Steve Deace nailed the order of the winners in his NH prediction, after nailing Iowa. His predictions will be the ones to watch in SC.
It’s wrong for anyone to pigeonhole Cruz as a “social conservative” candidate. He’s a social conservative in the way that Reagan was. They’re both socially conservative but both just as studied on economics and foreign policy as the best of their competitors. That’s why Cruz held up against the “mainstream” candidates. If you’re smart and like substance in your answers, Cruz was far and away the winner of the NH debate. Fox showed Cruz spent less money in NH per voter than any of the top 6, so he easily would’ve beaten Kasich if he spent as much time as Kasich did there.
Cruz’ biggest problem in the South will be that Trump is the first “dog whistle” candidate in a long time. Or more of an elephant gun than a dog whistle. Trump appeals greatly to anyone with prejudicial tendencies due to the bombs he’s dropped about Mexicans and Muslims. That makes the south perhaps tougher territory for Cruz than the Midwest. I don’t know how many of those voters there are in the south, but there are definitely more than in all other regions of the country.
I heard Deace too. The race in SC is shaping up as Jeb-establishment, Cruz-conservative,Trump-everybody in betweeen. This gives Cruz a decent path to the nomination. Trump needs to falter though.