Posted on 01/29/2016 11:45:27 AM PST by springwater13
Senator Ted Cruz, scrambling to put down a growing threat in Iowa from Senator Marco Rubio, is shifting nearly all of his negative advertising from Donald J. Trump to Mr. Rubio for the final three days of the caucuses.
Mr. Cruz intends to direct his firepower at his Senate colleague after days of seeing Mr. Rubio inch up both in public polling and his own private surveys, according to two advisers to Mr. Cruz who spoke on the condition of anonymity. After leading in the polls in Iowa for much of the last month, Mr. Cruz has slipped into second behind Mr. Trump in most public surveys.
The change of direction marks an abrupt shift, reflecting how volatile the race in Iowa remains: Mr. Cruz's campaign only began airing negative spots against Mr. Trump this week and just put their first attack ad up against Mr. Rubio on Thursday on Iowa television.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The Times’s hypothesis may be correct, but there is another point of view equally credible if not moreso.
Cruz may be seeing Rubio peeling votes away from him - votes that he needs to beat Trump. Trump wins only if conservatives split their votes. Cruz needs to hang onto every bit of the conservative anti-Trump vote.
Cruz may just as well be going after Rubio in order to keep Rubio from denying him an outright win in Iowa.
Cruz needs to win Iowa. He needs to collect eight outright wins in order to have his name placed into nomination at the Convention - so does every other candidate. Other than Trump and Cruz, which candidate has a chance of pulling this off?
Also, between now and mid-March most of the primaries allocate delegates on a percentage basis - but half or more don’t award ANY delegates to candidates who get less than 15% or 20% of the vote, depending on the state. This is going to savage the 2 to 15 percenters. And will quickly drive the race to one between two men; hopefully Cruz and Trump, before we get to the big winner-take-all primary state.
I think Cruz wins one-on-one against Trump. That’s Cruz’s plan, I’m sure, but he needs to bank Iowa next Monday to position himself for South Carolina and beyond - and the threat to that is coming from Rubio, not so much from Trump, who is more or less static.
See, that post right there proves you’re either a child or a troll or both. If you had bothered to check my posting history you’d have seen that I do not attack Cruz.
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Can’t take a word game? I’m as tired of you as I am of Trump.
Rubio is not eligible. His parents did not become citizens until 4 years after he was born!
All the hard work has been done, so he probably wants to smack that little sellout around a little before he leaves Iowa victorious for New Hampshire.
Fixed.
I weep for our country.
It is finished whether Hillary or Trump win.
A commie or carnie, take your pick.
Trump will be fine!
Not sure that's the way it will turn out, but kudos for a well-turned phrase...
Where have you been?
The GOPe house and senate have already finished off this country.
They have enabled Obama, not fought him.
Man I hate to kick you when you're down but...
Here's the 2008 version of Romney II, do you want the stories from when top Romney staffers joined Rubio after the 2012 fiasco and in early 2015? Holalol...
2008: "Florida Sen.-elect Marco Rubio announced his top staff, which included three former Romney campaign hands. Sally Canfield, who served as Romney's policy adviser, will be Rubio's legislative director and chief policy adviser; Joe Pounder, who was in charge of rapid response for Romney, will be Rubio's communications director; and Alex Burgos, who directed specialty media for Romney, will serve as director of media affairs for Rubio." - TIME
That is why trump is not going to change anything. He is a member of the E. He has no history of conservatism. He identifies moreso with schumer, pelosi, reid, bloomberg, the clintons and liberalism like abortions. That cannot be denied.
Don’t feel like you’re kicking me while I’m down. I’m NOT down. And, I am NOT backing Rubio.
And please, don’t ever get the idea that backing Rubio in the future would be pleasant or easy. In fact it would be far more painful than any pain a kick of yours could inflict. It’s just that Rubio’s not quite as terrible as Trump, Hillary or “Free Stuff” Sanders..
If he was born in the united states than their is no legitimate birther question. I don’t like Rubio and I hope that Cruz defeats him and Trump in Iowa. However, if the primary comes down to Trump v. Rubio then I will vote Rubio.
Cruz was not born in the USA so therein lies your conundrum.
My reply in 73 was to a birther argument about Rubio. Cruz is natural born because his mother was a US citizen at his birth. Both are NBC.
Many lawyers disagree. The dems will be on both Cruz and Rubio like white on rice.
I know there have been a few challenges to Cruz though the law is on his side and I am sure he will win. Rubio was born in the US so any challenge to his NBC status will be absolutely laughed out of court.
I’m a Cruz supporter & Rubio scares me. Rubio is a good liar & there are many gullible voters, some on this board, who would happily vote for Rubio. A vote for Rubio is as bad as a vote for Hillary. SMH.
Until I’m 100 percent sure, I’m not convinced. The law is on his side, until he fights the law and the law wins. Not a secure place to be in right now...too much of a gamble that it wil all turn out OK, for both Rubio and Cruz.
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