Posted on 02/20/2016 10:25:38 PM PST by JediJones
Fox News has been spinning the false narrative that South Carolina was "tailor-made" for Ted Cruz and saying "if he can't win there, where else can he win?" This is a COMPLETELY MADE-UP FALSE NARRATIVE. It was never a favorable state for Cruz. It was a state where Santorum finished a distant third four years ago, behind more secular candidates Gingrich and Romney. While Cruz does have a real but mostly still untapped potential to appeal to secular voters, the Faux narrative that evangelicals made South Carolina a very favorable state for Cruz is JUST WRONG.
South Carolina went for the most "tough-talking" candidate last time with Gingrich and again this time with Trump. Establishment Romney came in 2nd last time just as Rubio did this time. The conservatives in this state seem to like aggression in a candidate above all else. There also appears to be a solid establishment streak in the state.
To put Trump's victory in perspective, he got a lower vote total in SC than Gingrich got and a much lower percentage. Cruz and Rubio both performed about as well as Romney and well above Santorum.
Cruz continues to have a path forward to victory because the other Southern states just don't have the same profile as South Carolina. Santorum won most of the other Southern states last time just like he won Iowa, despite getting trounced in South Carolina much worse than Cruz did. These upcoming states are therefore much more favorable ground for Cruz. If Cruz can win Santorum's states, he can perhaps gain the momentum to flip some other states Santorum lost (hopefully not wasting any more time in the Romney/Trump home field advantage northeastern states).
For now Cruz is stuck in the "social conservative" lane, a lane which NEVER included South Carolina as fertile ground. This is the lane he needs to perform well in as he works on broadening his base to include national security conservatives, economic conservatives and people who just have faith he can beat the Democrat.
Below is a list of all the states voting in March and how they would vote if they followed the basic pattern Romney and Santorum experienced. While I haven't tried to count all the delegates they will be handing out, I am seeing 13 Trump states and 16 Cruz states (plus maybe Puerto Rico for amnesty pimp Rubio). For us to see a clear winner in March, either Cruz or Trump will probably need to flip some of these states from their opponent's predicted column into theirs.
That means that they were GOPe all the while...
The “real” conservative still lost to a northeastern liberal and a squishy Florida RINO in a conservative southern state. Proceed. Did not mean to interrupt your spin.
DanRiehl â€@DanRiehl 7m7 minutes ago
Cruz partly planned his stratgey around Reagan’s 3 legged stool but lost too many values voters to Trump for it to hold
LOL!
Yeah okay...( sarcasm off). You need to quit looking back to strategize.
Trump leads in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina, New York, Maryland, Michigan, Oklahoma, Colorado and Nevada.
Sabrina Siddiqui @SabrinaSiddiqui
Aboard his campaign plane, Rubio says now that field has narrowed Trump “really needs to step up and outline his foreign policy vision.”
Wasn't spinning - I was mocking. :)
He has. Rubio and the neocons just don't like it.
But, I'd place my money with the American people and Trump's views most closely resemble theirs.
The only consolation I can see here for Ted is that SC is an open primary state, and I think he would have done a lot better if it had been closed instead.
Sorry, CNN showed a map of the south focusing on evangelicals. SC was indistinguishable from the rest of the SEC states. I’m not trying to rub it in but you are whistling past the graveyard on this one. Sorry.
Aboard his campaign plane, Rubio says now that field has narrowed Trump “really needs to step up and outline his foreign policy vision.â€
Rubio loves flapping his gums on foreign policy because he knows it’s all campaign season hot air. Meaningless, IMO.
E x a c t l y
Which is exactly what we said, and they denied it.
Now we know what’s going on.
It was never Trump clearing the way for Hillary.
It was Cruz clearing the way for Bush or Rubio.
Ha ha ha, finally they’re out!
As if Marco is going to dictate to Trump what he should do.
Trump will send Marco out for pizza.
And what’s more, he won’t even get a piece.
“Evangelical” does not define a person’s entire character or outlook. Every region has its own character. Even with Catholics, you have liberal ones and conservative ones. All 3 of the last GOP Iowa winners lost SC but won other Southern states. This is a trend that tells us something about SC as a state.
True. It was a state that elected Lindsey Grahamnesty and Nikki.
I should say all 3 lost SC, but the previous 2 won other Southern states and we’re waiting to see what Cruz does.
You really don’t know anything about Trump or care to do you?
Yes it does and they will all deny it to the end.
They make me sick, stating they’ll sit out, vote for Rubio, or heaven forbid, even vote for Hillary! Real Christian conservatives aren’t they?
The game is rigged, we all know that, and I believe Cruz is part of it all - and his followers are either part of it, or too blinded to see the reality.
We are in for a bumpy ride when people play sore losers, it’s exactly how we end up where we are now! Arrgggg
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