Posted on 11/21/2015 12:42:02 PM PST by VinL
Ted Cruz gets no respect.
At least no respect in keeping with the impressiveness of the campaign he's built and his increasing odds of winning the Republican nomination.
The press and the political class are beginning to catch on to Cruz's strength, and there has been more talk of a prospective Cruz-Marco Rubio race, but his coverage and his buzz have been lagging indicators.. and they are still lagging.
After the GOP debate in Milwaukee, a Politico survey of Republican insiders had as many respondents saying Cruz won (6 percent) as Ben Carson and John Kasich (6 percent each). This is extraordinary.
Cruz tends to be an afterthought in the Sunday show chatter and on TV generally.
The Atlantic tracks candidate mentions on cable TV. In the past 100 days, Cruz ranks ninth among all candidates from both parties, well behind Chris Christie and just above Kasich, both of whom are throwing Hail Marys for the nomination.
A Washington Post analysis looked at the cable TV coverage devoted to each candidate compared with his or her position in the polls. It found that Cruz got 60 percent less coverage than you’d expect from July through October.
Donald Trump, as you might expect, gets more coverage than warranted by his polling. So does Jeb Bush. It's as though the media haven't been able to adjust coverage of the former Florida governor to account for his diminished stature in the race.
The indications of the strength of Cruz's operation and the shrewdness of his positioning are mounting.
He had more cash on hand at the end of the third quarter than any other Republican. He has major super PAC backing.
He assessed the anti-establishment mood in the party more accurately than any of the other traditional candidates.
He reacted to the rise of Trump very deftly for his purposes. He has seen a couple of key potential competitors, Scott Walker and Rand Paul, hit a wall or badly underperform.
He has a discernible ideological and geographic base.
He has, relatedly, a path to the nomination that is simple and intuitive (win Iowa, consolidate the right and beat an establishment that might be too fractured and unpopular to prevail).
He lights up pretty much every conservative audience he addresses. He is an excellent debater, and he doesn’t make tactical or rhetorical mistakes.
And yet he doesn’t really get his due. Why?
The political press corps made up its mind about him — too divisive — as soon as he showed up in Washington and has never gotten over its dismissiveness about his campaign.
The appeal of Cruz’s conservative populism is lost on most reporters and political insiders, who have a natural reflex to roll their eyes at the message and the messenger.
Cruz is not as interesting as Trump and Carson, and he doesn’t feature in any personal drama like the Bush-Rubio mentor-mentee showdown.
Finally, he is graded on a bit of a curve. He routinely performs so well at Republican cattle calls that his standing ovations tend to get discounted.
Cruz is hardly a cinch. Trump and Carson are significant obstacles in Iowa. His theory that he will inherit Trump and Carson’s support if the outsiders deflate is too simplistic. So is his schematic of the race as coming down to two candidates, one representing conservatives (him) and someone representing moderates.
Nonetheless, it should be obvious that Cruz is a serious threat for the nomination.
Be warned, and get over it.
I think a lot of us avoid the nominee discussions because of the bitter food fights. We eat out own.
I have voted for president since 1956 and have yet to find a perfect candidate.
;o)
Thank you for your posts.
Thank you too Meg33.
Have a nice Thanksgiving.
However, when it comes to Cruz, they will be searching for that needle in the haystack and keep harping on that incessantly.
Really, you guys lose your credibility because the double standard is so obvious.
Another thing is that you all will jump on each and every Cruz thread to drop your candidate's name / critique Cruz. Then when folks respond to you, you will claim that Trump has it in the bag and Cruz is just running for show.
Well if Trump has it locked up, you all sure don't look like it.
Trump supporters make some frenzied kooky posts on those Cruz threads where he shines.
He is not hawking a Liberal agenda.
Other than that, you’ve made an excellent post.
He is hawking the Reagan Platform.
I always get a kick out of folks who profess to be solid Conservatives unable to recognize Reagan’s platform.
Thanks for the humor break.
How in the hell could you ever imply that Cruz might be a stealth establishment candidate? You can’t possibly be that stupid.
Sorry I don’t think that is it.
I am moving more to Anarcho Capitalism.
Yes I am !!!!!!!!!!!!
Makes one wonder if Harry or Nancy changed rhetoric to a conservative sounding one, how many of these same people will jump on that band wagon.
Otherwise your posts are good. ;-)
The way I see it, Trump is probably Cruz’ second choice and Cruz is Trump’s second choice.
Cruz is my favorite, and he would win; but a Trump-Cruz ticket would result in a landslide not seen since Reagan.
amen sister!
*wink*
Okay. Problem is it goes both ways. Might as well take a long nap;)
Trump is getting like 90% more coverage than his poll numbers warrant. Ted Cruz is getting like 60% less coverage than his poll numbers. Trump has been getting a free ride based on his reality TV star persona. That is still not stopping Cruz from his recent rise in the polls though.
At first he got lots, but I watch Fox and CNN every day, and the last couple months they rarely show him at all. If they talk about him it’s slamming him for something he said (or didn’t really say). They spend more time on Kasich and Christie who seem to be on every other day.
But that would only make sense if Cruz were a Megyn favorite, which is really a foolish notion.
The corrupt Washington cartel is desperately trying to promote any candidate over Trump.
Trump just put Rich Lowry in his muslim database.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.