Posted on 02/02/2016 6:55:51 AM PST by TigerClaws
He smiles, talks about America and is becoming the wonderful son every mother would like to have.
Compare his comments on specifics to Trump's rambling praise for himself, or his precise brevity to Cruz's excruciating one liners followed by uneasy pauses as he waits for applause and he just keeps building his likability as far as average voters and fence sitters go.
The GOPe put up a complete non-conservative in Jeb, with Rubio as part of the plan for siphoning off support from conservatives. Now that Jeb is fallen from grace, Rubio will be the GOPe hat in the ring.
Four years ago it was Romney, and the GOPe was warned it was unacceptable. He failed.
Eight years ago it was McCain, and the GOPe was warned he was unacceptable. Then he chose Palin as VP candidate, but subsequently the GOPe actively undermined her, and McCain failed.
Shall I go on to Dole?
The GOPe is serving us dog excrement brownies, and trying to make us bite by promising they contain less excrement than the dem brownies.
And those that use the lesser-evil argument are helping them.
There’s also the fact that the RNC political machine is about ready to shift gears and switch its support from Jeb to Rubio. This means the $ from Jeb’s Super-PACs going over to Rubio, not to mention the support of nearly every shill talking head on Fox and other GOP establishment outlets.
And the Democrats are going to keep their powder dry with Rubio, knowing he’ll be easy pickings in the General.
Christie, Fiorina and Kasich will stick around till they run out of money. But if either of these can finish a string second in New Hampshire to Trump( I predict Trump will take New Hampshire), they will be around till at least Super Tuesday. If they all do poorly in New Hampshire and South Carolina, they will be cutoff from big donors and pressure will mount for them to leave the race. Though Kasich may not formally leave till after Ohio, due to ego. If Bush manages his campaign funds well, he could stick around well beyond Florida.
I agree that Trump and Cruz need to call at least a temporary cease fire and instead focus the bulk of their attacks on Rubio. If Cruz and Trump can stop with the personal attacks and be more civilized towards each other, then there may be peace between supporters of the two and make it possible for their supporters to back the other.
No one has won the GOP nomination without finishing in the top three in Iowa and the top two in New Hampshire (nominee wins New Hampshire if they lost in Iowa). Also, no GOP nominee in open (non-incumbent), competitive elections years has won both Iowa and New Hampshire.
Trump will most assuredly win or finish 2nd in New Hampshire to keep this historical trend going. Will have to see if Cruz or Rubio can also rise from the pack to finish in the top 2 in New Hampshire alongside Trump.
“Do you think Cruz can make up his deficit in South Carolina in three weeks?”
I was taught one thing early on. The only poll that counts is the one on election day. The rest is filling air time.
Don’t bet on it, you’ll need more hispanics than there are to make up for those of us who will not vote for national suicide or a permanent Democrat majority, which is what a vote for Amnesty Boy Rubio is.
I believe one of the Fox new execs has a daughter on the Rubio election staff.
Polls predicted a Trump victory in Iowa, and while they did predict Rubio coming in third, it wasn't a strong third. Polls are notoriously bad in predicting who actually turns out to vote, especially in time-consuming caucuses.
The first one - your numbers are a bit off. For one, while it is true that Cruz won with a higher total than anyone before, ironically even third-place Rubio had a higher total than anyone who came first before. Thus the turnout was significantly higher, and while Cruz got more than anyone before, even the third placed person got more than any winner before. Additionally, with three people getting the vast majority of the caucus picks, all three will get the same number of delegates from Iowa.
But that's not my main point.
My second point is the important one. As Trump and Cruz supporters duke it out (and with extreme prejudice), slowly but surely Marco Rubio is coming up. This is something we've seen before, most recently with Gingrich and Santorum (who bled each others numbers while Romney kept racking up State wins with a third of the votes). The only beneficiary to a Trump voter hitting out at a Cruz voter, and vice versa, is Rubio. As another FReeper on this thread said, I hope this is only happening on FR and it's not an indication of a wider GOP/Conservative fight, because if it is then I will tell you something. Marco Rubio will be the GOP's presidential nominee. In the same way Romney got it, and in the same way McCain got it.
I think that Hillary would probably rather run against Cruz than any other Republican, because there's the perception that he's too ideological to attract independent/moderate voters, in the same way that most Republicans would probably prefer to run against Bernie Sanders than against someone like Hillary who can maintain the (false) pretense of being a moderate.
I’m sure they’ve already got loads of dirt on Rubio, and they’re just waiting for the right time.
After 7+ years of Obama, we should ALL be pretty "thick skinned" towards insults and "savvy" to the trick of shutting people down by insulting them into submission.
On the bright side, at least people here are passionate about what's going on in the country and the nomination process. It amazes me how many people say that it doesn't matter who is in office because (a) they can't change it or (b) it doesn't effect their daily lives.
However, Hillary is such a cold, manipulative, and obviously psychopathic shrew that the affable Rubio (and just about anybody else) would get independent/undecided votes just on the basis of likeability.
I delivered my precinct for Trump! A Good looking, well dressed woman from Virginia nominated Cruz. WTF? She began by saying Ben Carson just dropped out of the race. Wrong! The Caucus chair should have kicked her back to Richmond.
She was the next to last speaker. But, the always dangerous Duke got to close the show. I began by saying “Unlike the interloper alien from Virginia, I have lived in this precinct for 40 years.” I know Iowa values..................... I received an ovation when I was done.
Not sure if it was because of what I said or people were just glad that the dumb bastard is finally finished.
I was shocked that Rubio was almost second in the vote. Cruz by two. Cruz had the religious right wing zealots led by a nutcase named Bob Van der Plaats from Northwest Iowa. Cruz shot his whole wad here with the time and effort he has put into Iowa.
Yesterday Bernie finally turned negative in his campaign speech. Cries of “Liar, Liar” filled the room when Hillary’s name was mentioned. Hard to imagine those people voting for that duplicitous dyke in the general election.
On the other side, shades of 1960 are back. Nixon was the more knowledgeable candidate. But the debate was not on radio. Television showed his 5 o’clock shadow and JFK was good looking. So much so that he was able to overcome the Catholic
controversy. Come is the operative word there as women wanted the bootlegger’s boy’s whiskied cork in their private cup.
Now, women will want Rubio’s hanging jalapeno in their quesadilla.
Marco Rubio is the next POTUS!!!!
Book it Danno!
Thanks for sharing. Great !
Surprised they let non voters speak at all.
Caron’s wife was apparently at a caucus and interrupted when it was announced her husband had dropped out. Sleazy!
Carson voters would have gone to Cruz. Now not so sure. Carson vows to fight on.
Agree with you Rubio was the big winner.
Maybe, maybe not. Simple fact is Rubio will seek to be the middle ground between Cruz and Trump. The gang of 8 amnesty is not common knowledge among those who trend towards low information.
Agreed, they are either establishment trolls or paid by the Trump or Cruz campaign.
Or possibly they could be so immature or ignorant that they don not get it.
It’s always the usual people we see as well. The same people who post the attacks on Trump or Cruz.
I did see though last night a handful of freepers who came out for Rubio all of a sudden and one even stated they would never vote for Trump or Cruz.
So it does seem we have some establishment heads on here fanning theflames.
Rubio is a well groomed flim flam man that would not govern in the interest of the country.
Like electing Bohner.
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