The next Republican president, if there ever is one, needs not only to win the election, but needs a mandate.
For this, he needs several million Obama voters to vote for him.
In 1976, Gerald Ford got 39 million votes to Jimmy Carter’s 40 million. In 1980, Ronald Reagan got 43 million votes to Jimmy Carter’s 35 million.
Ronald Reagan would not have been elected without Democrats who voted for Jimmy Carter in 1976.
Senator Cruz is the perfect conservative candidate for President - assuming that losing with the perfect candidate is fine with you. He has zero crossover appeal, which is what he needs to win, and if Elizabeth Warren is the opponent (a certainty, IMO), his wife’s role at Goldman Sachs is going to be a boat anchor.
People around here constantly make the assumption that November 2016 voters are locked in, right now, to how they are going to vote based on what they did in 2012. If this is true, then we should save the money on polls and campaigns, stop having conventions, let the States appoint their electors, and send them the July 2015 poll results right before they vote.
I live in a little town in rural America. Our Democrats have about 15% communists and pointy-headed liberals, 50% farmers, and 35% displaced or threatened production workers. Of the latter two groups, support for Trump based on signs and personal contacts is about 50%.
Just as Republican voters are more conservative than Republican “leaders”, so are many Democratic voters. There are Democrats who would die before they voted for Cruz who will vote for Trump (or Palin).
I agree with you on the fact that Democrats will not cross over and vote for Cruz or Palin. However, many of them will vote for Trump. Not because he is a liberal, as some suggest -he may be on some issues, but because they genuinely like him. I’ve spoken to many Dems, who are all in for Trump. I know that Mark Levin wants a pure conservative to run, another Reagan, but, that isn’t going to happen. A Ronald Reagan comes along once in a lifetime. I think Mark is living in a wonderful, warm bubble of yesteryear and his time in the Reagan administration. Times have changed and this country has changes - unfortunately. I can say that if Trump isn’t the nominee, then those same Democrats will vote for the D candidate. Cruz has his place in politics, I just don’t think it’s going to be as president.
Zero crossover appeal, eh?
Could you please tell me a candidate that would be willing to debate Code Pink and somehow keep it respectable?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfWF6GH0BYw
I guarantee you that because of Cruz’s efforts there were a handful of Code Pinkies that because of that debate, came away questioning some of their indoctrinated beliefs. The results may take time to see, but what Cruz actually did was plant the seeds in delivering a logical argument on why conservatives believe the way they do.
That’s what makes Cruz stands out. He’s willing to take the conservative message to all voters and take the time and energy necessary to get that message across. He wants voters to not only trust him but to understand why he believes and makes the decisions he does.
There is no other candidate that has tried this method since Reagan.
Not even Trump. People aren’t voting for Trump because he’s a conservative. Their supporting him because of anger. That’s why Trump’s candidacy is based on a lie.
Cruz has much broader appeal and for more important reasons. He knows how to bypass the media to get that message across as well.