Ted Cruz Ping! If you want on/off this ping list, please let me know.
Please beware, this is a high-volume ping list!
CRUZ or LOSE!
Posted on 05/13/2015 9:35:44 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
When Ted Cruz next returns to New Hampshire, he’ll have a team of at least 42 activists – including a few of the state’s top conservatives – working with him to bolster his showing in the first-in-the- nation primary, where the most conservative candidates have struggled in recent years.
Former speaker of the House Bill O’Brien, former U.S. senator Bob Smith and Executive Councilor David Wheeler announced they’d be the foundation of Cruz’s leadership team yesterday in Concord. The big three took the stage in the lobby of the Legislative Office Building in front of a group of the Texas senator’s backers.
On the team are a dozen former and current state representatives and others with individual expertise in their counties, their colleges, and their liberty and faith groups.
O’Brien said most Republican candidates for president claim to be conservative, “but for most we can only guess – and with others, the guessing is over and we’re disappointed.”
“With Sen. Cruz, we do not need to guess and he will not disappoint. Sen. Cruz has distinguished himself as the country’s strongest conservative leader in a Congress where too often being an insider is more important than being faithful to the public.”
Smith said he believes “in the old adage you should judge a man by the company he keeps” and that “these are some of the strongest conservative leaders in the state of New Hampshire and they’re here with Ted Cruz. That’s a very powerful statement.”
But conservatives alone won’t be enough to win the primary, said University of New Hampshire professor Dante Scala.
“The center of gravity in the New Hampshire Republican primary is among moderate and somewhat conservative Republican voters – this isn’t the Iowa caucuses,” he said. “Very conservative voters are present in the electorate, but they can’t even deliver a plurality, let alone a majority.”
So while Cruz has locked in his base – and his network of super PACs has reportedly raised more than $30 million – it’ll take more to win, if that’s even part of Cruz’s strategy.
“In the big scheme of things, if (Cruz) can win, place or show in New Hampshire after doing well in Iowa, then he’ll live to fight another day in South Carolina and the other primaries to follow,” Scala said.
Looking back, a month ahead of the last presidential primary, in December 2011, O’Brien, Smith and other conservatives endorsed Newt Gingrich, who went on to a fourth-place finish in New Hampshire with 9 percent of the vote. Compare that with the eventual nominee, Mitt Romney, who took 39 percent.
O’Brien said yesterday he backed Gingrich because he was a “known quantity” who’d already offered a wealth of ideas.
“I could be on a plane flying with him – as I was a couple of times – and I’m sitting there going, ‘This guy is a fountainhead of ideas,’ you know?” O’Brien said. “On the other hand, maybe that’s not a way to campaign. The way to campaign is to let people know you care about them, care about their country and you have ways to turn it around. Ted Cruz will do that.”
Smith said Cruz’s famous 21-hour speech against Obamacare, which helped lead to a government shutdown, created “a perception he was more of an obstructionist . . . (but) when you hear him speak and you hear his positive message, it’s the opposite. I think that people, as they hear him, are going to pick up on that message,” Smith said.
Still, the speakers at yesterday’s event weren’t suggesting Cruz would win in New Hampshire. O’Brien said “the early-decision states are going to stand for a strong conservative” and he expects Cruz to emerge with momentum, but acknowledged that New Hampshire would likely be the place with the most moderate voters.
Looking at the 2008 cycle, Mike Huckabee is an example of a candidate who won in Iowa, lagged in New Hampshire, then rose back to a close second in South Carolina.
Huckabee was a clear winner at the Iowa caucuses with 34 percent of the vote, compared with Romney’s 25 percent and John McCain’s 13 percent. Days later in New Hampshire, it was the more moderate McCain and Romney running away with the vote, at 37 percent and 32 percent respectively, and Huckabee trailing far behind with 11 percent. In South Carolina, McCain won with 33 percent to Huckabee’s 30, and Romney took just 15 percent.
In 2000, New Hampshire was one of the few primary states that McCain took from George W. Bush, winning 48 percent of the vote to Bush’s 30, while using campaign finance reform as a primary platform of his campaign.
Nevertheless, O’Brien said Cruz “has a real opportunity to define himself in New Hampshire and is beginning to do that.”
“I think his optimistic approach – to governance, to the issues, to campaigning – is going to resonate really, really well,” he said.
Cruz’s lead New Hampshire staffer, Ethan Zorfas, said Cruz was in Washington, D.C., voting yesterday and will be back in the state May 29 to 31.
He voted for fast track. No structural argument he can make for that matters. If you cannot trust Obama, then the details of the deal simply do not matter.
Don’t believe me? Send me 10,000 dollars. I will guarantee you 25% a year returns and no fees.
Wait what?? You say the terms don’t matter because you cannot trust me??? Ohhhhhh,,,, a teachable moment.
And im for him, but this is a huge disappointment. And worse, it seems EVERY republican was bribed into this. They all support it with gusto.
Huh?
Every time I read a Cruz headline like this this comes to mind:
You go girlfriend
Can’t explain it
Next thing that comes to mind is, don’t forget to tune out the lame anti Cruz flak. Because we know about thatth
I’m sending another donation tonight to www.TedCruz.org/donate!
Cruz or lose baby!
Impressive.
Lots of folks who mock the low-information voters on the Left are using rumors and low-information suspicions to trash Cruz - how pathetic can our side get?
Bob Smith (undoubtedly conservative) has burned his bridges in NH and is a poor choice as a campaign leader (if he really is one).
And the fast track vote?
As I’ve been saying for months, a man who is married to a managing director at Goldman Sachs is Elizabeth Warren’s dream opponent (and she is the obvious opposition nominee).
I can’t believe people here are still rattling on about Hillary Clinton. The only thing remaining in the HRC campaign is the end of it.
I think it’s quite likely that the two major party nominees will be people who are “not running” right now. By the Summer of 2016, everyone will be so sick of all of them that a “shocking surprise candidate” will emerge to take both nominations.
I would not even prepare to run against anyone except Warren. She’s the obvious nominee.
Have you forgotten another first lady law school graduate? And a party that nominated George McGovern could easily nominate Bernie Sanders, Bill de Blasio, Jerry Brown, Al Gore, Mike Bloomberg, Martin O’Malley or even John Kerry.
Ted Cruz Ping! Scott Walker is for the free trade agreement.
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.