Posted on 03/18/2014 1:37:04 PM PDT by Colonel Kangaroo
Editor's note: Julian Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. He is the author of "Jimmy Carter" and "Governing America."
(CNN) -- ...The weaknesses of both men—Cruz in terms of his style and Paul in terms of his rhetoric—point out how desperate the GOP is to find someone who can build a broad coalition, something that is essential for a presidential victory, particularly when Republicans will likely be facing a formidable candidate.
The problems of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie have been a huge blow to the party, and there are not many alternatives at this point who are willing to run to replace a figure who, in terms of style of governance and rhetoric, would have a better chance of appealing to voters beyond the base. This is the reason former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is getting so much buzz, as potentially the only other person who can fill this void.
If Republicans can't find some alternative and the primaries revolve around the tension between Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, Democrats will be in excellent position to retain the White House in 2016.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Cruz is “weak” but their guy Barry is a tower of strength. Right.
Methinks the Professor has adopted premises that would never fly at this venue. What he thinks is practical politics simply reflects the false premises so common in the shallow world of contemporary American Academia.
What we need is not an echo--to paraphrase Phyllis Schlafly's classic from 1960--but a real choice--else what is the point?!
William Flax
“an hispanic on the ticket,especially as president will take those western states Obama took”
You are dreaming. Cruz did worse than Cornyn among hispanics in Texas.
Hispanics don’t care about race. They just want “free stuff”.
That's exactly how I see it. We've been in wars for 100 years and that has taken its toll in blood, treasure and a collapsed economy.
Hillary want's to break the glass ceiling by being the first women to be a war time president. And whichever republican you site, once you scrape off the talk, they are all bomb, bomb, bomb McCains.
The USA needs someone that wants to preserve America and not the world. Any such person to emerge, will be blown out of the water by the military industrial complex and foreign interests.
Always good to hear from a left wing a## hole about how we on the right need to vote. If you think 6 million that stayed away from the polls in 2012 wait tell 20 million don’t show up in 2016. Jeb is a weak sister on his best day.
I was thinking that he'd be too old, but actually he'd only be 63 (7 years younger than his brother and Bill Clinton, 6 years younger than Hillary). That's not all that old for a president.
But if the country isn't tired of the Clinton-Bush generation, it's certainly tired of the Bushes (and maybe of the Clintons as well -- a big reason Hillary didn't win the first time she ran).
Paul has already come out against conservatives.
And Chris Christie, who Zelizer seemed to think a threat, is another echo.
I would like to see your numbers on the Hispanic vote in Texas.
safe to assume that criz/paul will be on the ticket,but who will they be up against? Clinton/Kerry? lol
Always love it when the lefties at CNN tell me how conservatives aren’t the right choice
Why would the majority of GOP voters vote for anybody who is for amnesty for illegal immigrants?
There are still enough around who don't believe that makes him a NBC and won't vote for him for that reason alone.
And, the demonrats will argue that even obama supposedly was born in America, unlike Ted Cruz, and use his foreign birth against him and his supporters.
I expect that to all be ignored by his faithful Cruz for Prez hopefuls, but don't say I and others didn't warn you, way ahead of time.
I like Paul, but am afraid that by 2016 he will not be overcome the MSM offensive that will paint him as a bigot and a racist.
Cruz is American, and fully qualified to be president.
As long as Paul keeps taking it to the conservatives, and embracing the GOPe, then the media will treat him fine.
It is the conservatives that the media really go after.
Paul’s a pro-amnesty guy.
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