Posted on 02/06/2016 7:39:06 AM PST by GodGunsGuts
Politics is a fast-paced and unpredictable game, and sometimes, unfortunate things happen. That's the best way I can describe what occurred on caucus night in Iowa when CNN implied that Ben Carson was dropping out of the Republican race, and the Cruz campaign swiftly alerted caucus-goers that they should consider voting for Ted Cruz instead.
Let's start from the beginning.
Shortly before the Iowa caucus was set to begin, CNN's Jake Tapper reported: ...
(Excerpt) Read more at constitution.com ...
It's as simple as that.
But the media and the GOPe want a Cruz/Trump fight, so they won't play the original CNN story.
This is working well for Rubio who has a shot at taking NH --especially if Trump and Cruz go at each other in tonight's debate, leaving Rubio looking "presidential."
Ok, he’s a fibber.
Breitbart has the audio. Even after they knew Carson was not dropping out, they went with the scam.
Good try. Not buying it. Dirty trick from a dirty politician. I am from Texas. I know him.
Read the timeline.
Captain. Now that’s a funny word.
In a large percent of caucuses, those who spoke on behalf of candidates were last-second volunteers who weren’t even considered ‘captains’ by the campaigns, or even known as that candidate’s supporter until that night.
In a lot of cases, when it is said beforehand that there are ‘captains for every precinct’, it really means that someone not necessarily registered in that precinct has agreed to make calls and pass out literature in that precinct. On caucus night, they will be at their own. One person may have volunteered or been assigned to multiple precincts.
The problem is that Ted Cruz is a VALUES candidate.
His professed faith was the reason he won the evangelical vote in Iowa.
So far Cruz’s defense boils down to “you gotta fight dirty if you want to win”, “the end justifies the means”, and “other people are bad too, so get over it.”
That defense won’t work when the core of your appeal is based on being better than that.
That is exactly what he should have done when the news report came out that Ben Carson is suspending his campaign!
And you can be pretty darn sure the "moderators" will try their best to make that happen.
The missing element in the Republican race so far is that no one has wanted to really go after Trump, because they know that Trump will go gonzo. It needs to be done, but whoever does it will be dragged into the mudpit in which Donald is so at home, and will probably be irreparably damaged in the process. It becomes a question of who is willing to fall on the grenade.
There are a number of timelines, but they all show basically the same thing:
Someone in the Carson camp tells CNN that Carson is "leaving the campaign trail to return to Florida" and will not be heading to NH or SC. They either tell CNN or CNN discovers that Carson has no campaign events scheduled for the next several days. CNN tweets this information out and it is discussed live on air.
The Cruz campaign sends the information out to its team, recommending they urge Carson voters to vote for Cruz instead.
At some point Carson sends out 2 different statements saying he is staying in the race.
CNN sends out another statement saying Carson is "taking a break" from the campaign AFTER Carson has sent out the clarification.
The Carson clarification is not forwarded to the Cruz campaign staff.
Keeping in mind this happened over a very short period of time (30-45 minutes from most of the timelines I have seen) and the amount of activity and chaos that was present with record numbers of caucus goers, I can kind of understand how the Carson clarification got missed by the precinct captains. There were dozens of tweets flying around about Carson going to Florida after the original CNN report from different sources, but only 2 tweets with the clarification. And even CNN was still tweeting the original story AFTER the clarification.
Was the Cruz campaign HQ wrong to share the original story and use it to persuade Carson voters to vote for them? No, that was fair game. Even if they told Carson voters that his actions made it look like he was getting ready to quit, there is nothing wrong or unethical about that. Everyone who viewed the original report seemed to have the same idea - it DID look like he was getting ready to quit. If they said that Carson had announced he was quitting and they knew it was false, that would have been wrong.
Should the Cruz campaign HQ have forwarded the clarification from the Carson campaign to its staff? It really was not their job to clean up Carson's mess, but it still would have been the right thing to do. The fact that did not happen is why Ted apologized.
For some reason, the Trump supporters want to say that it was up to the Cruz campaign to check the story before they shared it, and that it was their responsibility to correct the story when it turned out to be untrue. No, it was CNN's responsibility to get the story right in the first place, and it was the responsibility of CNN and the Carson campaign to correct the false impression afterward. Helping them to do so would have been a nice thing for the Cruz campaign to do, but during the caucus, their job was to get their people to vote for them, not help another campaign.
Forwarding a broadcast news report is not a dirty trick.
Have you read about the Rube Goldberg machine that is the Carson campaign?
“Ted, take the high road. Recap your apology tonight in earnest. Fill in whatever might be missing. Own the perception that has been created. Do it immediately. Do it right. Do it publicly. Do it to Ben Carson’s face”
After he and his crew has said they did nothing wrong?
Fat chance.
Not at all. The people who lied are CNN and their ratings pal Donald Trump.
The CNN reports were true. The Rubio and Cruz campaigns were right to forward the information to the caucus goers. Carson took himself out of the race and he should be the one apologizing for wasting the time of his Iowa supporters since he is not committed to actually trying to win.
Rush stated on Friday that he was sick and tired of those on our side trying to excommunicate candidates that they were not supporting. This whole thing reminds me of when Dick Cheney was attacked during 2000 or 2004 when he stated something about looking out his plane window at the “crosses” in Arlington and reflecting on the price our veterans have had to pay through the years and being excoriated because the tombstones in Arlington are not crosses (although there is a section that is).
Personally I think all this vitriol towards Cruz is because he is a genuine Christian and many people just can’t stand that (remember two things: Christians are NOT perfect, just forgiven (and answerable to God Who knows the heart) and let he/she who is without sin cast the first stone...yes this includes all you sTrumpets).
“How about a teeny tiny taste of what the dems will do to the Donald”
Trump has dealt with media accusations of rape to being basically Hitler the past 6 months just fine.
Cruz needs constant hand-holding and a gaggle of bloggers and talk radio to circle the wagons around him EVERY TIME he gets into hot water.
“Personally I think all this vitriol towards Cruz is because he is a genuine Christian and many people just can’t stand that”
And here comes the martyr crap.
And I guess people not supporting Obama was because he was black too, right?
Among the general public, Trump has the highest negatives in history for a presidential candidate. I simply do not believe he can overcome these in a general election. He is attracting people in the polls who want to vent. They will not vote that way in the end.
I’m not the one frauding. Don’t fault me because the effect didn’t really mean anything.
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