Posted on 02/21/2016 3:44:30 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Marco Rubio's coalition is still too shallow, and Ted Cruz's too narrow, to challenge Donald Trump--can either build beyond that?
After his solid, broadly based victories in New Hampshire and South Carolina, Donald Trump now holds a commanding position in the race for the Republican presidential nomination.
But Trump still faces two "known unknowns," to borrow the memorable phrase from former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, an architect of the Iraq War that Trump now excoriates. One is whether Trump has a ceiling of support. The second is whether, even if he does, any of his remaining rivals can unify enough of the voters resistant to him to beat him.
So far the evidence suggests the answers are: maybe, and not yet. Indeed over the first three contests, Trump's two principal remaining opponents have shown mirror-image weaknesses. Texas Senator Ted Cruz has assembled a coalition of support that is too narrow; Florida Senator Marco Rubio is building a coalition that is too shallow....
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
Look I was a big Ted supporter, but I have real concerns he is not a natural born citizen. Trump has nothing to do with that either I might add. This is going to be a big problem for him down the road. There was a reason that it was imperative Obama be able to claim Hawaii as his place of birth. Without it he would have been successfully challenged and lost eligibility.
Cruz is now losing steam, and unfortunately Rubio is picking up steam. That means in the next primary Cruz will be the 3rd place finisher because supporters of the candidates that were establishment choices, who have dropped out, will go Rubio's way. You can bank on that
I honestly believe Ted would have lost Iowa had it not been for the clearly underhanded tactic used regarding Carson supporters. They knew they would pick the majority of them up.
The number one pressing issue that needs to be fixed is the immigration situation. It's absolutely imperative, and must be the major consideration right now. Trump is not the solid conservative Ted is, but he is sincere in tackling this problem. I think many will be surprised, and pleasantly I might add, that Trump is probably more conservative than most people think he is. We can force him to be more conservative if he isn't. While he won't be beholding to special interests he will have to answer to his supporters.
No reporter has EVER found even one voter who switched their vote from Carson to Cruz based on that e-mail. Oh, and Rubio did the exact same thing, but no one talks about that, do they?
What Brownstein from the Atlantic as well as the rest of the media are now doing,is minimizing conservatives, telling them to surrender to the deal maker because their cause is lost. As Trump marches to the left back where he came from.
Regardless, they tainted the outcome either by perception or reality.
Maybe that's true. If so, then it was a monumentally STUPID thing for his campaign to do, don't you think?
I mean it was the opening of the spigot on the "sleezy, dishonest politician" storyline that got started with the "voter violation" stunt.
If nothing else, the Carson saga let that narrative pick up steam.
Only Jeb has run a more inept campaign.
Why would that be?
Carson's supporters don't care much for Cruz or Trump. Cruz because of his attack on their state's cash cow, ethanol. Trump because he is not as religious as they would like. Religious considerations always win out over monetary considerations for those with deep religious convictions.
They had to make a decision and rather quickly. Cruz won that battle, at least as far as the majority goes.
While it may be true that we can not quantify what the true impacts were, we can project what the impacts may have been. However, because the choice was made it tainted the outcome for sure. Speculation now takes place and no one can prove who the clear winner was, but impacts did exist, that is a given.
The “hive me free stuff” crowd always wins.
You have a monkey in your pocket?
It would seem that, if Trump ends up on the Republican ticket for the General, the Left has you and others here in its pocket....
That's not an indication of anything...if we're talking about the same reporters who can find no evidence of voter fraud.
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