Posted on 02/24/2016 8:30:17 PM PST by TigerClaws
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The “southern firewall†Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign has been building for months appears to be crumbling under the weight of Donald Trump’s staying power and Marco Rubio’s resurgence.
The Cruz campaign told Yellowhammer Wednesday night they are pulling out of the Presidential Forum set to be held at Samford University in Birmingham on Saturday, and will not be holding any other events in Alabama ahead of election day. Senator Marco Rubio’s campaign, however, reiterated their commitment to the event.
The move is one of the most open indicators to date that Cruz has failed to pick up steam in the Bible Belt South, once believed to be his geographic stronghold and his most likely path to the nomination.
Numerous southern states and almost a quarter of the Republican delegates are up for grabs in the so called SEC Primary on March 1st.
Yellowhammer CEO Cliff Sims said Cruz’s exit from the state so close to election day is unfortunate, but not entirely unexpected.
“Decisions like this are difficult for any campaign to make, but they have to do what they think is best,†he said. “Once a campaign goes into survival mode, sometimes they have to cut their losses and move resources where they can be most effective. A candidate’s time is the most valuable resource any campaign has.â€
South Carolina Republican strategist Hogan Gidley said Cruz’s lackluster performance in his home state was the first public sign that Cruz’s southern strategy was not coming together.
“It does definitely put a dent into the manufactured reputation that Cruz is coalescing all conservatives,†he told National Review. “I think we can put an end to that myth.â€
A longtime Alabama political consultant who is not working for a presidential campaign but has seen presidential campaign polling numbers through other state-level campaigns told Yellowhammer Cruz’s path to the nomination could be disappearing.
“If Cruz — the Texan, the staunch evangelical, the anti-Washington guy — can’t win in Alabama and across the South, he can’t win,†the consultant said on condition of anonymity so he could speak freely. “I’ve seen polling in the last week that shows Cruz in third in Alabama, far behind Trump and behind Rubio, too. It might become apparent after March 1st that Cruz’s goose is cooked.â€
Senator Rubio is scheduled to be in both Birmingham and Huntsville on Saturday. Donald Trump is scheduled to be in Huntsville on Sunday. No other Republican candidates are currently scheduled to campaign in the state ahead of the March 1st primary.
Coming in third in South Carolina and Nevada have been devastating blows to Cruz, especially. I'm now beginning to wonder if Texas is going to be his own personal Alamo. I don't want to be mean, but Ted Cruz has really lost a lot of his luster. The big question is if he can survive after Super Tuesday.
[ If everyone that has supported Cruz leaves you do realize that the website would be shut down don’t you? It’s good that Jim Robinson owns the board and allows you to post that crap, isn’t it? ]
Please go back and read my posts, I was calling out the Trumpsters and the Trumpeters.
Post 96 (response to post 31 ), Post 110 ( response to post 76 ) Post 116 (response to post 111).
I really, really like my mechanic, so I think I'll ask him do my family's financial planning, my estate planning, and handle our investments.
Makes about as much sense as what you just said, and yes, I voted to send Ted to Washington. Three times. How 'bout you?
Are we following the same election? A poll out today finds Trump up by 14 points in Alaska. And another poll shows him leading in Oklahoma. Cruz may win Texas (likely narrowly if at all) but I think he's in trouble in all the others you mention.
RealClearPolitics, you say?
LOLOLOLOL!
Keep looking. Other polls just out, disagree with what you pulled off that liberal propaganda site.
You emanate the vibe of an undead retread. Given the goofy username, you fully expect lightning to strike you again.
Otherwise, if I’m wrong, Welcome to Free Republic! :)
Trump has just picked up an endorsement from a Congressman, Chris Collins, and an entertainer, Kid Rock.
There are many Trump supporters who realize supporting him is a calculated risk: but they think that (given the concurrent headwinds of the GOP-e, *and* the Dems, *and* the Press), Cruz just doesn't have enough steam to make it.
Trump took on the press and won by violating their very canons ("bleeding from her...whatever") so they are neutralized. The GOP-e forms circular firing-squads when you stand up to them. That leaves the Dems: and this is the weakest field the Dems have *ever* had.
Trump *may* betray us: but it does not look to be the lying-through his teeth abject betrayal of the GOP-e: it looks like he will *deal*: which means no, we might not get all we wanted, but he won't roll over and die the way the GOP did for Obama in the wake of two consecutive historic landslides. We'll get *something* real out of it.
" And in the meantime, Trump legitimately is the strongest candidate in either party for the blue-collar US worker, for the military, for standing up to both Islam and China.
...and oh, yes, the f*ing wall, which I wrote scathing cartoons about here on FR back in 2007.
The GOP has done nothing but lie back and think of Mexico City since then.
That is your opinion!! Trump is NOT liberal he is a pragmatist, he loves this country but he is in no way shape or form a liberal!!! Do liberals want to close the borders? Do liberals care at all about FAIR trade? Do liberals want to do away with common core? Have liberals done one DAMN THING about the VA??
Because, as I have come to see, many people here seem to eerily and suddenly lack integrity and a moral core unfortunately, and the only thing for them is their pony in the race winning, to hell with the Constitution, or a near perfect Conservative voting record in the Senate including a 23 hour on his feet Mr. Smith goes to Washington filibuster to stop Obamacare. Free Republic, or at least not a few quarters of it, is losing its soul.
I’m not here to gloat, but someone needs to say it, so I will.
If Ted’s crew here had simply addressed issues two or three times and moved on once everyone had had their say, I would have had no problem with anything brought up.
After you’ve seen the same article posted for the fifth time per day because a bunch of small-time internet operators would pick up and publish the same article, it’s gets insulting to see it again.
Issues that had been posted about and reposted about and reposted about, became hammers the Cruz folks thought it was just fine to hit the other forum participants over the head with literally tens if not in some instances 100s of times over eight months.
In other instances flat out lies, known lies, were posted to the forum for months. One guy in particular posted the same graphics for over four months. He refused to stop posting them, even thought they were known smears. And then the night before Iowa, he pulled out of Dodge, job done.
Today, you can find folks still saying Trump is for single payer universal health care. He isn’t and hasn’t been since last June.
So folks, those of you who wince when you see some belly laughs at Ted’s expense, please remember when folks like me tried to tell you to please knock it off.
There was no reasoning with any of you.
I have never had someone tell me I was the victim of male on male rape because I supported a candidate before. I’ve never had one of my candidates called a male on male rapist either.
And when the Cruz folks would tell me how terrible my side was, I’d link them to the posts, and not once did I ever get a single, “That was terrible. I’m sorry one of our people did that.” NOT ONE TIME!
So as you folks feel sorry for yourselves, because someone will undoubtedly laugh about Ted’s plight, just remember that I and many others at one time wanted Ted on Trump’s ticket.
Those days are long gone. And you have nobody to thank except that guy in the mirror you look at each morning.
It was a real hoot when you were acting crude for eight months.
I think Ted’s crew can hold up for a few days.
Even now when Ted is irrefutably done, you folks won’t stop trying to destroy Trump. Now that’s just doing nothing but working for Hillary, so please, spare me the whining...
Not so strange when the person is as whiny as Ted and had all the appeal of stale bread to a majority of voters. He doesn’t really stand a chance.
“Why hasn’t Sessions endorsed Trump?”
Better question is why hasn’t he endorsed Cruz.
I have read a lot of threads over the last few months... I am a life long conservative and have enjoyed the discussions here for many years and still do. I enjoy conversing with other conservatives with different views than myself. Even the recent nastiness hasn’t discouraged me. And I have been the target of some pretty nasty comments over the past few months, even before I had decided on my candidate.
It is actually more than a little amusing to hear the griping from the only “true conservatives” on the site, the Cruz supporters. It was their vicious attacks on Sarah Palin after she endorsed Donald Trump over Ted Cruz that offended me enough that I no longer wanted to be associated with the exclusive club of “true conservatives” here.
I do not remember reading one comment from a Trump supporter saying that they would not vote for Cruz if he won the nomination. It seems like about every other thread here has at least one post from a Cruz supporter saying that he will sit out the election if Trump prevails. It was also Cruz supporters who tried to form some type of alternative site and have claimed multiple times that they are being treated unfairly by the moderators.
At times I have suspected that some of the nastiness was actually orchestrated by the team of social media experts hired by the Cruz team. If that actually was to turn out to be the case it would just demonstrate how little they care about a resource that has been nurtured for such a long time that has been such an important asset to the conservative community in this country.
I think the new guy has forgotten which name he signed in on.
Very wishful thinking.
Then again, we know the uneducated loves Trump, so perhaps not so surprising.
I would not hesitate to write that perhaps part of it is spiritual, too. Blinded and hardened.
I’m sorry, Grace. I should have gone to sleep a couple of hours ago before I became a blithering, blind idiot. Have a good night :)
No he stopped being a Canadian citizen 18 - 20 months ago but for most of his adult life he has been a Canadian citizen.
[ I’m sorry, Grace. I should have gone to sleep a couple of hours ago before I became a blithering, blind idiot. Have a good night :) ]
The “Cruz/Trump Free republic civil war of 2016” is a long slogging battle of little sleep and frayed nerves.
understandable.
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