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ANALYSIS: Why Ted Cruz Won’t Attack Donald Trump
Daily Caller ^ | 7/20/15 | P. Howley

Posted on 07/20/2015 7:45:00 AM PDT by VinL

Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz is the only major Republican in the field who isn’t jumping all over Donald Trump for his series of provocative comments regarding immigration and John McCain’s war service. In fact, Cruz even recently went to bat for Trump.

Cruz and Trump had a private meeting together last week at Trump’s New York City office, the Daily Mail reports, so it’s clear that the two are already talking strategy.

Trump has stolen some of Cruz’s thunder, and probably some of his vote share, early in this campaign. The latest Suffolk University poll puts Trump at 17 percent, Jeb Bush at 14, Scott Walker at 8, Cruz at 6, and Rubio at 5.

But despite trailing the billionaire by eleven points, Cruz refuses to attack Trump.

When Trump said that McCain might not be a war hero because he got captured (a Chris Rock line) Cruz asserted that McCain was indeed a hero but decided not to hit Trump, like many of his fellow candidates did.

“You know I recognize that folks in the press love to see Republican-on-Republican violence, and so you want me to say something bad about Donald Trump, or bad about John McCain or bad about anyone else,” Cruz told reporters, according to CNN. “I’m not going to do it.”

When Trump gave an impassioned speech against rapists and criminals coming over the U.S.-Mexico border, sparking boycotts in the process, Cruz said, “I salute Donald Trump for focusing on the need to address illegal immigration.”

What is Ted Cruz’s strategy here? Why is he not attacking Trump?

1 Trump allows Cruz to say things he wants to say without having to say them

Cruz, who led the fight to defund President Obama’s executive amnesty action, knows as well as anyone how much crime is being trafficked into America over our southern border. But why not let Donald Trump get the picket signs and the boycotts directed at him? Cruz’s firebrand status is a benefit but also a liability in a presidential race. Positioning himself as the second most-vocal and heavily-quoted conservative in the race actually does him a service — especially as Trump considers just how many hundreds of millions (and he’ll need that much) of his own money he’s going to spend if he wants to go the distance. If the Hillary Clinton people look to Bernie Sanders as a kind of unofficial voter-mobilization force for Democrats on the left, Cruz could easily use Trump the same way.

2. A Trump-Cruz battle in the primary would be too divisive for November voters

While both candidates have a lot of fans, they also have a lot of detractors. The last thing Cruz and Trump need is a battle of personalities between each other — especially when they agree on most issues. Too much Cruz-Trump back-and-forth during the primary, and independents will be turned off by November.

3. Cruz’s fundraising allows him to act like the conservative front-runner

Ted Cruz’s campaign has raised $14.3 million so far against Jeb Bush’s $11.4 million, and his super PACs have netted $37 million to Bush’s $103 million. Cruz also has a strong ground game in Iowa, where he is immensely popular with Christian voters and Trump is not (remember: Cruz also spoke and did well at the same Iowa forum where Trump’s McCain dig made headlines). Cruz can rightly claim that he’s the conservative front-runner in the race against Bush. Rand Paul isn’t giving Cruz much fundraising or polling competition on the tea party right, so Cruz needs to just keep raising money, keep setting up his ground apparatus in early states like Iowa and South Carolina, and keep watching Trump steal all the attention away from Scott Walker, who has the lowest public profile of the contenders.

4. Trump can weaken Jeb Bush, Cruz’s most formidable foe

The more Trump hammers Bush, calling him an “unhappy person” and promising Republicans that Bush won’t get them to the promised land, the less significant Bush’s $103 million in PAC money becomes. Cruz has always known that the road to the nomination goes through Bush. So let Trump weaken Bush … and then wait for Trump to implode.


TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: New York; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: 2016election; cruz; election2016; newyork; tedcruz; texas; trump
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To: VinL; Kale; Jarhead9297; COUNTrecount; notaliberal; DoughtyOne; MountainDad; aposiopetic; ...
    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!

21 posted on 07/20/2015 8:42:11 AM PDT by SoConPubbie (Mitt and Obama: They're the same poison, just a different potency)
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To: VinL

This analysis is pretty much on the money......I’ve said for weeks that Trumps voters today will become, in many cases, Cruz voters down the line.


22 posted on 07/20/2015 8:44:09 AM PDT by C. Edmund Wright (WTF? How Karl Rove and the Establishment Lost...Again)
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To: VinL

Cruz doesn’t attack Trump because he agrees with him. He’s just a more refined version of Trump. It’s as simple as that.

AND if Trump were to flame out for whatever reason, Cruz would be the natural receipient of Trump’s substantial backers.


23 posted on 07/20/2015 8:47:57 AM PDT by aquila48
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To: VinL
This is reminiscent of the detestable "Dr. Srangelove" Charles Krauthammer who lied on FoxNews about the "Cruz/Trump position".

This POS sought (at globalist Roger Ailes's behest, I'm sure) to tie Cruz to Trump simply because Cruz refused to denounce Trump.

24 posted on 07/20/2015 8:57:08 AM PDT by Dr. Thorne (The night is far spent, the day is at hand.- Romans 13:12)
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To: VinL

The main reason Ted Cruz won’t attack Trump is obvious.

He hasn’t yet and won’t attack other candidates period.

There’s no need to make a special case for trump.


25 posted on 07/20/2015 9:17:30 AM PDT by Mount Athos (A Giant luxury mega-mansion for Gore, a Government Green EcoShack made of poo for you)
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To: VinL
.... The Republicans should be very grateful and be allowing Donald Trump to blow through the Liberal Propaganda Machine to raise very important issues that have up until now been "Out of Bounds" for any honest dialogue. The Donald is taking almost all of the flack and for the most part surviving the Liberal Subterfuge.

...... The Republican candidates should be standing by and ready to grab the batons that Trump is tossing in their direction. They need to quit trying to be so politically correct and preventing ruffling a few feathers and take advantage and run with this while they can. Heck ..... If the candidates are in mortal fear of a little feather ruffling ...... What will they do when the actual feather plucking begins?

.... This is a very important historic election. Whoever wins the election will determine what type of America emerges on the other side.

.... This is not a historic time to be timid!

..... Isaiah 58:1 .....

26 posted on 07/20/2015 9:43:23 AM PDT by R_Kangel ( "A Nation of Sheep ..... Will Beget ..... a Nation Ruled by Wolves.")
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To: bert

I am a Walker supporter. He has better support and more consistent poll numbers than the rest of the conservative part of our field.


27 posted on 07/20/2015 4:55:24 PM PDT by Thunder90 (All posts soley represent my own opinion.)
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To: VinL

I agree.


28 posted on 07/20/2015 5:30:54 PM PDT by SaraJohnson
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To: JudyinCanada; All

He will bow out after he’s finished carving and skewering the establishment, and urge his supporters to join Cruz.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

If Trump does drop out before the Primary Season is over, I do NOT thing he will publicly endorse, or urge his supporters to join, Cruz. I like Trump and I hope he stirs the pot as long as he can. But, he’s a smart man and he knows a public endorsement from him could be the Death Knell for another man’s candidacy. He knows where his supporters will go. I say 75% of them go to the Cruz Camp. He doesn’t have to tell them.


29 posted on 07/20/2015 8:08:35 PM PDT by Din Maker (GOP Gov. Susana Martinez of New Mexico for VP)
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To: cripplecreek

“The fact that the media is desperate for Cruz to attack Trump shows how fearful they are of him.”

Fearful of Cruz or Trump?


30 posted on 07/21/2015 12:40:04 PM PDT by Hardens Hollow (Couldn't find Galt's Gulch, so created our own Harden's Hollow to quit paying the fascist beast.)
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To: knarf

“I think we might begin to consider .. seriously .. the potential marshal law that could conceiveably called.”

Begin?

I moved 2300 miles to a holler surrounded by armed neighbors ready to defend our homes, state, and nation.

We are ready.


31 posted on 07/21/2015 12:43:57 PM PDT by Hardens Hollow (Couldn't find Galt's Gulch, so created our own Harden's Hollow to quit paying the fascist beast.)
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To: ripnbang
Last week it was that Trump actually strengthens Bush

There seem to be a roughly equal number of FReepers who think:

Trump is a Hillary affiliate.

Trump is a Cruz affiliate,

Trump is a Bush affiliate.

It's fun to watch.

32 posted on 07/21/2015 12:44:05 PM PDT by nascarnation (Impeach, convict, deport)
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To: Hardens Hollow

I left the hollar in 83, but landed amongst like minded equally armed and ready


33 posted on 07/21/2015 12:47:33 PM PDT by knarf (I say things that are true ... I have no proof ... but they're true)
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To: JudyinCanada

Fingers crossed you are right


34 posted on 07/21/2015 12:51:11 PM PDT by Hardens Hollow (Couldn't find Galt's Gulch, so created our own Harden's Hollow to quit paying the fascist beast.)
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To: knarf

Awesome!

I hope more and more of us are ready and aware.

Whatever they have planned if happening at an accelerated pace now. Probably timed so Obama doesn’t leave office, like declaring martial law and then declaring himself dictator, like Hitler did


35 posted on 07/21/2015 1:29:58 PM PDT by Hardens Hollow (Couldn't find Galt's Gulch, so created our own Harden's Hollow to quit paying the fascist beast.)
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