Posted on 12/28/2015 8:30:04 AM PST by Isara
My friend Alex, a prominent Republican political consultant, emailed a group of us this morning to make sure we read Curt Anderson’s attack on Ted Cruz in the Politico before we tuned into the Sunday shows.
Like my friend Alex, Curt Anderson is a Republican political consultant. He worked for Haley Barbour at the RNC. He’s worked for Mitch McConnell, Elizabeth Dole, and John Thune. He worked for Mitt Romney in 2008, then he worked for Herman Cain in 2011, who accused Curt wrongly of leaking the sexual harassment stories after Curt left to work for Rick Perry. Again, wrongly. In this cycle, Curt has worked for Bobby Jindal.
He’s a good guy. I don’t know him well, but I have many friends who think highly of him. But he is undeniably of the D.C. Republican consultant set. His piece, like Alex’s email, echoes so much of what I hear from so many of my friends in Washington. They don’t like Ted Cruz. They think he is too slick. They think he is a narcissist. They think he is in it for himself. Hell, a lot of my friends who support Ted Cruz say that.
Ultimately, they are all Republicans who see Ted Cruz as more often than not opposed to the Republican team.
It is worth noting that all these guys are currently getting their butts kicked by a, until recently, Democrat from New York City who yells at cameras and has no discernible path to victory, but is still leading national polls. And the only guy coming close to beating that guy is the guy Curt Anderson and so many others of the — dare I use this word — insiders think is a narcissistic televangelist in it for himself and who is wholly unlikeable and not a team player.
But this is all fundamental to the dynamic of the 2016 cycle so far. The normal run of political consultants in Washington have a different view of what the base wants or what the country wants than what the base and the country want. The more a candidate is seen battling Washington, the better the candidate does. Even now, Marco Rubio is pivoting to try to be seen as attacking Washington.
I know Curt did not mean his piece to be an endorsement of Cruz, but I think the guys in Washington need to understand that for much of the base of the party it is an endorsement. Ted Cruz’s Super PAC is running advertisements boasting that John Boehner called Ted Cruz a pain in the ass. Those sorts of ads are propelling Ted Cruz ahead of Donald Trump.
Here’s what everybody needs to note.
The normal rules of politics still apply. Polling is only a snapshot of personal support right now, but most of the polling is of registered voters, not likely voters. Of the people being polled right now, many of the most ardent supporters of Donald Trump are people who are not normal Republican voters. Trump has no ground game in place in places like Iowa or throughout the SEC primary to get those non-traditional voters to the polls.
Advertising still matters and fine tuned micro-targeted advertising works better than scatter shot mass blast advertising.
Ultimately, boots on the ground and door to door contact matters substantially more than anything else. Voters have a higher likelihood of turning out for a candidate if that candidate or his supporters have made personal, face to face contact with a voter.
But above all else, the candidate matters.
Right now, this is an election year where voters want someone who the Washington insiders see as a narcissist who fights the team because the voters in the Republican primary are rooting against that team too. The two candidates who are perceived as fighting against that team are Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.
Between the two, the only one engaged in serious boots on the ground, micro-targeting of voters, and building large field operations is Ted Cruz. Oh, and he also does very well with likely voters, not just registered voters, the whole lot of whom actually do find him likable. This includes a sizable number of Iowa voters who have both participated in past caucuses and intend to go to the 2016 one.
An attack in the Politico by a Washington Republican consultant who worked for Haley Barbour at the Republican National Committee at a time when the most fired up of the most fired up Republicans still are pissed off about Haley Barbour in Mississippi’s Senate race is just another Ted Cruz ad campaign waiting to write itself.
Ted Cruz may be too slick. He may even be a narcissist. But he has fought the Washington Republican class at a time Republican voters hate the Washington Republicans as much as everyone else does. That those guys are now attacking him is just a net positive for much of the base.
Right on Gaffer!! Best post of the day in my opinion.
Reminds me of a passionate man of high ideals.
Just exactly what is the vote the GOPe is trying to attract?
Hillary and Rubio has their back apparently.
Spot on! The long knives are out to kill 'em both....check to see what was really said as the MSM and GOPe's will muddy the waters.
I learned in Homer’s WW2 threads of both your theologically correct views and also your profound knowledge of the Japanese, but now I see you also know Hinduism and politics. Frankly, I’m getting a kick out of it—you’re enlightening to read. But don’t become self-conscious....
Says the ditch licking dbag EE.
Let's just say I don't do what the Hindu :-)
If I were going to take the analogy to its logical end, I would say that the Dems are the Brahmin who puppet-master American society's Shudras (servant caste, in this instance illegals and their fellow travelers) and Dalits (aka outcastes, in this instance BLM and such), while the conservatives are attempting to ally the Kshatriyas (the actual warriors in the military) and Vaishas (the farmer caste, in this instance the working taxpayers). The Dems and their GOPe useful idiots are the top and bottom classes, while the conservatives are generally in the middle--or more importantly, perceive themselves as being in the middle, whether poor, rich, or in between.
I remember how much hope many of us once had in Haley Barbour. What did we fail to see from the start with that fraud?
Hillary is the worst narcissist to ever crawl on the face of the earth. Well, after baraq, that is.
Sadly, my brain is neither large nor nimble enough to follow all that, so I’ll just leave you to monitor it.
Is any real conservative actually paying any attention to this fool anymore?
If only the GOPe focused 1% of their vitriol for Cruz and Trump on Obama Obama would have been impeached long ago if he was even elected president.
I’m waiting for the “Draft Dole” movement as the only way to save the republican party. Party uber alles.
People, the only reason that Donald Trump is famous is because of his own vanity.
It is the ONLY reason. The only reason.
There are about 38 dozen billionaires in the United States, and up to 20 times richer than Donald Trump, including several real estate moguls who left Donald Trump in the dust long ago -- the best of them, at the same game and wheeling the same "art of the deal," is worth four times more than Donald Trump. Yet you have never heard of him.
In fact, you have never heard of the vast majority of the other 38 dozen billionaire/entrepreneurs in America.
It's as if third-rate billionaire Trump thought to himself, "What's the point of being a billionaire if you're not famous?" And over the course of about ten years, he deliberately made himself a celebrity household word through marketing, television, and media promotion.
The only reason Donald Trump is famous is because of his own vanity.
That is a crappy quality in an American president. Vote for it at your own risk and with your eyes wide open, and be ready for some serious buyer's remorse if he wins.
I hope Trump loses the primary and actually keeps his word not to run third party. But I don't think his word is worth spit.
I wonder, who isn’t in it for themself?
Surely not Mitch McConnel. He is only in politics for altruistic reasons.
Surely not Trump. His whole career has been devoted to helping others.
Surely not George W. Bush. For him, it couldn’t have been anything to do with legacy and carrying on a family dynasty.
Surely not for Marco Rubio. I am sure it has nothing to do with ego or getting his cheerleader wife into better parties.
Give me a break. Every politician (or human being) is motivated by self interest. My questions are: What is the person getting out of it and How does that affect me?
I fully believe that Ted Cruz is an ideologue. He is motivated by wanting to prove that his ideology is right. He believes in Austrian economics and free markets. He believes in the Constitution and the founding principals.
I am O.K. with him not playing nice with Team R and “being selfish” when he is motivated by such things.
Too slick? Is this because he can speak off the cuff without crib notes, teleprompters and briefings by pollsters? Maybe the rest of the national politicians should ease off on the prescription meds and alcohol and find out if they still have a fully functioning brain.
How many of us listen to a radio talk show host who can push forward their idea of the day effortlessly for 3 hours? Are the radio personalities smarter and more prepared than a potential POTUS? Or maybe, just maybe they keep the addiction to anti-depressants, alcohol, sleeping pills, pain pills and amphetamines in their pasts.
Cruz can speak off the cuff because he believes what he says. He is not lying and pandering to his audiences, and he is intelligent.
Quite frankly, I can verbalize an opinion, then come up with an argument for the polar opposite side. I think this is the same with Ted Cruz. He knows his argument, and theirs. That skill and his logic really drives them over the edge. Add in his skill to project to a large audience, and he is political dynamite.
I am also sure that most people on FR can do the same at various levels of skill. Maybe even a majority of them could out perform most of the Presidential candidates. I know the writing skills on this site are equal to and in some cases above that of professional journalists.
Finally, if he were a Democrat with his verbal and mental skill set, he would be hailed as the second coming of Clinton or JFK. If he were compromising or compromised like Boehner or Ryan he would now be Speaker of the House.
Just think of that word COMPROMISED for a moment. What event in these peoples past has caused them to be so amenable to changing of their rock solid principles? How can Ryan, the very man who talked of balanced budgets or zero-based budgeting is now totally sold out to the Progressive agenda. Either he is a liar from way back, or he is now being blackmailed. Take your choice, it cannot be anything else.
Say what you will about Ted Cruz, but compromiser or compromised do not fit in his dossier.
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