Posted on 12/21/2015 4:42:04 PM PST by The Looking Spoon
I read months ago that Ted Cruz might end up being the GOP's guy because his campaign fundamentals were really strong. It appears this hasn't changed.
He is now the second choice of both Trump and Carson supporters. Trump supporters are much less likely than Cruz supporters to go to the Iowa Caucus right now and the Cruz organization is so far ahead of everyone else in organizing, it is becoming an insurmountable organizational lead for Cruz. If Cruz swings out of Iowa with a win, it will propel further momentum in his direction as he swings south to South Carolina and the SEC Primary. In both Texas and Georgia, the two big states on March 1st, Cruz has extremely impressive ground game operations. In Georgia, Cruz has one of the best Presidential ground game operations I have seen...This is consistent with what has been said about his operation from the very beginning. I have my reservations about Cruz because he is basically in the exact same place in his Senate career that Obama was in when he ran. I'm also usually reticent, personally, to support members of congress with zero executive experience being "promoted" to President (in quotes after what Obama has done to the office, so much for co-equal branches of government). Cruz is seemingly running a very good campaign, but Obama has proven that a good campaign does not a good president make.Cruz still has some very well funded super PACs and has put his Washington spending principles to work on the campaign trail. Cruz's campaign knows how to get every penny out of a dollar bill and maximize every single thing the campaign does. His campaign is not consultant heavy. Instead, Cruz has consultants, but the consultants he has are people loyal to him, not a commission. That makes a difference.
That said, Cruz is NOT the empty suit (or empty head) Obama always has been. Cruz has a resume worth talking about, and unlike the dearth of testimonials about Obama, Cruz was actually a memorable law school student student (and in a good way). I would very enthusiastically support him if he was the nominee.
Needless to say he would be the better choice between him and any Democrat, or most Republicans. The reason for this being the biggest thing he has going for him is that out of all of the candidates he comes closest to passing the "purity test." Conservatives always seem to put a premium on that before the rest of the party chooses the "electable" GOPe/RINO. This time they might actually get what they want.
The RINO standing in his way this time is Trump, but despite his high poll numbers right now and as much as he has become a projection of (apparently) a lot of "politically incorrect" sentiment in the Republican electorate he isn't as eminently electable his supporters might think. The EFF-YOO shtick wont defy gravity forever. Or maybe it will, we are still waiting on that combover, after all. ;-)
---
In other news Lindsay Graham has dropped out of the race.
"I've hit a wall," the senator said.Brother, when someone can't get more than 1% of the vote on their best day they don't hit a wall, they merge with it.
This is great news for George Pataki, who will surely benefit from this now that the Florence Nightingale vote is a little less split.
Yeah, right, Trump is ready to implode any minute. He has a “cap” of 25%. Or 30%. Or 35%...
Trump doesn’t have to implode. All that has to happen is candidates dropping out. Those votes and the undecided vote are going to decide this election. Momentum is also a factor.
Yeah.
You know why we keep seeing these articles about how Cruz is “any day now” going to be all set to “start taking it all”?
It’s because RIGHT NOW he’s not anywhere at all near doing that, and is, in fact, more than lapped by Trump everywhere except Iowa and Texas (his home state, where he’s still losing, just by not as much).
His cheerleaders can’t talk about how good he is doing, so they have to talk about how good they wishcast that he’ll be doing at some indefinite yet near point in the future.
Since Trump has about 40% now, do you really think all the others supporters and the undecided are going to rally around Cruz? He would need something like 90% of them to pull ahead. Believe what you want, but it’s not going to happen.
I know...that’s why you’ll notice I wasn’t so definitive about it...to my chagrin.
Regardless of his rise, he’s a RINO...except for his hardline stance on immigration (which a cynic could say is pure pandering to the base) none of his views are particularly Republican, much less conservative.
1. Cruz has to prove himself to be a viable alternative, and I think he is. and
2. That 40% isn’t all hard supporters. I’m sure a significant portion of that is soft support that can be moved (doesn’t mean it will)
3. As the link to Erickson’s post points out Cruz’s supporters may be more motivated than Trumps in Iowa, if that happens and Cruz wins that caucus perceptions will shift and what I point out in #2 will be a bigger factor than it currently is.
This is all just my humble opinion, of course. :-)
“The RINO standing in his way this time is Trump,”
These sycophant bloggers are just becoming more insufferable by the day.
It’s the only way they think they can beat Trump is to now paint him as a RINO so they can run the narrative that Cruz is running to the right of him when Trump has been running to the right of Cruz on several issues!
Lets see, pro gun rights, pro-life, pro-military, nationalist foreign policy, and major tax cuts. Yep, every leftist's dream candidate.
Plus Trump daily displays more common sense and leadership ability than the rest of the field put together. There's a danger to being too ideological, or what I've dubbed "conservatively correct". When all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.
They’re pushing Cruz’s political strategy as his big plus. Isn’t that what we’re trying to get away from.
This Cruz moves scares me, establishment knows Republican’ well enough to help them once again snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
First it was Bush
Then it was Fiorina
Then it was Carson
Then it was Rubio
Now the absolute firewall to stop Trump is Cruz
Yet Cruz gets dozens or hundreds to show up to his rallies while Trump gets tens of thousands.
An estimated 17,000 showed up at today’s rally in Michigan and they were expecting 7,000.
Whatever!
Trump is most definitely a RINO.
I admire a man with courage.
Calling Donald Trump what he so clearly is on this forum is like mentioning Skull and Bones at Yale.
Trump denounced the RINO House Speaker Paul Ryan and his buffet surrender. Will you acknowledge this was an anti-RINO move on Trump's part?
Budget not buffet. :)
Perhaps it’s time for me to eat dinner!
Nope. Talk is cheap and Trump is nothing but talk. He doesn’t walk the walk, which one would know if one bothered to go back and examine Trump’s actual positions, positions taken when he didn’t have to try and politically seduce a bunch of desperate so-called “conservatives.”
RINO-hood is measured by what a person does, not what that person says - otherwise there wouldn’t be any RINOs because they would all have said they weren’t RINOs. If you measure Trump by what he’s done, he’s a RINO.
What you’re saying about actions versus words can apply to whomever you’re supporting as well.
To some degree, of course. However, in Trump’s case it utterly eviscerates every sweet little nothing he’s been shouting at so-called “conservatives” during this campaign. He is in favor of universal single payer - i.e., Obamacare as it was originally intended. He is in favor of states and cities using their power of eminent domain to take houses from their owners and turn them over to private developers - this is the result of the Kelo Supreme Court case and Trump has already said - when he wasn’t trying to seduce a bunch of desperate conservatives - that he’s 100% in favor of it. He’s in favor of raising taxes on “the rich”, although, like all liberals, he pussyfoots around what counts as “rich” and how far down the economic ladder his taxes will go (you can take it to the bank that they’ll reach down to the middle class).
Shall I continue?
Please do, because whatever you’re selling remains unsold.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.