“The story is irrelevant to anyone who wasn’t sent the mailer.”
Uh, yeah. Right.
First of all, millions have ALREADY seen it online, which is pretty much like having it mailed to you. In case you didn’t know this, everyone with Internet access has the opportunity to read trillions of documents online that haven’t been directly mailed to them. You can watch an apartment building fire on a local news show without actually being at the fire to get a pretty good idea about how the apartment building burned down.
Second, the real damage will come when local news stations in Iowa run with it and at THE worst possible time for Cruz, namely one day before the caucuses. While there will be a generalized negative national fallout for Cruz, that might not matter a whole lot anyway if Cruz can’t demonstrate significant momentum in Iowa, and then in NH and SC.
I swear this might be a death blow to Cruz’s campaign, and once again, like the “New York Values” crack, Cruz will have done it to himself. This may be equal to Howard Dean’s insane scream. Several good people like Walker, et. al. who were fine at the state level fell apart at the national level; maybe that’s what we’re seeing with Cruz: he’s just not quite ready yet to play on the national stage.
So perhaps all of these debates and this intense media coverage are good things after all, putting intense pressure on candidates and seeing how they handle the heat. The weaker ones fold and the stronger ones remain standing.
Oh, and this story is already going national btw:
Within 24 hours very major media outlet will be covering it. They’re all desperate for some new angle on the election to cover, and something this juicy fills the bill perfectly.
(Oh, and I’m not really posting this for YOUR benefit since I know that’s a waste of time, but for the benefit of the rest of FReeperdom who still retain the capacity for rational thought.)
The fatality is not even in the misstep, in most cases.
It’s in the inability to follow up appropriately, which often can reflect a lack of flexibility.
The debate is a good thing when the candidate shows up. When the candidate expects to do badly under the pressure and just stays home instead, it’s not so good.
Trump’s long-held New York Values are a clear and present danger to the conservative movement and Cruz was right to bring it up.