“Instead, Cruz hopes that Trump fades and that his decision to avoid attacking the front-runner means Trump’s supporters will move to him. “
And that’s where he loses.
Trump’s support is not malleable.
His base is made up of people that are part of a political movement/revolution. If he’s not there, those people (many of them independents and disaffected Democrats) vanish.
And the worse part is that it’s a candidate that avoided confrontation, allowed the other candidates to go after Trump and then flame-out, and then expects to play the “above it all” act into the nomination.
The biggest problem is that he cant pull that in a general election. He wont be able to find enough church ladies to turn a state to the red column, nor does he have the organization to actively contest the media wing of the DNC.
He also cant avoid attacking Hillary in hopes that she “fades”.
I agree with your points. IMO they need each other. Obviously, so do those who keep trying to set them up to destroy each other. That they are rivals does not require that they be enemies. That tactic stinks of Rove, Bush, Clinton and Priebus types.
If he got the nomination, I am pretty sure a man with the intelligence of Ted Cruz wouldn’t sit back in a one on one scenario hoping that Hillary fades. Whether he wins or not, I think I would place my bets on Cruz knowing the right course for his campaign over pretty much ANY message board junkie.
You raise very good points, all of them valid.
The fact is, Trump’s appeal cuts across party lines, and disaffected Democrats the old ‘Reagan Democrats’ who have been laying low, nearly dormant for decades WOULD come out of the shadows to vote for Trump in the general election.
IF Trump were unable to win the nomination, and Cruz prevailed at the convention, if it was a fair and square win by Cruz, I believe Trump would stay with the GOP, urge his supporters to vote for Cruz, and that he would do all that he could to see Cruz elected.
Having said that, Democrats are in fact more terrified of the prospect of a Cruz presidency because they equate him with all sorts of liberal-RAT nightmares, ‘another Joe McCarthy’, ‘Reagan on steroids’, and so on. They would likely coalesce AGAINST Cruz for that very reason.
Assuming that Hiliarly is the ‘RAT nominee, could Cruz out debate her? Unquestionably. Would Cruz do that with a smile on his face? I am certain of it.
But could he DESTROY her, as Trump would do?
That remains to be seen. Trump would rightly call her every name in the book, shake his finger at her and proclaim that she has “blood on her hands”, he would blast and bellow and go for the jugular which quite frankly, is what it is going to take to rattle the Hildabeast and drive a political stake through the area where her heart is supposed to be.
To employ a boxing analogy, Cruz is not unlike ‘Gentleman Jim Corbett’, a true champion who is universally viewed as having transformed boxing into a ‘scientific’ competition.
Trump? He can box, but he is a brawler and a street fighter (WWE, *literally* lol) and that is what it is probably going to take to win next year.
Yes. Why any of the candidates think that if they can get Trump out, they will get his supporters mystifies me.
Cruz is the one who will fade. Now that he’s in the spotlight, his amnesty con will be exposed. He’s made a big deal out of fighting amnesty because he doesn’t want instant citizenship but that’s all he doesn’t want. Has been able to dodge questions that would corner him but that time’s gone.
Rubio is right on this one, he’s not that different from Cruz.