Posted on 03/23/2015 12:08:22 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is framing his presidential campaign as part of a conservative crusade against the "mushy middle" of Republican politics.
However, his more immediate foes are also on the right.
While former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) has increasingly been dubbed the frontrunner in the race, he's not Cruz's main concern in the GOP primary. While Bush and another top GOP contender, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, are clearly appealing to relatively moderate Republicans, Cruz is hoping to grab staunchly conservative voters who may be inclined to back a hardline candidate as an alternative.
However, Cruz isn't the only top-tier candidate aiming at becoming the Bush alternative to this segment of the electorate in the Republican primary.
Another likely hopeful, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (R), is also moving to run to the right of Bush and New Jersey Gov Chris Christie (R). However, Rubio's voting record is still to the left of some of the candidates who will really be fighting for the most conservative voters in the primary, including Cruz, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R).
With Cruz likely in most direct competition with Paul and Walker, some have even interpreted the timing of his presidential campaign announcement as a shot across Paul's bow. The Daily Beast argued that Cruz was trying to upstage Paul, who is expected to launch his bid in April.
"[T]here’s a sense of mischievousness to Cruz’s timing: Advisers close to Paul leaked a presidential campaign launch date in the first week of April. By announcing Monday, Cruz becomes the first Republican candidate formally running for his party’s presidential nomination—allowing him a couple weeks of peerless press and fundraising. It is hard to imagine this as an accident,"(continued)
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
So we will have Cruz, Walker and someone else splitting the conservative votes and again get a moderate as the nominee. Please settle on 1 quickly.
BS. He has no foes on the right. Not at this point at least.
If Palin or Walker throws their hat in then yes, he will have conservative opposition.
Bush, Cristie supporters are not conservative.
It’s between Walker and Cruz. I’d like to see them on the same ticket.
It almost makes you wonder if one or more of the “conservatives” in the race is really there just to throw the nomination to Bush. Do we know if any of the conservatives have a history of working with the Bushes, being appointed by the Bushes to government jobs, defending the Bushes in court, or anything like that?
Cruz is really running against; vice, corruption, ignorance, propaganda, lies etc.
Cruz and Paul have little in common, Paul being so naive on foreign policy, and, has a tad of Anti-Semitism. Cruz is none of that. I may not be as conservative as Cruz on some Social issues, but he is OK with me.
[ It almost makes you wonder if one or more of the “conservatives” in the race is really there just to throw the nomination to Bush. ]
I worry about Walker, I just do, his evolving stance on immigration towards the right.... some thing just worries me about him.
What an American!!! He is the man...
I am only considering Walker and Cruz.
The GOP convention isn’t until July 18, 2016. I lean Cruz right now. I will see how things shake out by the end of 2015.
I will not accept criticism of either by anyone on this board until 2016. The ‘he is for amnesty’ and the ‘he has no executive experience’ arguments are both crap, are harmful, and I urge Jim Robinson to delete any posts that promote either argument.
“So we will have Cruz, Walker and someone else splitting the conservative votes and again get a moderate as the nominee. Please settle on 1 quickly.”
Don’t worry about Jeb Bush. As much as the rats hate to admit it, they tarnished the Bush name to a point where no republican will vote for Bush.
Unintended consequences.
Yup, that's how we got Romney last time.
Well, I’m for Cruz.
I’d accept Walker as his VP.
My support will go strictly for Cruz in the primaries. If Ted loses and Walker is the nominee, then I will consider supporting Walker, but I need specific and truthful clarification on amnesty from him.
Beyond that, I have no intention of supporting any other republican candidate, and if Bush is the nominee, I will vote against him in the general in Florida in a part of the state that he is counting on.
Not exactly.
We didn’t have a bench of strong folks to the right of Romney the way we do now with Cruz, Walker, Paul.
Also, the “Romney is the only one who can win” and “Romney is inevitable” drumbeat was incessant from the time he announced until the primaries were over.
I definitely agree on your last sentence. If we settle on one quickly, that person will win the nomination handily.
Romney didn’t have any serious challengers.
Not waiting. Going with this Cruz fella until there’s a very good reason not to.
I know where he stands on many issues that matter to me.
We don’t have to choose “quickly”- we have, roughly, until Super Tuesday. Almost a year.
Meanwhile Cruz and Walker will whipsaw Jeb and Rand and educate the public on conservative principles and socialist evils.
We did have some to the right of Romney, but not one had all the attributes needed. For example, by the time the primaries arrived the survivors of the media (anti-conservative) and Romney ($$$) onslaught were Santorum the social conservative, Grinrich the fiscal conservative, Paul the libertarian, and Romney the "moderate" establishment candidate.
Romney, of course, couldn't survive the final debates, the terrible media exposure and the Obama/Democrat money and fraud tsunami. The difference this time is that Cruz has all the attributes and won't let that happen and I suspect some of the others (Walker/Rubio) won't let themselves get sandbagged either by Bush or the media. I think (and hope) Paul, like his father, will eventually self-destruct.
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