In Ted Cruz country, Sarah Palin gets tepid response stumping for Donald Trump

The La Crosse Journal ^ | April 1, 2016 | Matthew DeFour

[2ndDivisionVet]

MILWAUKEE — In her Wisconsin debut as a Donald Trump surrogate, Sarah Palin was met with tepid applause and stone-faced silence Friday night at a Milwaukee County Republican gathering.

In contrast, the 750 Republicans at American Serb Hall cheered enthusiastically for Sen. Ted Cruz, who was introduced by Gov. Scott Walker and talk radio host Vicki McKenna.

The contrasting receptions illustrated why the Texas senator has surged past the real estate mogul and reality TV celebrity in the latest polls, especially in southeastern Wisconsin.

Palin opened with a call for unity among the candidates in supporting former Green Bay Packer offensive lineman Jerry Kramer’s induction into the NFL hall of fame, a joke that mostly fell flat. Her free-flowing, seemingly stream-of-consciousness speech from prepared notes criticized crony capitalists on Wall Street for profiting from open borders, free trade and military intervention while regular people suffer.

“The establishment’s interest runs counter to the interests of the people,” Palin said. “Common sense is an endangered species in Washington.”

Palin said Trump is the only candidate who creates jobs, balances budgets, builds “big things” and “understands this reality.”

After Palin, McKenna, who Trump hung up on during an intense interview earlier in the week, fired up the crowd by slamming Trump’s criticisms of Walker and the Wisconsin economy.

“Governor Walker is the single most substantive governor in the history of this state,” McKenna said. “I am tired of people coming into my state and telling me how bad it is.”

Walker then introduced Cruz as a candidate who would bring to Washington the same “common sense conservative leadership” that Walker brought to Wisconsin.

Palin was the second featured speaker after Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who had a small contingent of supporters in the crowd and was introduced by former Gov. Tommy Thompson.

Kasich noted that recent polls have shown 38 percent of voters in the state don’t know enough about him to form an opinion.

“I guess that’s what happens when you’re positive all the time and don’t enter a demolition derby,” Kasich said.

Palin is also scheduled to join Trump at town hall events in Racine and Rothschild on Saturday. Palin will also participate in a solo meet-and-greet event in Marathon City on Sunday afternoon.

The former Alaska governor’s past visits to Wisconsin include a 2013 book signing at a Wausau Wal-Mart and a 2011 tax day rally in Madison, where she defended Walker’s controversial changes to public sector collective bargaining.

“Your governor did the right thing, and you won,” Palin said in 2011. “Your beautiful state won.”

This week, after Walker endorsed Cruz, Trump laid into Walker for the performance of Wisconsin’s economy, telling hundreds of supporters in Janesville “he’s not doing a great job.”

Milwaukee County has become Cruz country as conservative talk radio has aligned against the real estate mogul and reality TV celebrity and behind the first-term senator. The latest Marquette Law School Poll found Cruz leading Trump 53-15 in Milwaukee County. Kasich came in second with 22 percent support.

Attendees at Friday night’s event said the vast majority of the crowd were Cruz supporters, which was borne out by the response to the speakers.

Among the Cruz supporters was Christina Bauman, 53, a registered nurse from Waukesha who said Republicans in Wisconsin are supporting Cruz because “we are ground zero for conservatism.”

“People are just fed up,” Bauman said. “We want results.”

Warren Matson, 57, a Realtor from West Allis, said he is undecided, but has been leaning toward Trump after Ben Carson dropped out of the race. However, Trump’s gaffes over the past week, such as reversing a statement that women who receive abortions should be punished if abortion were to become illegal, have raised doubts about Trump. Matson’s wife Maggie is supporting Cruz.

“We may need marriage counseling after this if I vote for Trump, and I almost want to do it,” Matson said, adding the way the Republican establishment has moved to stop Trump illustrates how “he isn’t beholden to anyone.”

Michael Willner, a cable CEO from New York, traveled to Wisconsin Friday to volunteer for Kasich.

“He has a fabulous record,” Willner said. “He really was the Republican architect of the last balanced budget this country has had.”

His assessment for why Kasich hasn’t caught fire in Wisconsin, a purple state, is because it is less moderate than states such as Ohio and Pennsylvania and more divided between conservatives and liberals.

Thomas Kroon, 50, a truck driver from Oak Creek, said he supported Walker for president, then Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and now Cruz. He said the antipathy toward Trump among many Wisconsin voters is driven by how he distorted Walker’s record during last August’s Republican debate.

“There’s nothing about Trump that’s conservative,” Kroon said.

Kroon also knocked Kasich for taking federal money as part of a Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act, something Walker has resisted.

“Kasich wants to keep everything the way it is,” Kroon said. “We need bold changes at this point.”

[Paladin2]

S! should be promoting 2nd amendment issues.

[Ymani Cricket]

Great point Haha!!

[Just mythoughts]

Nope! Not even close. Man those two were pathetic.

I remember... trying to refresh those that think that Wisconsin is something different than it really is. As if a Cruz win is a rebirth of something that never was.

[jonrick46]

I was not tepid. Sarah Palin schooled them and they listened intently. Her command of the subjects, immigration, National Defense and Trade was outstanding. She has the unique gift of communication that makes a complex problem easily understood. The audience soaked up every word as if it were a gourmet desert served by a master chef.

[jonrick46]

You can watch the You Tube video here of Sarah’s Wisconsin speech:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgjTUY-YRA4

[mbrfl]

Hee Hee. That sounds about right.

[Salamander]

Homies.

:)

[usnadad]

Being from Wisconsin you have to understand somethings. We have gone through 5 hard years of fighting the liberal left every step of the way. Many people have lost friends over the battles we’ve had. Many people that I knew before the battles were not political, but they are now conservative. The hate and vitriol thrown at our governor made people think and pick sides. Wisconsin is now far more ideological on the conservative side than it was before the Walker wars. Walker took on the teacher’s union and won. Under Walker we are now a right to work state. He has balanced our budget, lowered our taxes, fully funded the pensions funds, paid off all the funds raided by the previous lib governor. He has also passed concealed-carry, did not take the Obama medicaid expansion and refused to setup an Obamacare exchange. He has been steadfast conservative right down the line and we have stood with him through protests and recalls. When Trump comes into this state with no idea of what we’ve been through and says he should have raised taxes and the schools have gone begging. He sounds like a fricking liberal. He’s spouting all the same crap the libs here have been spouting for the last 5 years. Just like the liberal he is.

[WVKayaker]

The lying, spinning media continues to do their lying and spinning.

Hmmmmm. 750 in the room, and most of them GOPe. This was a $BIG$ fundraising event for the political class. Think Deep Pockets, like Goldman-Sachs associates. They are the epitome of powerful team players. They like the Gov. there, but it remains to be seen how much Teddy Bare can keep.

Soon, though, we will see Donald Trump takes the balance of delegates and no second vote will be needed. Teddy is just a lying smarmy lawyer Senator, who will never be elected again! The Teddy Bares will feel de pain!

[matthew fuller]

Palin screwed the pooch.

[mbrfl]

Exactly right. These people are trying to entrap voters into arguing over a bunch of nothing issues because they can’t win on the issues that matter. Pathetic.

[LegendHasIt]

Ted Cruz Country?

OK; he may win there, due to the tens of millions of dollars being spent there against Trump, and all the great efforts of the Establishment Anti-Trump operations... But very few in “Purple Wisconsin” particularly love Cruz.

[Nifster]

You may have. I did nt

[Just mythoughts]

Being from Wisconsin you have to understand somethings. We have gone through 5 hard years of fighting the liberal left every step of the way. Many people have lost friends over the battles we’ve had. Many people that I knew before the battles were not political, but they are now conservative. The hate and vitriol thrown at our governor made people think and pick sides. Wisconsin is now far more ideological on the conservative side than it was before the Walker wars. Walker took on the teacher’s union and won. Under Walker we are now a right to work state. He has balanced our budget, lowered our taxes, fully funded the pensions funds, paid off all the funds raided by the previous lib governor. He has also passed concealed-carry, did not take the Obama medicaid expansion and refused to setup an Obamacare exchange. He has been steadfast conservative right down the line and we have stood with him through protests and recalls. When Trump comes into this state with no idea of what we’ve been through and says he should have raised taxes and the schools have gone begging. He sounds like a fricking liberal. He’s spouting all the same crap the libs here have been spouting for the last 5 years. Just like the liberal he is.

I have a relative in Wisconsin... I remember talk about Doyle and what a breath of fresh air Walker was. Walker was my first choice. But he did not shed the status quo GOPe of Romney/Ryan/and the prince.... Hence Walker did not catch on nationally.

Trump's talk about 'taxes' is to those same liberals that are not necessarily dedicated to Hillry and Bernie... Actually, the 'tax' talk is indirectly about lying Ryan, Speaker of the peoples House... who cannot spend enough of we the peoples tax dollars to fund Obama's redistribution of wealth. I can appreciate the animus regarding 'tax' hikes... but, how much of Doyle's debt has been paid off or rescinded?

[mbrfl]

By New York, at the latest, Cruz will be mathematically eliminated from receiving 1237 delegates. When he stays in the race after that, his true character and agenda will be revealed for all of those who are willing to see.

I think Trump will likely reach the magic number on the first ballot. The rules committee may try to change the rules before hand to steal the vote from him, but Trump seems to be aware of their intent and preparing for it.

[2ndDivisionVet]

And yet 80% or so of the people here think he’s the shiznit and call Cruz a globalist and much worse.

[PA Engineer]

Cruz Country? This was Milwaukee, not Calgary.

[jpsb]

Ted Cruz country? Lol, the last time Wisconsin voted R in a presidential election was 1984.

[Freedom56v2]

She was your gal!

[JediJones]

80% of the Wisconsin Republican voters approve of Walker. You can bet they also like Cruz.