Posted on 01/15/2016 4:38:45 PM PST by conservativejoy
They're framing this, cleverly, in Trumpian terms. Trump likes to say that he never attacks, he only counterpunches. A man who attacks without provocation is a bully; a man who counterpunches is simply defending himself. We're the ones counterpunching now, though, says Team Cruz. It was Trump who hit us below the belt by attacking Cruz's eligibility. The bully wanted a fight and now he's got one.
Buckle up.
"If Donald wants to have honest, open policy contrasts, we're ready for that," campaign chairman Chad Sweet said. "If, on the other hand, he's going to engage in discussions over nonsensical issues, over birther issues or who's the real evangelical-which, by the way, someone from his background should be careful about questioning the faith of our candidate," something Trump has also done recently.
Asked what he meant by Trump's "background," Sweet continued, referencing a Trump appearance at a cattle call in Iowa last summer. "I think it's interesting that Trump ... basically said at [a] family values forum he's never asked for forgiveness, but yet he is Christian. I would ask most Christians the question, 'What is the first thing you do to become a Christian?' Christians know what the answer to that question is."
"A thrice-married man is going to come into South Carolina expecting to be the Republican nominee?" [Charlie] Condon asked incredulously. "He's pro-choice. He's pro-gay marriage. He's against traditional values. He's New York, and he's got to talk about that."
Newt Gingrich was "thrice-married" when he won South Carolina in 2012 but Gingrich's conservative record is a bit sturdier than Trump's is. Million-dollar question, then: Why now? Cruz has spent six months scrupulously avoiding perceptions of conflict with Trump in order to stay on the good side of Trump fans. His spokesman tells Politico that they think they can maintain their second-choice status among Trumpers based on the fact that it was Trump who started this, not Cruz. I don't know - attacking him as a pro-abortion, pro-SSM phony Christian is about as rough as it gets in a primary. There won't be many Trump fans shifting from Cruz to Rubio as a second choice, I assume, but there may be some who, when the dust settles, decide that they'd rather stay home now if Trump's not the nominee than go to bat for Cruz.
I think Matt Lewis is right that this is more a matter of timing than anything else. Cruz sat back for months on end waiting for Trump to fade and for his fans to stampede over into Camp Cruz when he did. It didn't happen. Now he has to choose: Continue to hold his fire and risk losing Iowa, which may ruin Cruz's chances at the nomination and render the "second choice" issue moot, or throw the kitchen sink at Trump and hope that Trump fans forgive him for it later this spring? (If and when Trump fades, Cruz's conciliatory charm offensive towards Trump and his fans will, I assume, be completely, obsequiously insufferable.) He can't afford to hold back any longer now that Iowans are starting to make up their minds. At least if he loses he can tell himself that he left it all on the field. Imagine if he had continued to hug Trump and ended up in second place because of it.
There's some truth to this too:
Rick Perry, Bobby Jindal, and Lindsey Graham hit Trump repeatedly when they were polling a combined three or four percent in the polls. It was a plea for attention and may have been seen as desperate by voters. Cruz is strong enough in Iowa and elsewhere that he can do it without fear of being accused of a publicity stunt. He's attacking Trump alpha to alpha. I wonder if, a few months from now, Trump will look back and wonder why he didn't start attacking Cruz much earlier, explicitly in terms of his beta-male toadying. Oh well.
Exit question: Will this start a pile-on of Trump among the rest of the field? So long as Cruz (and Jeb Bush) are taking the brunt of Trump's wrath, there's really no reason for Rubio not to join in. Via BuzzFeed, Rand Paul is now saying things like "my every waking hour is to try to stop Donald Trump from being our nominee." That's a sentiment widely shared among Republican pols.
What exactly have the ^true conservatives^ in congress accomplished?
Obamacare scrapped?
Illegals deported?
Wall built?
Anchor babies outlawed?
National debt reduced?
Abortion restricted?
China trade deficit reduced?
Food stamp growth curbed?
Welfare growth reduced?
Fraud in Medicare & Social Security under control? (25% of Medicare payments go to fraudulent claims, and there are tens of thousands of people over age 110 still getting social security checks automatically)
If Trump can deliver any 3 of above, he is more than enough conservative for most rational people.
Trump is conservative on these issues:
Pro life since at least 2011, wanted to ban partial birth abortion as far back as 2000.
Pro Traditional marriage. ^Gay rights is not my thing.^
Pro capital punishment ^Capital punishment isn't uncivilized; murderers living is^
Hold Judges accountable
Opposes ^Common core is a disaster^ Teach citizenship, quit ^dumbing down^.
Anti education unions (2000)
For school choice
^Climate Change is a hoax^
^No Cap-and-Tax^
For drilling our own.
On Environment ^Good development enhances the environment^
Stressed the importance of a strong family & culture of life (2015)
Supports Israel
Opposes Iran deal and letting Iran obtain the bomb.
Wants to crush ISIS quickly.
Wants a military so strong no one will challenge us.
Against unbalanced trade deals that kill American jobs.
Against warrant-less government surveillance of citizens.
Is against having a high national debt. Warns that $24T is a point of no return.
Against gun control
For assault weapon ban but says the AR-15 shouldn't be considered an assault weapon.
Wants to repeal Obamacare and replace it with market driven polices and increased competition among insurance companies.
Wants to increase military spending.
Will close the border to illegals
Will send the criminals and sponges back.
Will deport all illegals but will let the hard working ones go through the legal process to come back.
Against Anchor babies
Knows unemployment is much higher than official stats.
Will bring jobs back through better trade negotiation.
Attended military academy and Wharton Business School.
Stood up for Birthers and challenged Obama on his fraud.
Believes USA is ^the greatest force for freedom the world has ever known^
Wants to honor commitments on Social Security and Medicare, which we can afford to do if he gets the economy going full steam.
Wants to reduce the fraud in disability and other programs.
Against marriage penalties in tax code.
Wants to simplify tax code with just 3 simple brackets.
Wants to reduce income taxes and reduce corporate tax.
Wants to rebuild our infrastructure.
Wants to apply welfare-to-work to 76 other welfare programs (2011)
Doesn't have time for political correctness.
Not afraid to call out either party or both when they are wrong.
Not a puppet to rich campaign donors. Go Trump 2016! Born in America of two US Citizen Parents! A true Natural Born Citizen!
Trump is my first choice. I will vote for any of those who participated in adult debate on Fox Business News yesterday, except Jeb Bush & J Kasich.
Path to Legal Status for Illegals
[Trump is very shallow. He claims he knows so much about trade. Of course we have a trade deficit with China. We have a huge market in the U.S. for cheap goods imported from China.
The average annual income in China is $5,000. Tariffs and attempting to coerce a flooding of the Chines market with American made products, is not going to enable the consumers of China to buy our products.]
Yes, I’m sure billionaires that do business internationally know so little while you are an expert.
He said nothing about flooding the Chinese market. Only about putting a tariff on goods from China since they are devaluing their currency to undercut everyone else’s prices.
Explain how exactly a tariff on goods coming into this country has anything to do with whether people in China can afford our goods? Your ignorance is obvious, as is your hypocrisy in saying Trump doesn’t understand this yet you do. Only tariffs that China puts on our goods affects if anyone there would but our products - and China does have such a tariff and that is one reason there is an imbalance. Devaluing their currency is another.
The two scorpions I am talking about are Trump and Cruz. If they tear one another apart, the GOPe candidate will win. That is probably Rubio.
And his legislative achievements?
And his legislative achievements?
Ann Coulter has become the spokeswoman for losing canditates. Not only that, she is like Pat Buchanan with a Vagina. Maybe she should just start keeping house with Bill Maher and raise a family.
That makes no sense.
It IS the responsibility of Senators, and House member, for that matter, to read the bills and discuss them.
We decry that they don’t on here.
True that: McCain was born off base.
My fondest wish is the 0bama’s birth is exposed for the lie is it.
One thing that bothered me immensely about Cruz’s retort to Trump on the debate stage was to bring in Trump’s mother. You DON’T talk trash about someone’s mother. Those are fighting words.
Pretty much. That hookup with Bill Maher shoulda given everyone a heads up as to where her real allegiance lie.
Are you saying calling someone mother a Scot is a insult?
I was speaking specifically to the trade deficit. You cannot create a balance of trade by tariffs. The market in China is not currently there because of the extremely low income of Chinese citizens.
A 45% tariff is preposterous. It would be damaging to consumers in the U.S., but of course, that’s of no concern to Trump.
Time for a change up. The current ploy is not working, desperation meter is starting to pick up a few wiffs.
I got no problem with cruz , hes a fine character in my book, i just like trump more and his policy to ban muslim immigration sealed the deal for me
I would vote cruz if trump was not in the race no doubt.
No!
But no one’s talked about someone’s mother yet-except one.
I am part Scottish.
You didn’t hear what he said during the debate.
No doubt your ears are closed to anything you don’t want to hear.
I beg to differ. everyone is talking about Cruz’s mother. It seems to be a bigger topic here than Trumps hatred for the personal property rights of people.
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