Posted on 01/12/2016 8:35:12 PM PST by Isara
LONDONDERRY, N.H. — Ted Cruz on Tuesday ended his two-month absence from this early voting state with a provocative tour that featured him ratcheting up his rhetoric against all the usual suspects and a less frequent target: his chief rival for the Republican presidential nomination.
Over just seven hours on the ground here, the U.S. senator from Texas debuted a more antagonistic stance toward billionaire Donald Trump, whom he has been resistant to criticizing for months as the two have emerged as the top contenders for the nomination. In campaign events and media appearances, Cruz made clear his kid-gloves approach to Trump is over, sketching multiple lines of attack that could shape the final few weeks before the nominating contests start.
It began Tuesday afternoon in Hudson, just over the Massachusetts border, when Cruz told reporters after a pro-gun rally that it was curious Trump was citing a liberal, pro-Hillary Clinton law professor to raise questions about his citizenship. It makes one wonder, Cruz mused, whether Democrats were propping up Trump because they did not want to face Cruz in the general election.
"We’ve seen the past couple of elections where the Democrats have worked very hard to ensure that they face the Republican they most wanted to face in the general election," Cruz said in an interview on Boston radio. "And you know, it may be driven by the fact that the polling right now shows that Donald loses to Hillary and loses by a pretty big margin but I beat Hillary, and I think that’s got the Hillary folks a little concerned and so they’re doing everything to amplify Donald’s attacks.”
In the same exchange, Cruz was asked about Trump playing the song "Born in the USA" at recent rallies, possibly as a way of ribbing Cruz over his Canadian birth. Not missing a beat, Cruz suggested another ditty for Trump events: "New York, New York."
“Donald comes from New York, and he embodies New York values," Cruz said. "And listen, the Donald seems to be a little rattled."
In another radio interview from New Hampshire, Cruz took a dig at Trump's foreign policy expertise, telling conservative host Hugh Hewitt that America needs a president who knows how to defeat the Islamic State terrorist group "not just based on what’s said on Sunday shows on TV." Asked in August where he gets military advice from, Trump memorably responded "the shows."
By the time Cruz took the mic at a standing-room-only town hall Tuesday evening in Londonderry, a snowstorm raging outside, he was showing no reservations about dinging Trump on matters serious and not. He appeared to have the billionaire on his mind when he warned the crowd about the specter of a "New York gazillionaire" doing business with Clinton, and he flatly mocked one of Trump's signature lines on the stump.
"It's not gonna be us just winning and winning until you're tired of winning," Cruz said of the United States under his administration. “There’s also this little thing called the Constitution."
His remarks at Londonderry High School were otherwise a response of sorts to President Barack Obama's final State of the Union address, imagining what his own State of the Union speech would sound like after a year in office. He forecasted the completion of many well-known campaign promises, punctuating each with generous helpings of political incorrectness.
After a Cruz administration shuts down the U.S. Department of Education, liberal megadonor George Soros would replace it with the "William Jefferson Clinton Museum of Youth Outreach," Cruz said. He also vowed a President Cruz would help terrorists meet their 72 virgins pledged to them by the Muslim holy book the Quran. "By the way," Cruz added, "no one promised those virgins would be women."
Aside from some nervous laughter at his edgier jokes, Cruz's crowds scarfed down the red meat, thrilled with the senator's anti-establishment zeal and willingness to stand up to his own party.
"I'm a conservative," said Tim Kerins, a retired teacher from Sutton, Massachusetts, who came to see Cruz in Hudson. "Unfortunately, my party has disappointed me, and he's one of the few people who hasn't."
It was at the rally in Hudson, held outside a gun range in 32-degree cold, where Cruz's day began with chaos. Moments after he took the stage, a young man joined him and began ranting at the audience for attending an event celebrating firearms. A second agitator also made his presence known.
"This is not your stage," Cruz sternly repeated to the interrupters, mocking them as coddled college students before tying them to Hillary Clinton's chief rival for the Democratic nomination. "Boy, it's almost like the Bernie Sanders guys are scared. The Bernistas are out in force!"
As reporters huddled around the protesters to get more information, Cruz did not let the opportunity to bash the media go to waste, asking the crowd to notice how reporters "gather around the lefties who want to strip our rights because those are their values." Cruz continued to berate reporters from the stage as audience members hurled insults at the hecklers, who were eventually escorted off the premises.
The two protesters, who provided their names as John Nelson and Robert Stiefler, told reporters they were with a group that wants to arm every American over the age of 16. They insisted their crashing of the rally was not "performance art," as one reporter suggested.
Cruz's raucous return to New Hampshire marked his first trip to the state in 61 days, a relatively long absence that has not been lost on his GOP rivals. Speaking with reporters in Hudson, Cruz brushed off any concerns about his viability in the Granite State, saying his support there has been "steadily, gradually increasing" on a daily basis.
"The poll that matters is the vote on Election Day," Cruz said. "I am encouraged that polling consistently in New Hampshire has shown me in essentially a tie for second place."
Cruz's campaign is increasingly seeing an opening in the state, where support for more moderate candidates is splintered with just under a month left until the Feb. 9 primary. While New Hampshire has a history of unfriendliness toward White House hopefuls like Cruz, his supporters in the state say he has a chance to reverse that trend.
"Our expectations — we're playing a game to win. There's no doubt about it," said former U.S. Sen. Bob Smith of New Hampshire, who co-chairs Cruz's campaign in the state. "The moderates here, as they are elsewhere, are split, so we don't have a clear establishment favorite like [Mitt] Romney was in 2012. So if the conservatives unite, we can win this thing here."
Seijah Drake, a member of Cruz's "strike force" of volunteers stationed in the Manchester area, did not seem worried about Cruz's limited presence so far in New Hampshire. After all, many voters in New Hampshire still seem to be mulling their options, she said.
"I haven't met a lot of people that have made their decisions, and I've met a lot of people that have him in their top three," said Drake, a college student from Boston. Asked whom she has observed as Cruz's closest competitor in the Granite State, Drake replied without hesitation, "Mostly Trump."
My prediction, 27 days out: Trump-Kasich-Rubio-Cruz, Trump in the mid 30s, Kasich and Rubio 12 each, Cruz 8-10.
We’ll see.
Was Trump wrong a couple of month’s ago when he said that Cruz had met every legal challenge?
Trump is running scared and this is just another SELF-SERVING flip flop.
Donald is all about Donald. Even his father was concerned about his self-centeredness.
When the chips are down he will go with priority one. Himself.
-— To be President or V.P you need to be born on U.S. soil... -—
So Trump was wrong two months ago.
He isn’t good with facts. Or arguments. Or the Constitution.
He’s good at saying the following words repeatedly, though.
Winning
China
Great
Losing
Nice
Terrible
Losing
Mexico
Terrific
Some people eat it up.
-— Or, one could say, he spent the majority of his working career defending the rights of Texans and Americans, generally.
As opposed to trump, who has spent much of his career going bankrupt, hiring illegals, paying them off the books, doing deals with Mafiosi, being a dammocrap, praising hitlery, and buying and selling politicians, by his own admission not for causes in which he believed, but to engage in crony capitalism, and make lots of money.
And you want to give him a four trillion dollar ATM with which to play.
Fox. Henhouse. -—
If that ain’t the truth.
You can trust Trump. He’s not like the other sleazy developers.
[Donald is bringing up the birther issue because he is trying to hide the fact that that he donated tens of thousands of dollars to Hillary, Reid, and Pelosi. ]
He hasn’t hid it. He’s been blatantly honest about it.
Clearly you do not know how businesses of the magnitude of the Trump Organization or any major real estate or hospitality corporation works. In order to get ANYTHING done, you need to get past the politicians.
Think of how many JOBS were created as a result!!!
How many jobs has Cruz created? Maybe a couple of staffers??
By dint of the 14th amendment, says she.
Put Cruz's circumstances in the 14th amendment and see which bucket he comes out in.
Born in the US and subject to the jurisdiction? Nope.
Naturalized? You decide. It has to be "yes" to fit in the 14th amendment. If it's "no," then where in the constitution do you find citizenship, if not the 14th amendment? Answer: Article IV, Section 2.
Nice thing about the constitution, it's short, and meant to be simple enough for the people to understand it and apply it. If somebody tries a different framework of argument, they are creating confusion.
I think Mccain is the only person to get a senate resolution asserting he was eligible, and the reason the senate bothered with that is that his eligibility was an issue in the public sphere.
-- Both Mark Levin and Andrew Napolitano have explained why Cruz is clearly eligible. I'll take their word over that of some developer. --
Do you make all determinations based on the word of others? I doubt it. You are capable of studying the question and reaching your own conclusion. Trump hasn't offered his conclusion - or he's withdrawn his previous sense that Cruz was qualified. Just because Trump is a flip flopper doesn't preclude you from making up your own mind.
The constitution isn't complicated on this subject. It says who is a citizen in article IV, Section 2, one short sentence, and in the 14th amendment. A grade schooler could understand it and apply it.
Wow, Trump has been a conservative Republican, who is completely against democrat policies, for 7 whole months.
Impressive.
-— Think of how many JOBS were created as a result!!! -—
Bill Gates has hired 10000 times more people.
Gates for president!
Buffet for president!
Zuckerberg for president!
You get the idea.
Those people aren’t running for POTUS.
How many jobs did CRUZ create???
-— How many jobs did CRUZ create??? -—
How many jobs did Milton Friedman create?
This doesn’t make much sense as a criteria for the presidency.
A better criteria might be “How many SCOTUS cases has he tried?,” since the president will be making SC appointments.
Oh come on. You are selling him short. He has done much more than just that. He has also...
...been a professional wrestler
...married a stripper
...supported one payer socialized medicine
...been a reality TV star
...donated to Democrats
...voted for Democrats
...been a member of the Democrat party
...made millions of dollars off of the vices of gambling and booze
He really has been quite a busy man.
In all seriousness though, I like what Trump is currently saying. I also like what Cruz is currently saying. The next step for me is to see who is more likely to actually DO what he says he believes in and also who will adhere to conservative principals on the issues that are not currently being discussed.
Time after time Cruz has stuck his neck out for conservatism despite the negative consequences he receives from liberals and RINOs. I trust he will do the right things. I don't trust Trump. He has done nothing to earn that trust. In fact, he has done many things in his past that would cause me to highly doubt his trustworthiness. I would vote for him if it was between him and Hillary but I certainly hope it is Cruz.
Or he could be described as a grandstanding gadfly who can't convince and work with his colleagues to advance his agenda. I don't see how things change with Cruz in the WH. We don't need another first term Senator in the WH.
I am also distrurbed by Cruz's flip-flops on immigration in the past few weeks. They seem politically motivated. And Cruz has to satisfy the wishes of his donors like the Club for Growth, Goldman-Sachs, and his sugar daddy hedge fund billionaire.
I don't trust Trump. He has done nothing to earn that trust. In fact, he has done many things in his past that would cause me to highly doubt his trustworthiness. I would vote for him if it was between him and Hillary but I certainly hope it is Cruz.
I don't trust any politician with the possible exception of Jeff Sessions. They have all been bought and paid for the corporate class and special interests. Both parties have abandoned the American worker.
I am willing to take a chance on Trump. If he just secures the border and starts enforcing our immigration laws, it would be more than enough for me. I also believe Trump is more electable than Cruz who comes across as an ideologue and too preachy. He is not connecting to the average, low information voter. Trump, the celebrity does.
The Reps have lost the popular vote in five out of the last six presidential elections. The rapidly changing demographics of this country have ushered in the era of tribal politics and our tribe is decreasing in numbers while the Dems are increasing thanks to immigration and higher birthrates among minorities. If we don't get a Rep in the WH this time, then the GOP and the country are finished. The Dems will, if they are not already, be the permanent majority party. Demography is destiny.
I see nothing either funny or untrue in that post so no, it is not a joke post. It is a dead-serious post.
I’m well aware of that. And?
You sound like a Bircher when you bring that up.
Looking at his history of standing up for gun rights and religious liberty before the Supreme Court, taking on the GOPe to win his Senate seat, taking on the GOPe to defeat amnesty, calling McConnell a liar on the floor of the Senate, etc.....Do you think that he would go against his values for $43,000?????
As far as I can tell, Club for Growth did not donate one dime to Ted Cruz up to the 2014 election cycle. Open secrets did not have Club for Growth information for 2016.
I'm not sure who the billionaire sugar daddy is so you will have to enlighten me.
You are partially right about the dire straights of the Republican party. We can no longer play the political game of demographic politics. WE WILL LOSE EVERY TIME.
We need to enter into a new era of idea politics. Conservatism wins every time it is tried. Conservatism is based in logic and if presented in a fair debate, it will win over hearts and minds. The reason the Republican party loses is because it doesn't even attempt to defend conservatism. It moves forward with half hearted measures and tries to downplay conservatism by relabling it "compassionate conservatism". (Bush and David Brooks have more in common than we thought)
If we hope to have any conservative ideals left in politics we will need to move forward with this new "idea politics" which will cut across demographics. In this new era, I would much rather have Ted Cruz leading the fight and winning in the arena of ideas than marble mouthed, dimwit Trump. I am not even certain he understands conservatism let alone can effectively articulate it to win hearts and minds.
confusion.
And that is exactly what the democrats will create
if Cruz is the nominee.
And Confusion could draw 4-5 points away from Cruz
in general election.
It’s not that simple.
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