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The Most Conservative Candidate Who Is Electable
The National Review ^ | March 21, 2016 | Nicholas Frankovich

Posted on 03/21/2016 12:47:25 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife

Ted Cruz beats Hillary Clinton nationally in recent polls, though narrowly, and in state-by-state matchups performs better than the current front-runner for the Republican nomination. Predictably, Cruz wallops Clinton in Utah, a reliably Republican state. But — this is news — both Clinton and Sanders win there when they’re matched against Trump, according to a Deseret News/KSL poll conducted March 8–15. The best evidence we have here in March, as candidates fight for the nomination, is that Trump at the top of the ticket would remove Utah from the “solid Republican” column and put it and its six electoral votes into play. In the most recent poll of how voters in neighboring Arizona would vote in November, Cruz wins its eleven electoral votes by six percentage points; Trump and Clinton tie.

And so on across the map. Trump supporters say that he would redraw it by putting putting into play East Coast and Midwestern states that have been solidly Democratic for ages, but so far the evidence is that he would redraw it in favor of Democrats. Cruz performs better against Clinton in the most recent polls in Pennsylvania and Florida. Ohio? Cruz over Clinton by two points; Clinton over Trump by six. In his home state of New York, Clinton crushes Trump — less severely than she does Cruz, but in both cases her double-digit margins are so large that any plan for the Republicans to capture the state’s 29 electoral votes would appear quixotic and ill advised if the party wanted to spend its resources to maximum effect.

Some Trump supporters and neutral observers hypothesize that he would draw new white working-class voters to the Republican party. The evidence is that he would alienate more voters than he would attract. Pro-Trump friends and acquaintances of mine are unfazed by that information: The polls are always wrong, they say breezily. And people hate Clinton, they add, never mind that people hate Trump more. His unfavorable ratings are worse than hers and in fact record-breaking.

A vote for Trump in the primaries is a vote for Clinton in November, and probably for Democrats in congressional races as well. Most of his supporters seem not to care. They hate both parties, but at the moment the Republican one is nearer, like someone they’ve been trying to be friends with but is always dissing them. They relish the prospect of cutting him down to size. They’re enjoying the cathartic experience now, like the New Leftists who, gathering in Grant Park in Chicago in the summer of 1968, vented their disdain for the Democratic-party establishment of the day. It was, for all practical purposes, the most consequential Nixon rally of the campaign season.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2016; cruz; gopprimary; moosebitsister; nationalreview; nicholasfrankovich; sidebarspam; yellowjournalism
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To: Theophilus

Made my two replacements 35 years ago, I am getting a little long in the tooth to be a daddy again.
Trust me after 65 you do start to slow down just a mite.


121 posted on 03/21/2016 8:07:47 PM PDT by 5th MEB (Progressives in the open; --- FIRE FOR EFFECT!!)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

McCain was the only one who could beat Obama. So was Romney.


122 posted on 03/21/2016 8:18:23 PM PDT by VerySadAmerican (Cruz voters: Wake up! Trump is our only chance of stopping the gopE. If not now, never!)
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To: 5th MEB

I wish you would have had a few more. Invest in the bed, win at the ballot box. Hope you have lots of grandkids!


123 posted on 03/22/2016 12:23:05 AM PDT by Theophilus (Always vote. Always vote your conscience. God wins every election.)
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To: Washi

I differ with you on that.

Unlike Cruz, Trump immediately, repeatedly, and forcefully said he wanted NO PART of any KKK support.

He completely rejected it.

Cruz on the other hand, profusely thanked Romney.

That is a (big) difference.


124 posted on 03/22/2016 4:33:37 AM PDT by cba123
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To: vette6387

It’s common knowledge.


125 posted on 03/22/2016 8:11:54 AM PDT by Boogieman
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To: Sybeck1
Always post this when you see an article from the National e- Spew:

The Yellow Kid points the way to yellow journalism. :)

126 posted on 03/22/2016 12:25:34 PM PDT by kiryandil (Chicago, March 2016: The Delphi Technique in action...)
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