Posted on 02/26/2016 1:10:17 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Over the course of the last 48 hours, the Rubio campaign pulled one of the great head-fakes in recent political history by telegraphing that they weren't at all interested in attacking Donald Trump at tonight's debate.
Technically, this wasn't a ruse because Rubio didn't just attack Trump. He went after him with a chainsaw. And Ted Cruz brought a pair of pliers and a blowtorch.
If the normal laws of politics applied to the 2016 race, it would have been a catastrophic night for Trump. By any reasonable measure, Trump had a meltdown. He was exposed as a policy lightweight on a host of issues: A health care repeal plan which consists entirely of "removing the lines." He defended Planned Parenthood (again!) by claiming that abortions are only a small part of what the organization does. Most amazingly, he claimed that his sister, who is a judge, "signed a bill" with Judge Sam Alito. Two judges ... "signed a bill." It's enough to make you wonder: If a single exchange between Rubio and Chris Christie two weeks ago cost him several spots in New Hampshire, how could this two-hour demolition not cost Trump a great deal?
But will it hurt him? Probably not by itself. But if tonight's debate is the beginning of a sustained counterattack against Trump-by Cruz and Rubio themselves on the stump, by their campaigns on the air, and by reluctant donors who now see that there's a blueprint for dismantling the orange menace-then it could mark the beginning of the end for Trump.
What's the blueprint? Stylistically, Rubio showed that you don't need to out-argue Trump. You can mock him. And over the course of the debate, Rubio and Cruz put into play a number of issues that are real problems for Trump:
* His fishy tax returns, which he falsely insists he can't release because he's being audited.
* His total lack of a plan for replacing Obamacare.
* His lies about supporting/opposing both Iraq and Libya (which he repeated during the debate).
* The continuing charges of fraud (and lawsuit) concerning Trump university.
* Trump's use of illegal immigrant labor to build Trump Tower.
Why are these problems? Because the average voters doesn't know about most of them. Because they go to the heart of Trump's appeal. And because some of them-such as the tax returns and Trump University-are ongoing stories in which there are plenty of details still to be reported. The Cruz and Rubio campaigns ought to push these issues relentlessly at campaign stops, through surrogates, and in ads because their attacks will, in turn, force the media to finally confront (rather than enable) Trump.
Trump's rise has been powered by his dominance of earned media-and not just his perpetual access to it, but the obsequious toadying of TV hosts who don't want to lose their ratings chum. But a sustained campaign which focuses on these specific and detailed charges about Trump will force the media to start actually asking questions and pushing back against Trump when he dissembles or evades. In short, a real campaign against Trump will force the media to start treating him like a real candidate. And once that starts happening, Trump will be much less eager to submit himself to real questioning.
The final step to beating Trump is that his rivals have to tie their attacks to a central idea of what Trump really is. As effective as Rubio was in torching Trump at the debate, Cruz did a better job of this tonight. Cruz used all of Trump's problems to support the argument that Trump is a liar and a negotiator who is going to sell out his supporters the first chance he gets. (And believe it or not, that's the most charitable interpretation. Throw in his squeezing grandmothers to build casino parking lots, his penchant for bedding married women, and his four bankruptcies and you can grope your way to much worse characterizations.)
Yet Trump cannot be destroyed in a day. No matter how disastrous tonight's debate was, defeating him will require time, resources, discipline, and initiative. Cruz and Rubio have, finally, shown how it can be done.
But if this debate isn't followed by a pro-longed counter-offensive, then it will serve as nothing except a preview of what the Democrats will do to Trump in July.
138 when I was tested in my 30’s. I am 60 now and on a lot of pain meds for nerve issues so have memory issues but can still stand tall (given time to think).
Stuart Stevensâ plan. Hey, it worked on behalf of Thad Cochran. And Cruz has gone full establishment by signing onto this despicable plan.
______________________________________________________________
Truly Trump funds a McConnell pac that helps Cochran steal the election Chris is Cruz’s campaign chair in MS, and deranged Trumpanzees pretend black is white.
I’m sorry, 128. See
You know Trump has kept me in the “voting fold”. I will be 60 when I vote, and since being forced to vote for Dole and McCain, then Romney; and this cycle served up a helping of Bush and now establishment Rubio I will sit out, period. I have been at FR for 17-18 years at this point as well. I will never vote, on pain of a democrat like Hillary, if that is the RNC/GOP choice given to the voters. And yes I have argued for all my years that you vote for the party because the alternative is horrible, but if Americans by and large want Hillary, then woe onto the GOP/RNC for making her president by default.
“Whether he wins or loses in November will be by the good grace of the American people.”
If Trump is the nominee expect a third party run by a moderate To liberal individual with nation name recognition whose sole objective will be to earn 5% of the vote in a few key states. These votes will swing the election from Trump to Hillary, just as Ross Perot earned enough GOP votes to put Bill Clinton in office in 1992 and 1996. it doesn’t take many votes to accomplish this objective. Ralph Nader’s few thousand votes in Florida in 2000 were more than enough to swing Florida to Bush, giving Bush the electoral vote win in a year when Gore beat him nationally in the popular vote.
Who will the spoiler be? Bloomberg, Romney, Kasich, Rubio?
The other deciding factor could be the ground game. The RNC, if it wants Trump to lose, may decide to focus its resources on the close Senate races forcing Trump to decide if he will build an expensive ground organization for the general election or try to do without one. Hillary will have a powerful ground organization and if a self funding Trump chooses not to create one the bus loads of Democrat voters could make the difference.
First if you want to have a debate, majuscules is not the way to open.
Second, I know you crewzoids want an algorean 19 point plan taking 200 pages worked through by the DC policy wonks.
Let's see - open borders for health care competition, free market competition, lots of plans and choices sounds like a pretty good plan actually. Letting markets work is how we got the internet, personal computers and cell phones. Even the smartest man in the world, Ted Cruz is not smart enough to make every possible choice for every person in America. Come to think of it, it was the smartest people on the room who gave us Obama care.
The problem with social conservatism, what has tanked your entire saleability, other than accomplishing not a damn thing in 20 years, is that you are just like the liberals. You want government to make choice for people. You just want "conservative" choices instead of "liberal" choices. You want the 200 page plan prepared by a conservative think tank, instead of a liberal think tank.
Ain’t going to happen. While Ted Cruz and Rubio fans may be cheering today in reality this attempt to define Trump has already failed repeatedly. All of these attacks have already been tried. What it look like to the average person was there were two politicians trying to keep somebody out of their club and doing it in a Inasty way.
It looks more like Cruz’s support is collapsing on all fronts, drop to 3rd place behind Rubio almost everywhere. But, Trump still leads by double digits, and Super Tuesday is just 4 days away. It wouldn’t come as any surprise if Trump takes 10 states on Tuesday. Rubio and Cruz have to take at least 2 or 3 states each in order to even remain viable candidates. If they don’t who is going to keep donating to, and voting for them if they are only perpetually fighting for 2nd and 3rd place?
Trump only got a lousy 57% in the Drudge poll.
That’ll show him...
Only 4 days to run ads, including a weekend of unseasonably warm weather when NO ONE will pay attention...Trump will romp on Tuesday.
163, when I was 17, if we’re comparing notes.
Do I win anything?
;D
Patton used simplistic generalities when he ran through the Wehrmacht like [expletives deleted]. You want sophisticated, listen to any speech by Al Gore.
You'd have to be fairly obtuse to think its a good idea to move to Palm Beach for the winter and survive on a seasonal minimum wage job.
I'm guessing common sense is not your strong suit is it?
-— What’s the blueprint? Stylistically, Rubio showed that you don’t need to out-argue Trump. You can mock him. And over the course of the debate, Rubio and Cruz put into play a number of issues that are real problems for Trump:
* His fishy tax returns, which he falsely insists he can’t release because he’s being audited.
* His total lack of a plan for replacing Obamacare.
* His lies about supporting/opposing both Iraq and Libya (which he repeated during the debate).
* The continuing charges of fraud (and lawsuit) concerning Trump university.
* Trump’s use of illegal immigrant labor to build Trump Tower.
Why are these problems? Because the average voters doesn’t know about most of them. -—
And now they have a week to learn
Boom.
February surprise.
I bet he can spell “bore” with his IQ.
:)
[boorish boars are obnoxious swine]
Give it up! Open borders for health care - proliferation of free market plans is quite sound plan, actually. It is the plan that gave us hydrofracking and a gusher of domestic oil and natural gas unlike Carter's energy policy resulting in crippling the Atomic Energy Commission inside a new agency designed to give us Carter style clean energy and shale oil.
I agree open competition is good. But explain the rest. It didn’t make sense at all.
What rest?
Meanwhile, the bleary eyed moron Erick Erickson is on radio right now, advocating for Hillary or Bernie to beat Trump. A real conservative, there.
The rest of the plan . He said everyone gets healthcare. How? Who pays? How does he deal with the moral risk of mandated coverage for preexisting conditions he said would be covered. Etc.
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