He's already tried the low road.
Posted on 02/24/2016 11:06:42 AM PST by St_Thomas_Aquinas
Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) has one option if he wants to win the Republican nomination. Tomorrow night, during a debate with Donald Trump, Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), Ohio Governor John Kasich, and Dr. Ben Carson, Cruz must clock Trump as hard as he can with his best rhetorical punch. He can't be lawyerly. He can't be civil. He has to get in the mud with Trump and pulverize him. There are three reasons for that.
Rubio Will Never Drop Out... Rubio's going nowhere...
Cruz Must Win More Than Texas On March 1, Or he's toast. Again, the fact that Rubio won't drop out under any circumstances means that Cruz can't hope to win a bunch of second places in the SEC primary, then go forward and pick up Rubio's supporters. Rubio will still be in after the SEC primary. And as we saw in Iowa, even a Cruz victory turns into a Rubio victory in the media...
So, all of this means that Cruz will actually have to beat Trump outright with Rubio still in the race, not wait for the never-gonna-happen Rubio flameout. He can do it, but only by recognizing that Trump is the biggest set of balls in the race, and the only way to defeat Trump is by kicking him directly in the groin on national television. That means Cruz should unleash everything up to and including the kitchen sink. He's going to have to out-masculine Trump.
He should face down Trump and say to him, "Donald, for months, everybody has been tiptoeing around you out of courtesy. Enough. We all know you're a spoiled brat who's never had anybody say no to him. You're a pathetic, bloated old man who stood on daddy's money stack to make billions, and then can't shut up about how he's a self-made man. You're a ridiculous dolt who lies about his politics, brags about having sex with married women, and shafts little old ladies for cash. And every time you are attacked, your face turns as red as the Kool-Aid man -just like it's doing now. Then you cite polls, as though polls make you not all those things. They don't. You're just as much of a ridiculous clown as you ever were."
If Trump tries to interrupt him, Cruz will have to tell him to shut the hell up, and then not back down.
It will be brutal. But if Cruz wants to win, he's going to have no other choice. Trump won't be defeated so long as both Cruz and Rubio are in the race, and Rubio's going nowhere. Somebody's going to have to knock King Trump off the top of the hill.
If he did what you suggested, both him and Trump would look like idiots. It would be a service to the country though. IMO, if Trump was seriously challenged and all respect thrown out the window, his mask would fall to the floor. People would see the mob boss behind the semi-polished facade. Don Corleone...errr Trump would lose it times ten. I would pay to see that.
Maybe he can get Rick Tyler to ... oh, never mind. He got fired. Maybe he can have Jeff Roe send out some voter violation letters? How about having Glenn Beck make a speech where everyone turns their back and leaves as soon as Donald Trump walks into the room.
Gotta be something in Cruz’s bag of dirty tricks!
Ted is no alpha male. Taking on Trump like this will fail.
He’s better off going after Marco, who will be gunning for him.
Also, Jeb Bush tried the old “Trump is mean to old ladies” bit and it went over like a lead balloon. I can just imagine the high-pitched whine of Cruz when he goes there. Everyone will be hitting the mute button.
The problem for Cruz voters is that Trump is debate proof. He’s not the greatest debater and it makes no difference to voters. (Although he sometimes DOES get off a great zinger, I agree!)
And if that happens, his support will go over 50%.
Cruz should “out-gravitas” Rubio.
Don’t ‘win’ a debate with Rubio, ‘win’ the performance.
Going at Trump without more support is a fool’s game.
IOW: just what the GOPe want him to do.
There are several counters to this that would make Cruz look like the dolt. Shapiro doesn’t seem to understand that Cruz is also vulnerable on many issues and hypocrisy blunting his attack.
Yes. Trump's lead dropped from 16 to 10 points in 7 days.
The way that Trump's supporters are reacting to this makes me think this would be very effective.
Trump's ace-in-the-hole is being a "tough guy." If he collapses under pressure, that sandcastle will be gone.
Why did Trump lie in Nevada and say that Cruz had left Nevada?
Why does he still need to lie?
Ben Shapiro is part of the morning drive team on KRLA, Salem radio’s flagship station in LA.
He’s been a Trump hater since day one, and as Trump steamrolls his opponents little Ben has been getting hysterical.
KRLA long ago established itself as a sort of propaganda arm of the GOPe. Hewitt, Prager, Medved. They’re all pining for the glory of days of Dubya when they had access to the White House, and encouraged Dubya as he pushed for amnesty and tried to get his pal Harriet Meiers on the Supreme Court. If you want to know what the GOPe is thinking, tune in.
You said...
“Even as a Cruz supporter it looks like he is done.
When he can’t win one county in SC and not even get Hispanics or evangelicals then it is basically over, especially as many of Bush voters will go to Rubio.”
Agree.
If I had to bet $100 on either Trump or Cruz being the nominee no question at this point who I’d bet on.
Is he getting cold feet again?
That means he’s done.
The political paradigm has shifted where the Cult of Personality outweighs substantive issues now. Also, when I was a kid in the '60's, it seemed the news cycles had a 2-3 day period for digestion. Now we have to deal with it on a real-time basis. Trump is exploiting that and obviously has a nuanced multi-week media plan that he is executing to perfection,
Bottom line ....Our political systems will be controlled by obnoxious blowhards who with an army Yes-Men Operatives numb down the voters into not only buying the snake-oil, but liking it too.
Facist Regimes have been created with less bravado than this.
There is only one reason, actually: Because that's how political wars are won. The left has grasped this for many many years, and perfected the art of political warfare. The right, on the other hand, has not.
And Cruz can do it with facts.
And that is how you lose. The electorate doesn't care for cold hard facts & statistics. Start spouting them off, and your target audience will be asleep within 30 seconds. Cruz's message will need to be emotional, and boiled down to a 30 second soundbite, at the very least.
But don’t you remember yesterday when the Cruz fruits got in a tizzy when The Donald said he’d like to punch a protestor? Just imagine if he punched little Teddy!
He's already tried the low road.
And we don't need to hear about his father's underwear!!!!!!
It dropped Rubio to 5th place in liberal NH.
Trump's calling Carson "pathological" destroyed Carson's campaign.
Trump and Rubio doing their "liar, liar" thing has hurt Cruz.
Telling the truth about Trump could do serious damage.
Trump can't complain that he doesn't have it coming.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.