Cruz Forces Trump Blunders

RUSH: On this program, ladies and gentlemen, we have praised repeatedly the way Ted Cruz has been behaving in this campaign. We have praised his strategy. We have recognized what he's doing and have praised it, called it out, and this program has been front and center in telling everybody, "Keep a sharp eye on Cruz because when all the shouting's done, when everything shakes out, don't be surprised if Ted Cruz leads the pack."

And now we've got at least two polls with him way up in Iowa, including the Des Moines Register poll, which among the Drive-Bys is among the most respected polls ever. And because Cruz has been playing this whole campaign brilliantly, because he has not criticized Trump, he has not moved, he's not been part of the chorus. Cruz has been exhibiting manners that are considered to be old-fashioned. Politeness, restraint, not getting in people's faces and wagging a finger and shouting them down. He really has been engaged in what I believe are time-honored behavioral techniques that represent manners, breeding, sophistication, maturity, and all that. And doing so has forced Trump into a couple of major blunders here.

It's not so much Cruz's behavior per se. It is the polling data coming out of Iowa that has shocked everybody except me, and including Trump. I mean, when Carson was leading Iowa, ah, nobody really thought that was gonna last. I mean, let's be honest. But Cruz, Cruz has been everybody's dark horse. You cannot legitimately and honestly criticize Cruz's competence, his intelligence, his abilities. He's as bright and competent and capable and smart as anybody, and they all know it. (interruption) What's that? (interruption) Ah, screw it, dark horse. Did I just say dark horse? Well, don't distract me with that stuff 'cause that's not the point here. Melissa Harris-Perry would say it's racist, but the point is that Cruz's behavior here -- and I can't think of another word to describe other than just respectful and polite, treat your enemies with kindness, you know, turn the other cheek, all that sort of stuff. The virtues that are found in the Bible, for example. Cruz has been living them.

He's not made himself a target in the way others who play the in-your-face insult game make themselves targets. He gets enough excrement thrown his way anyway because people are so afraid of him. But when you couple the way Cruz has behaved, his steady, consistent campaigning, his unrivaled and unparalleled, in this field, conservatism, and you couple that with this series of polls that have shown up in the last week, it has discombobulated everybody much the way Trump discombobulated people early on.

RUSH: I'm not sure that Donald Trump understands the way Ted Cruz has been behaving, some might say "playing the game." But a lot of people have observed. I mean, it's nothing earth shattering for me to tell you that when the world has piled on Donald Trump, Ted Cruz has not, and a lot of people have noticed, and a lot of people have been cynical about it. A lot of people have said, "Come on, you're not real if you don't criticize Trump. Trump's not a conservative and you are." I've heard people, I've had the e-mails from people, they're mad at Cruz for not jumping all over Trump for what Trump isn't versus what Trump claims to be, and I've always known what Cruz is doing.

Cruz is positioning himself or has been positioning himself to be able to take advantage of any slippage that might occur with Trump. I mean, let's face it. The entire political establishment has been waiting for Trump to implode. They've been hoping, they've been praying, they've been predicting, they've been thinking, they've been assuring themselves that Trump was going to goof it up somehow. Or they've been telling themselves that Trump isn't serious and at some point's gonna drop out once he's got his grins and jollies filled with all this.

I mean, they've been grasping at all kinds of straws to tell themselves that when they finally get down to the convention that Trump is not gonna be there and he's not gonna be the nominee and they'll not have to face it and so forth. And in my opinion Ted Cruz has been considering that possibility as he campaigns and has purposely and strategically avoided piling on any of the criticism of Trump. The only time it's really happened it was caught on tape at some kind of a donor thing where somebody was there. I don't even remember what Cruz was accused of saying, Trump being unstable or I don't know what it was. But it was the only time that Cruz has on record condemned Trump.

Now, he also distanced himself a little bit from Trump on the banning of Muslims and so forth, didn't agree with Trump, but he did not go after him and criticize him. He studiously, purposely avoided doing that. And I think there's many reasons for it. I think one of them is character. Depending on how you're raised and what your values are and where you get your virtues, it may sound strange to young people today, but there have always been time-honored ways of behaving for mature, sophisticated, responsible people. And there have been many do's and don'ts in that list of things.

One of them is you never brag about anything. You never talk about how much money you have or don't have. You never condemn anybody for not having enough or too much. You don't go there. The old argument, turn the other cheek. If somebody throws something at you, don't reduce yourself to their level. Turn the other cheek and smile. Basically this is where Cruz comes from. I think he's extremely sophisticated, well-rounded, great character, proper virtues. I think he's just a great guy, dependable, "Here's what I am," no phoniness about him, which I find funny because a lot of people think he is phony. A lot of people think that he's manufactured and contrived and a little plastic in his presentation, and I don't. That's who he is. And he's not hiding anything. He's clearly illustrating who he is, likes who he is and so forth.

So the moment that a lot of people have been waiting for, or at least a version of it happened with the release of polling data late last week and over the weekend. In a Washington Examiner story headlined, "Cruz Triples Support in Iowa, Dominates Republican Race," Des Moines Register/Bloomberg poll. Most respected survey in Iowa politics. And it is. Whether it's deserved or not, it is. I mean, the point that you need to know here is this poll, the Des Moines Register/Bloomberg poll is always treated as gospel. It has been for election after election after election, 30 years. And it has Ted Cruz with a solid lead in Iowa. Texas senator now 31% in the new survey, Trump 21, Ben Carson at 13, Marco Rubio at 10, and Jeb Bush is at six.

Now, here's what's remarkable about it. In the last Des Moines Register poll in October, mid-October, Cruz was at 10%, which means that he has more than tripled his support in the last eight weeks. Trump is holding steady. He isn't losing anything, not gaining anything. He's holding steady there at 21 points. Now, here's something that Cruz also knows. While Trump is leading within the Republican field, one of the reasons for that is the Republican field is big. The Republican primary vote is being split in any number of ways. But it isn't gonna be long before it isn't because the field is gonna shrink. We have a debate tomorrow night, but after the Hawkeye Cauci, maybe even before it, you're gonna see this field shrink quite a lot.

So while Trump leads in the Republican field in all the states if you add 'em up and average 'em, Trump leads the field. The undeniable fact when you look at numbers is that more Republicans oppose Trump than support him. If you add all of the support of all the other Republicans, I mean, quite logically, that's not unique to Trump. That would be the case with any leader unless he had 50, 60 percent. The number of Republicans opposing Trump is far larger than the number of people who support him. So the question's always been, when these candidates start dropping out, pick your name.

I'm not trying to force anybody out here, but when Kasich goes out, when Jeb goes out, Christie goes out, Rand Paul goes out, Graham, Santorum, their voters are gonna go somewhere. And this is why I think Cruz has been just brilliant in the way he's been behaving. I can't think of any other word. The way he has been comporting himself. He is positioning himself well. He's just been Steady Eddie, and now this tripling of support in Iowa. It's understandable, Iowa, the Hawkeye Cauci on the Republican side, a lot of evangelicals vote there. Remember Santorum won it in 2012. So winning the Hawkeye Cauci does not guarantee anything. It doesn't mean you're gonna go on and win the nomination. I think Huckabee won it in 2008. So the last two Republicans to win Iowa, it's not a guarantee of anything.

But this is a shot across the bow because this was not expected, and especially by Trump. So I think the combination of these polls, particularly the Des Moines Register poll and the way Cruz has just been floating along there kind of not beneath the radar, but he's not been making news the way everybody else has been making news, and I think that it's shaken Trump up. As I say, Ben Carson leading in Iowa I don't think a whole lot of people took that seriously, but with Cruz leading Iowa, there are a lot of people taking him seriously, because when you get to the Republican establishment, folks, there is as much fear -- in fact, there may be more fear of Cruz in the establishment than there is of Trump. There clearly is a lot of anger at both of them. But the fear -- because the Republican establishment fears Goldwater all over again.

The Republican establishment fears two things, Nixon and Goldwater, two landslides, and that's what they equate with conservatism, particularly Goldwater. They never for some reason equate conservative with landslide Reagan victories. And you know what else that amazes me? You know, Siri thinks I asked her a question. Let me turn this off for a second. I didn't say anything to you. My phone.

I look at all of these conservative commentators and media people and Republican politicians. Let me ask you a question, a very serious question. What is the political movement, period of time, what and when did these people have more power than they've ever had in their lives politically? The 1980s, Ronald Reagan. When conservatives won, when the Republican Party won a two-election landslide, '80 and '84. The Republican Party had more power during those eight years than they've ever had since. Now, they might argue think they had a lot of power with Bush 41 but they couldn't have or he'd have won his reelection. And Bush 43, let's face it, folks, I mean, the power there, that was kind of diffused by foreign policy.

My point is that all of these Republican establishment types and all of these conservative media types routinely attack the political movement that gave them more power than they've ever had in their lives. I would think they would want to return to it. I would think they would want to return to conservative victory and dominance. But I guess such is the power of suggestion in the Washington establishment that if you're conservative and you're in the establishment in Washington, you are not being in the big clique, you're persona non grata, you're laughed at, made fun of, or what have you. But it's always amazed me, that the most powerful opportunity, the most powerful the party has ever been is that period of time they routinely disparage, the Reagan eighties.

Okay. Quick time-out. I've got these two sound bites and I'll play you. I've not been teasing you. I've been trying to explain it and build up to it, where I think Cruz, in the way he's been handling everything, really forced what could be some potentially huge errors for Trump.

RUSH: Fox News Sunday, Donald Trump was on with Chris Wallace who said, "What do you think of Ted Cruz?"

TRUMP: I don't think he has the right temperament. I don't think he's got the right judgment. You look at the way he's dealt with the Senate where he goes in there like a... You know, frankly, like a little bit of a maniac. You're never gonna get things done that way. You can't walk into the Senate and scream and call people liars and not be able to cajole and get along with people. He'll never get anything done, and that's the problem with Ted.

RUSH: Whoa. Wait just a second here. Doesn't that kind of describe the way Trump has been dealing with people he disagrees with? I mean, he's been calling them stupid, he's been calling them incompetent, he's been saying you can't get anything done with these people. But for the people in the Trump support base who are conservatives, and who may not even have any affinity for Cruz... The conservative base of the Republican Party likes a lot of different people.

But even people who are not particularly aligned with Cruz on the right have gotta be curious about this because this is no different than what the media would say about Ted Cruz. This is no different than what the Democrat Party would say. I mean, this is what the Republican establishment would say, for crying out loud. I mean, this is akin to saying, "I'm the guy who can cross the aisle and work with the other side." That hasn't been the way Trump has come off up 'til now. He's not positioned that way.

He's come across as somebody who's gonna beat somebody in negotiations, who's gonna beat them down. He's gonna tell them how it's gonna be. This... This is so obvious. You know, I'll tell you what this is. This is obviously the Trump campaign deciding to use the most common criticism against Cruz because they see that Cruz has negatives. They see that Cruz is not liked by the Republican establishment, and so they're just piggybacking on that, I think, as a way for Trump to maybe score some points with the Republican establishment.

'Cause after all, he needs 'em on his side for the nomination if he wants there to be the respect and unity, and not have to go third party. So he's decided to go after Cruz here in the way the establishment Republicans go after Cruz, in the way the media goes after Cruz, in the way the Democrats go after Cruz. He's essentially put on his John McCain hat here and is saying, "I'm Donald McCain, and I'm the guy that can cross the aisle and work with the other side. Ted Cruz can't." I was kind of surprised by that.

I don't know what kind of damage if any this gonna do to Trump because, frankly, folks, if you look at Trump's support base, the majority of it is not conservative. In fact, if you look at the Trump support base... I've maintained this for I don't know how long. If you look at the demographic makeup of Trump's support, it's exactly what the Republican claims they want. There's a lot of independents in there, there are a lot of different ethnic groups in there, but it's it is not majority conservative or Republican base. There's a sizable number of them in there.

But this is almost a rote criticism of Cruz. This is almost... You know, if you have to go to a playbook or a manual and say, "Okay, time to criticize Ted Cruz. What do we say? What do we say?" "Well, the manual says, 'Go after him for not being able to work together in the Senate,'" and so forth and so on. So I'm not sure that Mr. Trump even knows who Cruz really is in this regard. No, my only point is for somebody running for the Republican nomination who has set himself up as anti-establishment, to join the establishment in that kind of criticism of Cruz, I don't get it.

Now, Trump's not trying to portray himself as a conservative, either. So it's not a violation of that. But he's clearly making himself out to be anti-establishment, yet he joins them here. And then he dumped on Cruz for being opposed to ethanol? In other words, we as Republicans must support government subsidies to corn farmers in Iowa if we're to have any chance of winning Iowa? We've gotta stand for subsidies? And that, again, is not a conservative position. To go after Cruz on that basis, is again the way the Democrats and the media would go after him, and then there was this Sunday morning on CNN's State of the Union, Jake Tapper.

"What do you think of Justice Scalia's remarks, and where are you today on affirmative action?"

TRUMP: I thought it was very tough to the African-American community, actually. I don't like what he said. I actually saw it in print, and I'm going... I read a lot of stuff. I'm going, "Whoa." I have great African-American friendships. I have just amazing relationships. But, yeah, I was very surprised at Scalia's statements, actually.

RUSH: Well, they weren't "Scalia's statements." They were arguments that had been submitted to the court that he was engaging in oral argument over. But these are two things that... If you're a conservative voter in the Republican primary, these two things have gotta raise some red flags for you people, I would think.

RUSH: Now despite all that we got the latest Monmouth University poll. Trump is up to 41% in the Monmouth University poll after releasing his proposal to ban Muslims, to have a moratoriums on them entering the country.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT RUSH: My questioning here about the way Trump has gone off Cruz here, calling him a maniac, refusing to work with people in the Senate, the reason I'm focusing on that, folks, 'cause that's so unlike Trump. I mean, that's a huge mistake. On paper it's a huge mistake. Trump gets away with his mistakes. Such is the bond of loyalty that his support base has for him that he gets away with them. And I don't think he's made that many. Don't misunderstand. But for any of you who are holding out hope that Trump is a genuine conservative. A genuine conservative, even in the Republican field, would not go after Cruz this way. So that just raised a red flag for me, made me somewhat curious.

There are two other things I want to get to here before we have to go to the break. One is from Nomiki Konst at TheHill.com. "Ted Cruz Isn't Just Surging -- He's Winning. Now, this is somebody's opinion here. Some pull quotes here. "You may wonder why Cruz surged this week? A predictable phenomenon in GOP primaries is occurring: As the flavors of the month rise and fall, the candidates focused on the long game benefit. Last week, Cruz picked up evangelical support from rival candidate Ben Carson, who dropped from 32 percent to 13 percent in the past six weeks in Iowa alone. And with 65 percent of South Carolina GOP primary voters identifying as evangelical or born-again, Cruz will most likely jump ahead a couple more points in the next few weeks." Although Trump owns South Carolina right now. That's still to shake out.

"But perhaps the most intriguing factor contributing to Cruz's success is Trump's overt extremism." Remember, now, this is in TheHill.com. "Suddenly, Cruz ... is the palatable conservative alternative for likely GOP voters -- and even the GOP establishment. When asked about Cruzâ€™s toxic relationship with his colleagues, a high-ranking GOP consultant told me that 'the GOP establishment may hate Ted Cruz, but they fear Donald Trump.'"

Did you ever imagine -- honest question here. It's not rhetorical. Well, it may be rhetorical, but I'm serious. Did you ever imagine that you would see the day that someone who is a staunch defender of the Constitution and the concepts of separation of powers and individual liberty and limited government, would be called extreme? It's another indication of where we are. You know, the media, when the UN and their lapdogs over there announced the stupid global warming deal, the journalists in the audience stood up and cheered. Yeah. The media stood up and cheered, illustrating once again there is no media. There are just Democrat Party hacks and leftist activists who are assigned to pretend to be journalists and reporters and so forth. But they're really apparatchiks. They're party hacks.

You got this principal at the New York public school who's wiping out Santa Claus, wiping out Christmas, wiping out Christmas trees, wiping out Thanksgiving, and prohibiting the Pledge of Allegiance, because those are not the values anymore that this school wants to promote. And you can't have more American values than those three things. There's an all-out war on these things. There's an all-out war on this country. And now, somebody who believes in freedom, individual liberty, separation of powers, the US Constitution, now is called extreme. Ted Cruz. "Perhaps the most intriguing factors contributing to Cruz's success is Trump's overt extremism." You got Trump and Cruz, the two leaders are now the extremists. For what? They're not extremists. They're mainstream, for crying out loud. They're mainstream red, white, and blue patriotic American. And yet that has become extreme. Another pull quote.

"If Cruz remains smart, he will continue to praise Trump. In the meantime, for those worried over the demise of our Constitution under President Trump, have no fear. Ted Cruz, former clerk to late Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist, is here to stay. Hyper-disciplined, Cruz's multifaceted strategy ... has solidified support across all primary states. And in coming weeks, as candidates fade, expect Trump's tirades to continue, and watch as Cruz quietly capitalizes."

So what this guy's theory is, I'm assuming, I haven't read the whole piece to you. But what he's assuming is that as Cruz continues to gain ground, Trump is gonna continue to criticize Cruz in the same way the establishment does, which is gonna irritate the conservatives in Trump's support base and they are gonna abandon him and go to Cruz.

This is the theory by this guy at TheHill.com. He says, "Which is why, at this point in the campaign, we should prioritize 'likely GOP voter' polls in early primary states over national and 'total registered GOP voters' polls -- like the Monmouth University poll out last week taken of Iowa GOP voters who have voted in previous caucuses, which shows Cruz winning at 24% (Trump is at 19%). Or, Sunday's Des Moines Register poll of likely Republican caucus-goers, which has Cruz at 31% and Trump 10 percentage points behind."

He thinks "we should prioritize 'likely GOP voter' polls" like these. It's his way of saying, keep a sharp eye on Cruz, because when you ask legitimate Republican primary voters, it's no contest. Cruz is beating Trump. That's his point there.

RUSH: Let's hit the phones because people have been patiently waiting, and really, I always appreciate that. I really do. This is Rick in Fremont, Ohio. Hi, Rick.

CALLER: Hi, Rush. Rush, just to give a little background here. Number one, I just thank the Lord Jesus Christ every day for you, Rush, 'cause you give me hope. I just want to give you a little background on myself. I'm a Christian, I'm a conservative, I'm a Tea Party guy, I'm a registered Republican. And I was in favor of Ted Cruz until Donald Trump came along, and the reason why is because I watched over the years the establishment Republicans trying to take out the conservatives. They hate conservatives. They wanted to get rid of us. I believe the Republicans want to use Ted Cruz to take out Trump right now 'cause they know that Trump can win. I do not think that Ted Cruz can win. He's a conservative. Trump has Democrats in favor of him. He has Republicans in favor of him, and he has independents, and he's strong. I look at Ted Cruz as being a little bit soft, a little bit soft. I hate to say that --

RUSH: Uh, now, hold off on that. I've gotta stop you. Cruz is not soft, but that's not what I want to ask you about. I need to ask you a very important question, for my understanding. There's no right or wrong as far as you're concerned. Just my understanding here. You're a Tea Party guy. So without question, you're an unapologetic conservative, right?

RUSH: All right. So are you thinking Trump is the same or does it not matter as much to you?

CALLER: Here's the way I look at it. It's over for the United States if we don't win this election. Trump can win. We have to win back our country. We cannot have another Romney. We cannot have another McCain. And I look at Ted Cruz as being almost like a Romney; he's gonna lose.

RUSH: Well, but wait. He's not like Romney in any way shape manner or form other than if he would lose, he might have that in common, but that's it.

RUSH: But you're not worried that Trump isn't who he says he is? There's none of that? You don't have any doubts? There are no red flags?

CALLER: I mean, you know, I'm not gonna agree with everything that Trump does, but I just want him to win back our country, our freedoms, and just get our jobs back so people are working again here in the United States.

RUSH: When you hear him jump on Cruz the same way Democrats in the media and the Republican establishment jumps on Cruz, that doesn't raise a little red flag for you?

CALLER: He's gotta do his strategy, okay? Trump has to do his strategy. I don't know what his best strategy is. You see his polls going up, Rush, his numbers going up.

RUSH: Hey, I'm just asking. You know, I'm not hiding an opinion in my question. Don't anybody think that. You see what I'm getting here, folks?

“It’s his MOUTH that has got him where he is!”

It gets real old real fast.

Wish someone would pick up the little yap dog and put him back in their purse so he quits nipping at everyone’s ankles.

Rush has gone full blown GOPe!!!! I wonder how they got to him? I figure they offered him a unlimited supply of fresh Cuban cigars rolled on the thighs of brown skinned Cuban lovelies. No one can be trusted clearly it is a full blown conspiracy involving, Obama, Yeb, Soros, CAIR, CFR, Bilderberg group, the Greys and the Reptilians, Saudis.........

Indeed. Mark Levin is livid as well - I’ve not heard him this fired up in a long time. Glad they’re starting to notice what we’ve seen all along: he’s a crass opportunist who will say anything, take any position, and throw anyone under the bus (including the premier constitutional legal mind of our time) in order to advance himself.

I’ve never made it a secret that I’m lukewarm on Cruz, but at the end of the day I would enthusiastically support him. I am glad that side of the movement is looking (at this point anyway) like it’s coalescing around him, and the fiscal guys around Rubio - the stronger they are, the weaker Jeb is.

There's your problem, right there... Expecting a liberal to deliver the Conservative solutions this country so desperately needs... There isn't a liberal alive that will deliver what he wants. FIRST principle - Big Gov is never the solution. Big Gov is always the PROBLEM. Anyone who thinks government is going to fix anything is sadly, sadly mistaken. And since liberalism must inevitably rely upon Big Gov, *no* one espousing liberalism can ever deliver Conservatism... Small Gov, Federalism, Power residing as close to the people as possible... Governs least governs best.

And that is just structure - Add to that the effects of moral turpitude (the real problem) which liberalism necessarily endorses and promotes in order to justify Big Gov, and it becomes exponentially obvious that ALL Conservative principles must be employed or all is lost. One cannot have small government unless one has a good and God fearing people - Thus liberalism purposefully tears at our Judeo-Christian moral root. The blood of 50 million babies cry out for justice from American soil.

And make no mistake - Trump is a liberal. His record proves it.

And a vote for a liberal is, by it's very nature, a vote against every_single_thing I stand for.

Wow. Rush is back, the old Rush I used to know and love. I have had pretty harsh words for Rush over the years. In this segment, he has gone a long way to redeeming himself for me. Very well said and done.

I agree! I have not had Rush on for half a decade - but this is the sort of intellectual clarion that I remember from back in the day. Way to go Rush.

Get behind the Conservative in the race and we'll have another 'See I Told You So' moment. Remember after the Carter Malaise? Conservatives were dispirited and hopeless - Everyone was saying compromise with the middle because we can never have Conservatism again... All it took was a Conservative Reagan to speak truth without embarrassment, and look what happened.

This is exactly like then. To put it in Tolkien terms, Grima Wormtongue whispers the evils of big government. And even here, people are under the spell.

Shake it off... and then imagine what FR could do if we actually got behind the Conservative and started pushing.

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