinator

I dunno, the logic of the GOPe is rather easy to discern. It starts with the premise that they always make the best of the situation. Thus, in seeing that Trump is likely to win they seek to win Trump over to their side. They can get to his immigration stance later but on the other stuff the perceive a guy who is Monty Hall. If they can, they would love to replace Trump with Rubio. But above all, they must destroy Cruz.

Their calculus:

Cruz gone, Donald wins, not bad.

Cruz gone, Trump gone, Rubio wins, excellent!!

Trump gone, Rubio gone, Cruz wins, sell Cruz out in the general at all costs. However you slice it, Cruz will be gone.


61 posted on 02/02/2016 7:37:53 AM PST by FlipWilson
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To: Trumpinator

Anybody but Trump because the real can be manipulated...including the Canadian preacherman.


62 posted on 02/02/2016 7:39:09 AM PST by Aria (2016: The gravy train v Donald Trump)
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To: C. Edmund Wright

... BASS ACKWARDS........establishment was doing everything they could to promote Trump over Cruz. They don’t like either, but they “can do deals” with the Donaldus....they can do ethanol’s scam with the Donald....the lobbyists and donors were flocking to Trump.

It’s nauseating and plain to see. Some live in donnie’s alternate reality show.


63 posted on 02/02/2016 7:43:03 AM PST by libbylu (Cruz: The truth with a smile.)
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To: All

Cruz supporters here for the most part have been good winners, but some are the old insufferable jagoffs they have been. Not being a bad loser here, but Iowa is just the first 2 minutes of the game, I would not be crowing. It’s a given Trump is going to crush Cruz in NH, the demographics and Cruz’s strident tone turn off the Ex-Bostonians. So we have a 1-1 tie. SC I think Trump wins, it’s still a solid conservative state but there is a strong under current of anti-establishment there. There on out, looks grim for Cruz, only big state he wins is Texas. He will lose Florida, New York, California, Illinois, and probably Ohio and Colorado. Trump wins a sizable portion of the delegates going into the convention.


64 posted on 02/02/2016 7:44:12 AM PST by pburgh01
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To: Forward the Light Brigade

Either way Cruz and Trump knuckleheads need to knock it off and stop the fighting, you guys are on the same team. Rubio must be stopped!


65 posted on 02/02/2016 7:45:16 AM PST by dfwgator
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To: Trumpinator

A Cruz victory was what the GOP-e was hoping for last night

The true winner last night was the GOP-e, they got exactly what they wanted. The GOP-e would want Clinton president over Trump, Clinton can be easily bought, and in the end that is what it really is about anyways. Money

Cruz did a great job though, playing preacher and vote cop worked in his favor, kudos to great campaign strategy


66 posted on 02/02/2016 7:46:01 AM PST by arl295
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To: Trumpinator

40% said they didn’t like DT not debating. He also had no ground game, not even precinct reps at all caucus sites. All those stories about him not having ground game in NH are likely true. His trashing of conservatives doesn’t help either. Did you know DT has a complex about his short fingers? Sasse got in a dig about that on his tweets to DT. Funny stuff.
Some of us don’t think it is cute when he trashes conservatives.


67 posted on 02/02/2016 7:47:29 AM PST by libbylu (Cruz: The truth with a smile.)
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To: Trumpinator; All

Rubio is a GOPe creation, a Trojan Horse, handpicked by the worst of the worst in the GOP. The same bunch behind Ryan.

The Rubio Deception.....MUST READ!

https://klsouth.wordpress.com/2014/07/19/refresher-rubios-deceptions/

or http://freerepublic.com/focus/news/3391783/posts?page=39#39


68 posted on 02/02/2016 7:48:28 AM PST by AuntB (Illegal immigration is simply more "share the wealth" socialism and a CRIME not a race!)
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To: Trumpinator
You completely changed the headline which is a deception and is explicitly forbidden by forum rules. It doesn't matter where you posted it.

Not only did you change the headline, you changed to an idiotic lie that only a moron could believe to be true and for which absolutely no supporting evidence exists.

69 posted on 02/02/2016 7:48:58 AM PST by dead ("I'm up to my eyeball in virgin goats!" - Mullah Omar)
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To: C. Edmund Wright
...and you still think the establishment favors Cruz over Trump the ethanol crony deal maker?

No, I think the establishment supports Cruz over Trump because Cruz supports amnesty and TPP. Why else would the GOPe groups be pumping money into his PACs the way they are?
70 posted on 02/02/2016 7:49:00 AM PST by JoSixChip (Ted Cruz (R-Goldman Sachs) - losers are not winners)
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To: bigbob

When you accept establishment money, you are playing the establishment game.....

A sitting senator, who went to Harvard, only has had a government job his entire life is playing the “anti-establishment” card. That is one fine ruse he is playing, kudos to him


71 posted on 02/02/2016 7:49:07 AM PST by arl295
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To: Trumpinator

Not for a moment do I believe that eventually it will be down to Trump and Cruz slugging it out.

There will be a third. That will probably be Rubio.


72 posted on 02/02/2016 7:49:37 AM PST by xzins (Have YOU Donated to the Freep-a-Thon? https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: Protect the Bill of Rights

I posted this under personal and blogs - using an editorial to show that my views are backed up. It is not posted in news.


73 posted on 02/02/2016 7:50:33 AM PST by Trumpinator ("Are you Batman?" the boy asked. "I am Batman," Trump said.)
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To: dfwgator
Either way Cruz and Trump knuckleheads need to knock it off and stop the fighting, you guys are on the same team.

Not really. For one thing, Cruz 'gets it' on the complex situation in Syria, regarding Russia's broader (expansionist) agenda there and elsewhere. Trump either doesn't or is in cahoots with Putin on it.

74 posted on 02/02/2016 7:51:05 AM PST by ETL (Ted Cruz 2016!! -- For a better, safer America)
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Ted Cruz on ISIS, Russia, Obama, missile defense, and the New START Treaty with Russia...

"If we want to actually dismantle ISIS, we need to dramatically change course. We need a real, robust campaign that maximizes our overwhelming air advantage.

We need to focus our efforts not on trying to create friends, but on supporting our real ones, especially the Kurds in Iraq and Syria who have actually had success against ISIS."

-snip-

"We can redouble our efforts to develop the defensive weapons that neutralized the offensive Soviet threat -- particularly missile defense, which has seen a 25% budget reduction under Obama, according to an analysis from the conservative Heritage Foundation, and has been constrained by bad arms deals like New START.

We should not only move quickly to install the canceled interceptor sites Putin opposed in Poland and the Czech Republic, but also to develop the next generation of systems that will only increase his discomfiture.

These options do not entail a ground war in Syria, yet would effectively shake us free from the failed policies that have brought us to our current impasse.

These options set us on a new path that puts Putin on notice that the United States is reclaiming our traditional role as leader of the free world."

http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/09/opinions/cruz-syria-putin/index.html

**********************************************************

"I think it would be a mistake to get involved in the Syrian civil war. There have been voices in Washington eager for us to send our sons and daughters over to fight that civil war for some time. I haven't been one of them. I think the touchstone of U.S. military policy should be protecting the national security of this country."

"What we're seeing Putin in Russia do is a direct response to the profound weakness of Obama over six and a half years.

Putin views Obama as weak, as ineffective, and frankly, as a laughingstock. And, as a result, he is moving in, he is invading his neighbors, like Ukraine, he's kidnapping Estonians, and he's moving into Syria to gain a stronger foothold in the Middle East."

https://www.tedcruz.org/news/icymi-cruz-we-have-no-business-getting-in-the-middle-of-the-syrian-civil-war-goal-should-be-to-defeat-isis/

**********************************************************

Ted Cruz:
"We need a coherent plan to address both the specific crisis in Syria and the challenge posed more broadly by Putin's resurgent Russia.

The good news is that America still has options, if our leaders can summon the will to exercise them.

For starters, in Syria we can't double down on the failed strategies that have given Putin his opportunity to intervene.

We are now two years out from President Obama's proposed intervention after al-Assad used chemical weapons against his own people. ..."

http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/09/opinions/cruz-syria-putin/index.html

75 posted on 02/02/2016 7:51:35 AM PST by ETL (Ted Cruz 2016!! -- For a better, safer America)
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To: Servant of the Cross

LOl and thanks. Truthfully, there is much coming out of the right media for them to post about DT. DT has higher unfavorable scores than Hill. 5% polled last night said DT shared their values. The rose is falling off the bloom.


76 posted on 02/02/2016 7:51:40 AM PST by libbylu (Cruz: The truth with a smile.)
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To: dead

It does matter where you post it - this is not news - its a vanity - but showing proof where my vanity can be backed up in a way. You just don’t like the message.


77 posted on 02/02/2016 7:53:21 AM PST by Trumpinator ("Are you Batman?" the boy asked. "I am Batman," Trump said.)
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To: JoSixChip

Cruz can still be bought, and they have

Cruz is not anti-establishment, he is playing anti-establishment.

Cruz is the establishment

Good for him, great campaign strategy, it is working for him


78 posted on 02/02/2016 7:53:22 AM PST by arl295
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To: All
Trump, in 2013, endorsed communist Bill De Blasio for New York City mayor. He supports Obama's opening up to communist Cuba. He loves KGB Putin. He, in his mid-50s, supported gays in the military AND partial birth abortion.
________________________________________

TRUMP [on Larry King Show (2009), referring to the then newly elected communist president]: "Well, I really like him. I think that he's working very hard. He's trying to rebuild our reputation throughout the world. I mean, we really have lost a lot of reputation in the world. The previous administration [GW Bush] was a total disaster, a total catastrophe."

And I'm not saying I agree with everything he's doing. I do agree with what they're doing with the banks. Whether they FUND THEM or NATIONALIZE them, it doesn't matter, but you have to keep the banks going."

http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0904/15/lkl.01.html

79 posted on 02/02/2016 7:53:24 AM PST by ETL (Ted Cruz 2016!! -- For a better, safer America)
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To: bigbob

Thanks - It’s good to know I am not alone in thinking this way.


80 posted on 02/02/2016 7:54:38 AM PST by Trumpinator ("Are you Batman?" the boy asked. "I am Batman," Trump said.)
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