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 05/25/2015 10:42:23 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Former FBI agent Steve King of Milton has been a member of the Republican National Committee since 2007.
In his speech to the state Republican Party convention, the no-nonsense King bluntly laid out what went wrong in 2012. Then, GOP presidential hopefuls ran a gauntlet of more than 20 debates, and state-by-state primaries that led to the nomination of presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
“Wrong venues,” King fumed. “Wrong hosts. Wrong moderators.”
There will be no repeat next year of what amounted to that waterboarding of presidential candidates, King vowed.
“We are taking back control of our primary process.”
As a member of the RNC’s convention committee, King is one of a number of powerful Wisconsin Republicans who can try to make sure that that happens. They can also tweak the process to help Gov. Scott Walker, who will be Wisconsin’s first GOP candidate for president in eight years.
Besides King and Walker, the other members of the Club of VIWRs (Very Important Wisconsin Republicans) are:
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, of Kenosha; RNC Committeewoman Mary Buestrin, co-chair of the 2012 convention and an RNC member since 1992; state GOP Chairman Brad Courtney, seventh in seniority among state party chairs; U.S. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Congressman Paul Ryan; and the dean of Wisconsin’s Congressional delegation, 19-term Congressman James Sensenbrenner.
Here’s how the 2016 cycle will be different, King promised GOP convention delegates:
-- No circular firing squads, in which the 15 or so GOP presidential candidates criticize each other and their records, giving Democrats sound bites and research opposition to use against whoever is the presidential nominee.
Next year, one candidate “can’t be responsible for fatally wounding another candidate,” King said.
-- There will be no fewer than nine and no more than 12 debates. And the RNC must approve hosts, media participants and moderators for all debates, King added.
King’s comment came days after ABC network anchor George Stephanopoulos, a top adviser to President Bill Clinton in the 1990s, apologized for giving $75,000 to the nonprofit foundation of Bill and Hillary Clinton, the leading Democratic candidate for president. Stephanopoulos won’t be moderating any debates this cycle.
-- The window for debates will be shorter, starting Aug. 6 in Cleveland and ending in “late spring,” King said. The national nominating convention convenes in Cleveland on July 18, 2016.
The fourth debate, sponsored by Fox Business Network in November, will be in Wisconsin, King said. Referring to Walker, King added, “Did I hear ‘homefield advantage’ for somebody?”
-- Unlike 2012, when Romney’s campaign left the nominating convention almost broke, Ryan is running the Presidential Trust fund-raising push to make sure the nominee starts the general-election campaign with more than $20 million, King said.
-- RNC officials know that Walker and the other Republican presidential candidates will spend the next 10 months in an intramural scrum trying to win the nomination.
“So why don’t we—the RNC—take on Hillary Clinton?” King added.
-- The RNC is doubling its technology budget because, King said, data are the future of campaigns.
Barry Burden, a UW-Madison political science professor, thinks these changes will help “top-tier candidates such as Walker.”
“Compared to Romney, Walker will not need to spend as much time debating fringe candidates at various sites around the country,” Burden explained. “He will also have the backing of a party geared toward winning the general election after two losses.
“The other thing helping Walker is the new campaign finance environment. Top-tier candidates such as Walker and Jeb Bush have yet to officially declare their candidacies so that they can raise money without any real limits for a longer time frame. They and their allies … will help them speed past the second-tier candidates, who must rely on traditional ‘hard money’ contributions.”
Why is the RNC so obsessed with candidates’ debates?
“The party would like to avoid giving fringe candidates an extended platform as it did four years ago. Candidates such as Herman Cain and Ron Paul got a lot of mileage out of the debates,” Burden added. “With even more candidates running this time around, there is potential for someone like Ted Cruz or Ben Carson to steal the show and distract the party from its goal of winning the White House.”
I just want a person who works hard and shows results. I am so done with talkers after we had 8 years of Obama. No more talkers. We have gone way beyond the need for them. I don’t want a list of thing a person is going to do. I want a person who has a list of things that they have done.
That is the main reason I am for Walker.
No thank you. Those that ignore the (very recent) past are doomed to repeat it. You've been here since 1997 and have the audacity to write that to me ? Where were you when we were actively trying to stop Democrat collaborationists like Willard and McQueeg from hijacking the GOP Presidential nominations, Dave ?
You have a reasonable argument for supporting your candidate. I won’t belittle it.
My biggest reason for supporting Cruze is his knowledge and understanding of the constitution. We are at a crossroads.
I believe only a strong constitutionalist can keep us on the path the founders set us on.
That’s why I choose Cruze.
The next President will replace 1 if not 2 supremes.
Who better than a president who has intimate knowledge of the constitution?
Ted Cruz Ping! You left off Bushy.
Mr. Obama was solicitor general of his state? Mr. Obama argued and wrote dozens of pleadings before the Supreme Court? Mr. Obama was a deputy attorney general? Mr. Obama was the director of policy planning at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission? Mr. Obama clerked for a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and a US Appeals Court Judge? Mr. Obama advised a US president when he was only 29 years old? Please, tell me more....
I have a comment. When in God’s name did it become extremist to not want illegal aliens in your country. not only that but not wanting them to get citizenship. and when did it become extremist to call your enemy by their actual name. I could see Obama during World War 2. “These are not real japanese. Real japanese wouldn’t act this way.”
You know, 2nd, what I don’t understand at all is how people continue to belittle this President based on his experience viz a viz effectiveness. Maybe, I missed something. If one were on the LEFT, could there possibly have been a more effective president for the Left’s issues?
This president is the best president for Socialism, since FDR. His lack of executive experience does not appear to have been a limiting factor.
My hope is that an “inexperienced” President Cruz, similarly unfettered by Washington, its connections and its protocol, will lead the country in the opposite direction, and undo all the mischief that has been done over the past 27 years.
I agree that Cruz is the thunder that is heard and not seen.
He is my vote for the next Reagan, I want to see him win.
I worry that forces are at work in an attempt of heading him off at the pass. I hope he doesn’t let that happen, this is a mega challenge that Reagan didn’t face.
If he wins, at least as a candidate, he will surpass Reagan.
PING
Trying to rig the process?
Aren’t Jebbie’s people trying to rig it for him? I guess we’ll have two rigged processes in one.
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.